Open Access

Christian Soria, Michael Roth

• Augmented Reality (AR) has experienced over the last years considerable technical improvements and an important increment on its use by a diverse range of users, as a result of itsAugmented Reality (AR) has experienced over the last years considerable technical improvements and an important increment on its use by a diverse range of users, as a result of its application through handheld devices like mobile phones and tablets. This situation has made AR a relevant and accessible instrument for the visualization of virtual spaces merged with the real world. Within the field of Landscape Architecture, AR has several potential uses in the areas of design, education and public participation. The premise of this research is that AR, through the spatial visualization, the exploration and the provision of meaning of augmented spaces, works as a tool to assist and enhance the spatial cognition of users, setting a new step in the traditional ways of reading the landscape. To support this premise, a practical exercise using handheld AR to experience a Landscape Architecture design located in an outdoor environment was applied, considering and comparing three scenarios of exploration. In these scenarios, viewers experienced different combinations of degrees of freedom (DOFs) to observe the intervention. The results showed that users perceived exploration as a positive aspect, that they successfully provided meaning to space, and that they were able to describe the spatial relations within the AR intervention with distinct levels of accuracy, depending on their scenario of exploration.…