Incorporating Innovative and Immersive Technologies: Changing the Art of Design

James J. Balding, AIA
Associate Vice President, Director, WimberlyLabs, WATG

It seems that everywhere you look, the economic downturn has affected everything: not enough work to go around, low morale, and generally bad vibes everywhere.  Call me an optimist, but I think there is a sliver of a silver lining here.  This is a time for reflection, a time for vision, a time for planning. When we do rebound, what will have changed for good, and how will we have to react in the new economy?  We all have seen the chart that indicates the building industry is losing efficiency while all other industries are gaining (see Figure 1).  If you want to counteract that trajectory, what are you doing to take advantage of this slow time to skyrocket in the new economy? 

This is a good time to “re-design” the way we do things—everything from the way we collaborate and design, to the way we manage workflow and production, to the way we give presentations. In that light, we have to ask why we, in the design profession, are not making better use of certain technologies and tools. It has already been well established that Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) are vitally important to bringing the building industry into the 21st century.  This article will highlight a number of other tools that can help to better position our industry in the new economy, many of which we have started exploring and implementing at my firm, WATG.

Immersive Environments

In my firm’s key business (hospitality design), owners and operators will spend tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars building "model rooms" complete with beds, spreads, carpets, even  plumbing fixtures.  While there is value in building these to verify the "buildability," we are finding greater value in the use of immersive environments.  There are four levels that we have identified:

Large Screen – Large-screen displays, of over 100 inches, are becoming more commonplace and can be found in any number of industries.  The ability to display created environments at "full scale" can be of tremendous value to the designer, the consultant, the owner and the builder.  The ability to blend multiple projection systems to achieve a seamless, high-definition display has been efficiently achieved by many companies (with Mersive being my personal favorite).  These displays can be curved for an even more immersive experience, as shown in Figure 2.

Augmented Reality - Augmented reality is the combination of real-world objects with virtual objects viewed through a display device in real time.  This technology has implications in the design realm as well as with presentations.  There are many great videos that explain this technology. Click here to see one that does a good job showing the technology in a general sense.  Imagine being on-site, able to see your design in-place through a laptop, and having the additional capability of showing design options and revisions.  You could also move cards around a printed site plan and view the results in three dimensions on the large-screen display right in front of you, or take a walking tour of your design in your “Grotto” or “Cave.”

Grotto - This system uses a projector with a fish-eye lens and a half-dome project surface to allow the user to navigate the design and experience the space before it is built (see Figure 3).  Helpful to the design process are comments like “The TV is too high,” or “The pendant light is too close to the bed,” or "I didn't realize that the room would feel so long (tall, short, bright, etc.)."  This video shows one such session in action.

Goggles + HMD - This system uses a stereoscopic head-mounted display (HMD), tracking hardware and an open space.  Even at a lower resolution, adding stereographic imagery gives the user the experience of being in a space. 

Cave - This system allows the user to walk in the space, providing a totally immersive, high-resolution experience (see Figure 4).  Built from 4 to 9 walls with rear projection and a head-tracking unit on shutter glasses, the user experiences the environment in full scale and in real time.  EON Reality has been making headway into this technology.  Together with IDEO Labs, we have posted some images and video here.

Modeling

Algorithmic/Parametric Modeling - There are several tools available that enable this type of modeling, including Rhino with Grasshopper and Generative Components.  Neil Katz of SOM uses AutoCAD and discusses the application in AECbytes Viewpoint #32.  It’s exciting to imagine describing the design issues to a computer, having the computer weigh the issues, and watching it deliver 10, 20 or 100 of the top alternatives weighted by the input criteria.

3D Rapid Prototyping (3DRP) - Architects have been building scale models since the dawn of the profession.  3DRP allows you to physically print your design from a 3D computer model in a relatively quick manner (see Figure 5).  This process enables you to study multiple designs and make revisions and re-print.  There are a multitude of materials and service providers; we get great models and service from 3DRG (locally in Long Beach, CA) and Red Eye (nationally).

Interfaces

While the mouse and keyboard each has a place in computing, they are limiting. There is room for new, intuitive solutions on how to communicate with a computer, some of which we have already integrated into our practice at WATG.

Pen/Stylus - I certainly understand the desire to design with a pen/pencil and “flimsy,” but the use of Cintiq tablets and a pen-based program such as SketchBook Pro (SBP) can bring added value to the creative process. (A quick overview of SketchBook Pro was provided in this AECbytes Tips and Tricks article.) Considering that paper can get lost, or overly erased, or become too much to manage, adding a simple program like SBP and a Cintiq tablet provides the best of both worlds. These tools allow you to sketch all you want, manage your files with layers, and store them conveniently on the network.  See it at work in our master planning department by viewing this video.

Multi-Touch - We are all jazzed about what Microsoft Surface can bring to an interface.  Many have seen what Jeff Han has done on a larger scale with Perceptive Pixel and the Project Chicago (see Figure 6). It seems to me that we can use this technology to build better interface tools for both the design process and for presentation tools.

Gestural - As seen in the film "Minority Report," there are interfaces emerging that interact with you in 3D space.  Some rather exciting research and development is going on that allows for the use of hand gestures to control computer displays.  John Underkoffler and Oblong Industries have caught my eye with G-Speak and the I/O Bulb and the Luminous Room, which suggests any surface can be made into an interactive display.  This technology has the potential to change our industry (and many others).

Presentations

Presentations are a large part of what we do as architects, engineers, designers and planners.  Whether we are presenting internally or to clients, we are communicating our design intentions to groups of people.  We currently use several techniques, from printed boards to PowerPoint, but we could really enhance our presentations by using more multi-media or interactive tools.  Some of the technologies listed above could be used in these matters, namely immersive environments, gestural and multi-touch; others might include the following:

Interactive - The leader is Flash, although Silverlight is close on its heels.  We are seeing this technology used on a few presentations and it seems to be a natural.  There is flexibility in its non-linear, multi-media interface.  The ability to navigate freely as a presentation progresses, pan and zoom on images and filter content provides freedom to adjust your presentation on the fly and really get to the right information at the right time.  Silverlight's DeepZoom is especially interesting.  My personal favorite example of this, albeit not related to the AEC industry, is the Hard Rock Café Memorabilia site.

Telepresence - With budgets tighter and tighter and air travel becoming more costly and hassle-filled, as well as concerns about reducing our carbon footprint, telepresence technologies are securing a place in our business, even while recognizing that there is no substitute for being face to face.  DVEtelepresence provides a solution for a stage presentation and their web site offers meeting room and personal solutions.

Digital White Boarding - There are numerous occasions when we project images, take notes and even re-sketch the images on the screen during a meeting.  Digital white boarding allows for the images to be captured, marked up and saved.  There are several companies that offer solutions; Luidia's eBeam is the solution we have selected for ease of use and portability.

Filtering - With all the digital tools in place, it occasionally seems as though the "art" in architecture has been lost.  There are times when a hand-drawn look is appropriate.  Technologies like Squiggle or Piranesi are useful tools for communicating design intent with a "softer palette."

Videos and Animations - The use of video and animations are nothing new to design presentations.  What is emerging are engaging productions designed to enlighten, entertain, educate and sell.  The use of Adobe Director, After Effects and Apple's Final Cut Pro are finding their way into the architect's office.  These multimedia productions are a portion or an entire presentation in themselves.  In addition to that, some firms are creatively incorporating green screens and virtual environments (see Figure 7).

Miscellaneous

There are several additional tools I have found that either improve our design process or allow us to do more with it.

Digital Note Taking - This inexpensive tool allows us to record both the audio portion of a meeting and the handwritten notes associated with it.  The Pulse Smart Pen by Livescribe has been embraced by an increasing number of our professional staff. 

Digital Markup - While using some of the markup tools in Acrobat, Autodesk Design Review and Bluebeam Revu, keeping it all digital allows us to take advantage of the clarity, ease of use, inherent efficiency and obvious "green" implications.  Autodesk Design Review with its round-trip capabilities seems to have the most potential (see the review of Autodesk Design Review 2009 in AECbytes).

Measurable Design - It is hard to measure good design.  One company, DQI (Design Quality Indicator), has taken a stab at doing just that.  Their survey methods are being adopted in many parts of Europe and are finding their way into the U.S.  With the cost of development going through the roof, quantifiable analysis in this arena only makes sense.

Wikis - Wikis have been around for a while now, the most famous being Wikipedia.  Wikis, simply put, are communal locations for placing and editing information.  A centralized location allows for multiple authors/contributors to keep things up to date, fresh and accurate.

Blogs - Again, blogs have been around for a while, and many AEC firms have one, but their application is under-utilized in the design environment.

Social Networking - Made popular by MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, social networking can help aggregate information you are interested in, thereby keeping you up to date.  Beyond that, firms can also use them as promotional vehicles.

Conclusion

While there are valid reasons for why some of the tools profiled in this article are not being fully utilized, there is compelling evidence that they positively contribute to changes that are needed in the AEC industry.  Can these technologies, and others, be somehow combined into a flexible, efficient, integrated design experience?

Can the AEC industry try and "re-design" itself or will it continue conducting "business as usual"?

It would seem that the individuals and firms who ready themselves to incorporate innovations like the ones I’ve described here are best positioned for success when the economy rebounds and presents new opportunities to the AEC industry.

About the Author

Jim Balding is a licensed architect with more than 20 years of experience integrating technology into the architectural field.  An associate vice president with WATG in Irvine, CA,  Jim earned his Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder.  Jim is a sought-after speaker at technology conferences and is one of the top-rated speakers at Autodesk University.  Jim is also the Director of WimberlyLabs, the design technology R&D arm of WATG, the world’s preeminent design firm serving the hospitality, leisure and entertainment industries.  Learn more about WATG at www.watg.com.

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