From Drawing to Action: Experiential Representation for Technical Training

Recent advances in digital modelling and information visualisation are reshaping how technical knowledge about the built environment and infrastructure systems is produced, communicated, and transferred, redefining the representational conditions through which competencies in critical-infrastructure asset management can be developed. In this context, the discipline of Drawing assumes a structural role as a mediating project between reality, model, and user, supporting the shift from static documentation to interactive and verifiable operational environments. Within this framework, the paper examines immersive virtual reality serious games through the lens of gaming mechanics, not as mere engagement devices, but as forms of experiential representation in which operational legibility is deliberately organised across spatial hierarchies, functional dependencies, signals, constraints, and risk conditions. This approach is explored through the Safety & Operations Training Hub, with a wastewater treatment plant serving as a demonstrative case. The demonstrative application illustrates how storyline, role-based interaction, hazard modelling, and feedback can turn the digital model into a training-and-assessment environment designed to support comprehension, enable the safe rehearsal of tasks, and provide measurable access to complexity.