Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) are multi-user virtual realities which actively support communication and co-operation. This book offers a comprehensive reference volume to the state-of-the-art in the area of design studies in CVEs. It is an excellent mix of contributions from over 25 leading researcher/experts in multiple disciplines from academia and industry, providing up-to-date insight into the current research topics in this field as well as the latest technological advancements and the best working examples. Many of these results and ideas are also applicable to other areas such as CVE for design education.

Overall, this book serves as an excellent reference for postgraduate students, researchers and practitioners who need a comprehensive approach to study the design behaviours in CVEs. It is also a useful and informative source of materials for those interested in learning more on using/developing CVEs to support design and design collaboration.

Preface, by Xiangyu Wang and Jerry Jen-Hung Tsai: I Virtual Environments for Design: Fundamentals: 1 Designers and Collaborative Virtual Environments, by  Mary Lou Maher; 2  Visual-Spatial Learning and Training in Collaborative Design in Virtual Environments, by Maria Kozhevnikov and Andre Garci;  II Representation and Embodiments in Collaborative Virtual Environments: Objects, Users, and Presence: 3 Design Representation and Perception in Virtual Environments, by Chiu-Shui Chan; 4 Design Paradigms for the Enhancement of Presence in Virtual Environments, by Rivka Oxman; 5 Co-presence in Mixed Reality-mediated Collaborative Design Space, by Xiangyu Wang and Rui Wang; III Design Cooperation: Sharing Context in Collaborative Virtual Environments: 6 Collaborative Design in Virtual Environments at Conceptual Stage, by Walid Tizani; Scales Affecting Design Communication in Collaborative Virtual Environments, by Jeff WT Kan, Jerry J-H Tsai and Xiangyu Wang;8  Design Coordination and Progress Monitoring During the Construction Phase, by Feniosky Peña-Mora, Mani Golparvar-Fard, Zeeshan Aziz and Seungjun Roh; IV How Designers Design in Collaborative Virtual Environments: 9 Impact of Collaborative Virtual Environments on Design Process, by Nobuyoshi Yabuki; 10  A Pedagogical Approach to Exploring Place and Interaction Design in Collaborative Virtual Environments, by Ning Gu and Kathryn Merrick; 11 Sketch that Scene for Me and Meet Me in Cyberspace, by Ellen Yi-Luen Do; 12 A Hybrid Direct Visual Editing Method for Architectural Massing Study in Virtual Environments, by Jian Chen; V Case studies: 13 Spaces of Design Collaboration, by Bharat Dave;14  Modeling of Buildings for Collaborative Design in a Virtual Environment, by Aizhu Ren and Fangqin Tang; 15 An Immersive Virtual Reality Mock-up for Design Review of Hospital Patient Rooms, by Phillip S Dunston, Laura L Arns, James D Mcglothlin, Gregory C Lasker and Adam G Kushner; 16 The Immersive Virtual Environment Design Studio, by Marc Aurel Schnabel;  Postscript;  Author Biographies; Index.