In this essay British architect and academic Dr. Timothy Brittain-Catlin presents the work of Space Popular, an emerging practice exploring the meaning of and methods behind deploying virtual reality techniques in the architectural design process.
Architectural practice, especially in the UK, is moving fast into a realm where history plays as much a part as medium. But the ways in which architects work have been transformed entirely from those of the past, generating a fundamental conflict: how in practice does design through virtual reality use history? In the earliest days of fly-throughs we all realised that we could show our work to clients in a way that even the least plan-literate could understand. We could develop details three-dimensionally and from different angles, even representing different times of day. But what next? How do we engage historical knowledge and experience of buildings?
This was the question that launched Space Popular, a London-based practice established by Architectural Association (AA) graduates Fredrik Hellberg and Lara Lesmes in 2013. They spend their time differently from most young architects; they don’t, for example, design small objects, although their studio sports one of the fine mint-green steel chairs they produced for the Infinity Spa in Bangkok in 2015, their best known completed project to date. Like many others of their generation (and before and since), they have entered a large number of competitions. But what has marked out their work so far is the remarkable way in which they have confronted the challenges and potential of virtual reality in architecture head on – to make something new from it that represents the layering of experiences that many architects seek.
