Immersive research catalysts: Exploring taxonomies, projections and tools

This research compendium documents a series of investigations led by the RMIT Architecture & Urban Design Immersive Futures Lab as part of the ACMI + RMIT Small Research Grant program. Situated at the intersection of architecture, gaming technologies, and immersive media, the research explores how speculative simulations and real-time design tools can catalyse new modes of architectural exhibition and engagement. Framed around three key "Catalysts": Taxonomy of Immersive Architecture, Fragments, Compositions and Form, and Gaming Environments as Immersive Tool for Exhibition Design, the project proposes hybrid workflows that integrate virtual and physical worlds through prototyping, site-specific experimentation, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Drawing on the lab’s ongoing projects such as Future Naarm: First Light, the research develops a working taxonomy for immersive installations, explores the spatialisation of complex narratives, and tests gaming environments as design tools for immersive exhibition-making. The compendium foregrounds immersive design as both a mode of creative inquiry and a method for communicating complex spatial ideas to broader audiences, contributing to emerging discourse in speculative design, exhibition practices, and experiential architecture.<p></p>