C-Space: An Interactive Prototyping Platform for Collaborative Spatial Design Exploration

C-Space is an interactive prototyping platform for collaborative spatial design exploration. Spatial design projects often begin with conceptualization that includes abstract diagramming, zoning, and massing to provide a foundation for making design decisions. Specifically, abstract diagrams guide designers to explore alternative designs without thinking prematurely about the details. However, complications arise when communicating ambiguous and incomplete designs to collaborators. To overcome this drawback, designers devote considerable amounts of time and resources into searching for design references and creating rough prototypes to explicate their design concepts better. Therefore, this study proposes C-Space, a novel design support system that integrates the abstract diagram with design reference retrieval and prototyping through a tangible user interface and augmented reality. Through a user study with 12 spatial designers, we verify that C-Space promotes rapid and robust spatial design exploration, inducing collaborative discussions and motivating users to interact with designs.