If we have learned anything this year, it is that virtual reality is a pitiful substitute for the real thing. Architecture is not only a visual but a spatial medium, which we experience with our entire body, consciously and unconsciously. Even with the finest digital simulation we miss the evidence of our other senses—the resonant echoes that tell us the shape, size and materials of a space; the distinctive fragrance that gives every room an olfactory fingerprint (like the uncanny combination of chalk dust, beeswax and resinous wood in our old schoolrooms). But as it happens, a virtual building can give us other rewards....

Source: Wall Street Journal August 12, 2020 21:10 UTC