Urban planning and design research reveals the importance of virtual reality (VR) as a visualization tool in participatory process. This article used two urban spaces of two Egyptian universities as a case study to investigate—using a 150-sample survey—the efficiency of VR in understanding urban space design. The survey participant visualises the design using conventional method and another design using a Virtual reality headset, and then answered the questionnaire that was designed based on the literature review that identify the important elements that should be delivered to the users through the presentation methods. From the descriptive and analytical analysis of the results, the results reflect the participants' perspective when comparing the virtual reality method with the traditional method. The results also demonstrate that VR improves the understanding of the urban forms. The concluding remarks shed more light on how the VR tool can be used in understanding urban planning and designs.