IMAGE by Zachariah Kelly. An ineni Realtime employee using a VR Headset.
Virtually Thriving
VR is bringing design projects into the real world, with the technology being gamified in the architecture field!
VR incorporates a face-mounted camera and hand controllers to immerse a user in an environment – the user can look around freely, and in some circumstances, interact with the world.
In VR’s current state, this is terrific for architecture.
‘
We can put it up on the screen, but it doesn’t compare to putting on the goggles’ Matt Austin, an Architecture lecturer at UTS has said.
Gamification: A Turning Point?
‘These things become easier, there’s been a shift in architecture’.
Matt also discussed the ‘gamification’ of architecture as a reason for the development of VR in design.
‘What the interesting thing is what game engines can do’, Matt said, furthering that engines such as ‘Unreal and Unity’ are now easier to use than ever.
Samuel Haddo is an Architecture Masters student at the University of Technology in Sydney, and has just finished his 5 years of study, labelling VR a ‘visualisation and design tool’, discussing that he has designed projects and buildings for clients before, and enhances the ‘ability to design spaces’.
Samuel added that VR is an optimal choice ‘if you’ve got a client who can’t read a piece of paper’.
Realtime Environments
Stafford Van Putten is an employee of ineni.co, a Real-Time environment company that uses VR for Architecture-related projects.
‘From what we’ve seen in the market, there’s heaps and heaps of indie companies popping up’ Stafford said. ‘it means we all learn from each other’.
‘We see them all the time’ ‘There’s such a low barrier of entry’.
Stafford added that the rise of VR companies in Sydney is ‘exciting to see’.
The technology has become cheaper over time, and the programs required have become more accessible, which Stafford believes added to the rise of the companies.
Virtual designs are becoming realities!
