For centuries, models have been central to architectural design, providing architects with a tangible way to explore ideas, test concepts, and communicate their vision. From the Renaissance to Modernism, models have been instrumental in the construction and reflection processes, offering insights into form, proportion, and spatial relationships. However, in today's digital age, where 3D modelsand Virtual Reality(VR) have become powerful and efficient tools, the question arises: Are physical models still relevant in contemporary architecture?
2 World Trade Center Video Clip / BIG, Squint/Opera. Image Courtesy of BIG
Architectural presentations to clients typically include renders, diagrams, and drawings. Interpreting these and envisioning the final product requires imagination and architectural insight to fill in the gaps and visualize a final product. BIG and Squint/Opera, a partnership between an architectural powerhouse and a creative digital studio, explore innovative methods to convey spatial and architectural design beyond traditional means. They reimagine architectural storytelling beyond static 2D visuals through cutting-edge video production and immersive technology, enabling clients and the general public to fully experience their futuristic visions of city planning and architectural design. Their notable collaborations include the video production for the Toyota Woven City Project and the creation of the VR collaborative design tool HyperForm.
In a conversation with ArchDaily, Daniel Sundlin, partner at BIG, and Matt Quinn, Commercial Director at Squint/Opera, discuss their insights on the future of architectural digital storytelling.
This article is the tenth in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints. In this feature, architect John Marx questions the limits and capabilities of AI in architecture and in creating buildings that resonate deeply with people and communities.
This article is the ninth in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints. In this feature, architect John Marx interviews Peter Hirshberg, chairman, and Anna Fedorova, principal at the Maker City Project.
Benetton's physical store to mimic its virtual environment. Image Courtesy of Benetton
The evolution of retail design warrants a study of architectural practice in the digital realm. While physical commercial spaces have been the conventional center of shopping experiences, the emergent frontier of the metaverse—an interconnected network of virtual 3D environments—indicates an important shift in brand-consumer interactions. For architects, this liminal space presents a unique canvas, free from the material constraints that have traditionally molded design ideations. The metaverse is a new terrain where the architecture of imagination may be fully realized, inviting a reconceptualization of retail design possibilities.
In the world of architecture and design, traditional methods of showcasing 3D designs via 2D floorplans, renders and video walkthroughs are standard practices. However, they lack one important thing: immersion. For clients, it is hard to visualize spaces by looking at 2D representations. This has led to a need to quickly create immersive environments that clients can understand better from existing 3D software like Enscape, V-Ray, Lumion or Twinmotion.
Using 360 panoramas, architects and designers can now bring existing designs into virtual reality (VR) within minutes. This article will serve as a guide on how to convert your 3D designs into lightweight web and VR experiences using 360 panoramas.
The discipline of architecture has undergone considerable change, primarily driven by advancements in the application of technology. Architects, long viewed as the futurists of the constructed world, are now utilizing progressive techniques and resources and expanding the use cases of technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). This transition extends beyond professional practices into architectural education, bringing opportunities to redefine the approach of architects toward their craft.
Foster + Partners Applied Research + Development team has created VARID (Virtual and Augmented Reality for Inclusive Design). Designed in collaboration with City, University of London (City) and UCL’s PEARL Lab, VARID is a design toolkit that uses virtual and augmented reality technologies. Its objective is to support academics, designers, and architects in better understanding how people with vision impairments perceive their environment.
Within the shifts in architectural movements and styles, furniture design has also evolved throughout the years, transitioning from elaborate curvy lines and opulent materials to simple and functional layouts, and back again, in constant movement. As it continues to evolve, contemporary furniture design is often influenced by technological advances, exploring digital fabrication and user-centered design, while also responding to sustainable strategies. These innovations have elevated custom furniture design, crafting unique pieces tailored to individual needs, preferences, and space specifications.
With the ability to adapt to each user, bespoke furniture design creates unique pieces crafted to meet individual needs, preferences, and space specifications. Delving into augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), Tylko creates customized, long-lasting, and sustainable solutions for sideboards, wall storage, bookcases, wardrobes and TV stands. Analyzing their tech-forward approach to creating endless possibilities of made-to-measure furniture, we showcase their design process experience, along with their intuitive online configurator and augmented reality app.
museum of a rainforest. Image Courtesy of Ralph Appelbaum Associates
This article is the sixth in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.
Artificial Intelligence is at the genesis of creating fundamental changes in the way we design and construct buildings and cities. Some of these changes will be abrupt and disruptive to normative practice. Others will take more time to feel the effect of this new technology, but the change will be pervasive. When combined with the Metaverse, AI will also offer vast opportunities for the profession to expand and grow. The kinds of spaces and environments we design in the Metaverse will be, in some aspects, very different from what we currently design in the physical world alone. AI evolves every day, and we are compelled to learn while we innovate. AI has proven it is a powerful tool to assist designers and offers the potential to challenge us to alter our design process. Combining AI with narrative design is one of those challenges.
While it is undeniable that the surrounding environment is changing due to human activity, the effects can be difficult to perceive directly, as they are often illustrated with unrelatable pictures of far-away places or overused graphics and statistics. Danish office Tideland Studio aims to change this. Through their work, they aim to bring forth a new type of sensible understanding of the changes happening around us. They work across disciplines, melding research, art, and architecture while employing the newest survey and fabrication technologies to give presence to the abstract phenomena that shape our planet. Because of their practical approach to research and the new perspectives that they open toward extreme environments affected by climate change, ArchDaily has selected Tideland Studio as one of the 2023 New Practices. The annual survey highlights emerging offices that use innovation and forward-looking processes to rethink the ways in which we practice architecture.
Illustrations from the Icon, where large structures provide a context for an overlapping of physical and virtual experiences. Image Courtesy of John Marx/ Form4 Architecture
This article is the fourth in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.
Of all the attributes that will define the Metaverse the single most important is that of experience. As we move more deeply into the Anthropocene Era humans seem to be shifting their interests from collecting things to collecting experiences. As the demand for experiences grows more intense and detailed, the need for content, and the clever and effective use of that content, will rise exponentially. From a more detailed perspective, the management and quality of those experiences will determine the initial success of the Metaverse. This is where the concept of a Responsive AI Concierge comes into play.
This article is the fifth in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.
Science fiction writers inspire us with bold and provocative visions of the future. Huxley, Orwell, Assimov, and Bradbury easily come to mind. They have imagined great advances in technology and oftentimes predicted shifts in social structure that were a result of the human need to open Pandora's Box. A large part of the charm and allure of science fiction is the bold audacity of some of these predictions. They seem to defy the laws of nature and science, and then, faster than you might have thought, the spectrum of human inventiveness makes it so.
Architecture as a profession is both deeply rooted in the past and driven by innovation. During the past few years, we have seen technology advancing at an unprecedented pace, developing tools and systems that change the way we understand the world. Digital spaces are becoming an accessible reality, as the metaverse is promising to enhance human interaction. Other digital tools such as robotic construction technologies, AI-generated images, and immersive virtual-reality equipment are likely to have a direct impact on the construction industry.
These topics are addressed by forward-looking architects, designers, and building industry professionals. Among others, contemporary artist Krista Kim talks about the economy of the metaverse, architect Alper Derinboğaz draws attention to the challenges facing the new generations of architects, and ICON founder Jason Ballard reveals the implications of technological innovations.
This article is the third in a series focusing on the Architecture of the Metaverse. ArchDaily has collaborated with John Marx, AIA, the founding design principal and Chief Artistic Officer of Form4 Architecture, to bring you monthly articles that seek to define the Metaverse, convey the potential of this new realm as well as understand its constraints.
"I had lunch on the moon, took a swim in a shadowy lake on Mars, played croquet with the clouds, and chased rainbows under the sea, all in one glorious afternoon" ... how real and meaningful these experiences felt will be greatly influenced by how and where you interact with a Metaverse opening near you soon. While in a fundamental sense, the Metaverse can be seen as a series of overlapping economic intentions, there is a unique and important opportunity for architects and designers of space and place to influence the outcome of these efforts and to create a more humane and vibrant future.
Lo-tech Augmented Reality. Image Courtesy of James Corbett
Augmented reality (AR) software has been a common feature in professional design toolkits for a while. But the recent release of Apple’s Vision Pro glasses shows the mixed-reality wearables sector is making serious inroads in consumer markets too, as one of the world’s biggest names in consumer design and technology enters the market.
A major reason for the immense hype surrounding Apple’s foray into AR/VR hardware, however, is the decision to position it as ‘spatial computing.’ By taking the complexity of augmented reality, and using it to heighten a familiar consumer sector – personal computing – the Cupertino-based brand has simplified the whole experience, widening its understanding and appeal.
On June 5, Apple launched Apple Vision Pro, a new type of spatial computer that uses augmented reality goggles to allow users to experience a blend between the digital and physical worlds. The device promises to offer its users an infinite canvas for apps, larger and more immersive than traditional displays, while allowing them to stay present and connected to others. It features visionOS, the first spatial operating system to create this new way of interacting with digital content. Previous concepts like the metaverse have promised to transform the way we experience digital worlds, with architects taking the opportunity to delve into the design of restriction-free virtual spaces. Could this new device bring new ways of experiencing three-dimensional spaces, to better integrate architecture with digital environments?
Architects often face the challenge of effectively communicating their designs to clients, as architectural design is a complex process that involves numerous technical details and decisions. Current methods of presenting architectural designs, such as 2D drawings or renders can be limiting. In addition, clients may not have the same level of understanding of architectural concepts and may find it difficult to envision the final outcome leading to misunderstandings, delays and costly revisions.
To overcome these challenges, architects have increasingly turned to Virtual Reality (VR). However, the limitations of most Virtual Reality software to show photorealistic designs without requiring complicated VR setups has been a challenge.
