Artificial Realities – Virtual as an aesthetic medium in architecture ideation

about

The project is framed by the confrontation between rationality and efficiency related to virtual technologies applied to the architectural design process. The experience of the architectural space and the state of contemplation and delight of the architectonic exercise will have a digital materialization.

The ‘Artificial Realities: Virtual as an Aesthetic Medium for Architectural Ideation’ format is an exhibition coupled with a one-day symposium hosted by ISCTE Architecture School and organized by ISTAR Information Sciences, Technology and Architecture Research Center, Lisbon. This event is an associated project of Lisbon Architecture Triennale.

By exhibiting work and research on the topic of virtual reality by leading designers, we aim to trigger questions like “What are the aesthetic pleasures virtual reality experiences offer?” and “How contemporary virtual reality projects explore the aesthetic potential of the medium?” Can contemplation be rational? Can the aesthetic be efficient and the immediate be mental? It is our aim to trigger a reflection on these seemingly antagonistic concepts.

background

Virtual Reality (VR) has been around for almost 70 years. But if we look back in time, virtual reality has beginnings that preceded the time that the concept was coined and formalised. If we focus more strictly on the scope of virtual reality as a means of creating the illusion that we are present somewhere we are not, then the earliest attempt at virtual reality is surely the 360-degree panoramic paintings from the nineteenth century. These paintings were intended to fill the viewer’s entire field of vision, making them feel present at some historical event or scene.

Over time technology has been slowly but surely creating ever richer ways to stimulate our senses. Things really began to take off in the 20th century, with advent of electronics and computer technology. In the mid-1950s cinematographer Morton Heilig developed the Sensorama (Image 1) patented 1962 which was an arcade-style theatre cabinet that would stimulate all the senses, not just sight and sound. It featured stereo speakers, a stereoscopic 3D display, fans, smell generators and a vibrating chair. The Sensorama was intended to fully immerse the individual in the film. In 1838 Charles Wheatstone’s research demonstrated that the brain processes the different two-dimensional images from each eye into a single object of three dimensions. Viewing two side by side stereoscopic images or photos through a stereoscope gave the user a sense of depth and immersion (Image 2). The later development of the popular View-Master stereoscope (patented 1939), was used for “virtual tourism”. The design principles of the Stereoscope is used today for the popular Google Cardboard and low budget VR head mounted displays for mobile phones.

In 1994, Milgram and Kishino [1] coined the mixed reality concept, illustrating a scale of realities, ranging from the real environment to the virtual environment (VR), including both Augmented Reality (AR) and Augmented Virtuality (AV). Development of VR and AR didn’t go as fast as expected, mainly due to technical issues and the cost of devices supporting those types of reality. VR can be experienced either with an HMD (Head Mounted Display) or within an immersive room. The commercialization of affordable HMD to support VR like the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive, the Samsung Gear VR or the low-tech Google CardBoard, to name a few, makes it more accessible for institutions, universities and architecture studios to access and benefit from VR technology. In the last 10 years we have witnessed major, rapid advancement in the development of virtual reality. Computer technology, especially small and powerful mobile technologies, have exploded while prices are constantly driven down. The rise of smartphones with high-density displays and 3D graphics capabilities has enabled a generation of lightweight and practical virtual reality devices. The video game industry has continued to drive the development of consumer virtual reality unabated. Depth sensing cameras sensor suites, motion controllers and natural human interfaces are already a part of daily human computing tasks.

“Every architect will soon design using 3D goggles, virtual architecture will be as convincing as the real thing within five years. It's going be more powerful than cocaine." Olivier Demangel, IVR Nation, UK 2015, in Dezeen

Virtual and Augmented Reality in Architecture Design

Today, concerning the field of architecture, typical VR applications’ utilizations are wide, from design itself, construction and project's communication as well as collaborative decision-making. In the last couple of years architectural design has seen a resurgence of projects using mixed, virtual and augmented reality technologies driven by the low cost of headsets, higher resolution and field of view and so virtual reality is back! A high diversity of devices and systems have been developed in laboratories, and, in a few studios or firms like KPF and SHOP architects for example research labs were created to benefit from those technologies. In user studies [4] the potentials of VR and AR applications in term of ideation, collaborative design [5], building management and design education are well documented. In landscape architecture research, VR has recently seen its first steps as a tool to improve collaborative environments. Existing studies focused either on the benefit of VR for students to understand structure and construction [6], on the comparison of different VR systems [7] [8], on the implementation of a new working environment or framework for designers [9], on the evaluation of remote design collaboration [10], or on the integration of VR in the curriculum for design courses at architecture schools [11].

[1] Milgram, P. and Kishino, F. (1994) A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, 77(12), 1321–1329
[2] Dias, J.M. et al, “Mix Design, Tangible Mixed Reality for Architectural Design” in Proceedings for SIACG 2002 – 1st Ibero-American Symposium in Computer Graphics Congress, Guimarães, Portugal, 1-5 July 2002
[3] Dias, J.M. et al (2002) “Mix Design, Tangible Mixed Reality for Architectural Design” in Proceedings for ISMAR 2002 – International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, Darmstadt, Germany, 30 September-1 October 2002
[4] Milanovoc, J. Et all (2017) Virtual and Augmented Reality in Architectural Design and Education an Immersive Multimodal Platform to Support Architectural Pedagogy, CAAD Futures 2017, Istanbul, Turkey
[5] Garcia, A. R. and Marquez, J., Valverde Vildosola, M. (2001) Qualitative Contribution Of A VR-System to Architectural Design: Why We Failed? In Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia. Sydney, Australia, 423–428
[6] Gill, L., Lange, E., Morgan, E., Romano, D. (2013). An analysis of usage of different types of visualisation media within a collaborative planning workshop environment. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 2013, 40, 742-754.
[7] Castronovo, F., Nikolic, D., Liu, Y. and Messner, J. (2013) An Evaluation of Immersive Virtual Reality Systems for Design Reviews. In 13th International Conference on Construction Applications of Virtual Reality. London, UK, 22–29
[8] Achten, H., Jessurun, J. and de Vries, B. (2004) The Desk-Cave. In 22nd eCAADe Conference Proceedings. Copenhagen, Denmark, 142–147
[9] Eloy, S; Ourique, L; Wossner, U; Kieferle, J; Schotte, W; (2008) How present am I: three virtual reality facilities testing the fear of falling. In eCAADe 2018 Proceedings. Lodz, Poland.
[10] Drosdol, J., Kieferle, J. and Wössner, U. (2003) The Integration of Virtual Reality (VR) into the Architectural Workflow. In eCAADe 2003 Proceedings. Graz, Austria, 25–28.
[11] Eloy, S., Dias, M.S., Lopes, P., Vilar, E. (2015) Multimedia technologies in Architecture and Engineering: exploring an engaged interaction within curriculums. In Fonseca, D; Redondo, E (ed.) (2015) Handbook of Research on Applied E-Learning in Engineering and Architecture Education. IGI Global. 368-402.

Nancy Diniz

Co-principal of Augmented Architectures, NY / Director of the MA in Biodesign at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK

Founder and co-principal of Augmented Architectures a design practice operating in-between the human body and architectural scale and engage topics pertaining to biomaterials, digital fabrication, interactive design and data visualization.

Sara Eloy

Assistant Professor at Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL) / Director of the Information Sciences Technologies and Architecture Research Center (ISTAR-IUL) ISTAR-IUL, Lisbon Portugal

Eloy´s research on the use of digital technology, namely VR, AR and shape grammars, during the stages of the design process. She participated with the Associate project “CLOSE to cities and CLOSER to people” to the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2013.

Anette Kreutzberg

Associate Professor at the Institute of Architecture and Design at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture (KADK)

Kreutzberg’s activities are focusing on the digital representation of architectural concepts, with a special interest in the Nordic daylight phenomena. Her research involves immersive VR, 360 video, animation and interactive media.

Ioanna Symeonidou

Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly, Greece

Symeonidou is specialized in digital media for design and manufacturing. She is Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly, in the thematic area of “Architectural Design with Digital Media”.

Ana Moural

Architect, PhD student at Norwegian University of Life Sciences (MNBU), Oslo Norway

Moural’s research focuses on virtual reality and other visual media as tools to enhance public participation in landscape planning and design.

Other researchers and designers

Miguel Sales Dias, Associate Professor, ISCTE-IUL
Ricardo Resende, Assistant Professor, ISCTE-IUL
Nuno Pereira da Silva, PhD Student, ISCTE-IUL
Carla Lopes, PhD Student, ISCTE-IUL
Luísa Almeida, Master Student, ISCTE-IUL

Effimia Giannopoulou, Architect, Faberarium
Pablo Baquero, Architect, Artist and Computational Designer, Faberarium

Marcella del Signore, Associate Professor, NYIT

Ava Fatah, Reader, UCL

“In the future, we see this (VR) technology transforming the industry further. The current process of using 2D information to communicate with clients is already being phased out, and the next step will be phasing out 2D communication with builders. BIM is just the beginning. We see a future where builders use Augmented Reality to set out buildings and see where duct runs will go.”

Oliver Lowrie, 2019, in RIBA architecture

POETRY – mental, non-rational, aesthetic aims, art, metaphysics, transcendent, contemplation, long process (useless/useful) TECHNOLOGY – rationality, efficiency, immediatism, speed, magical (useful/useless)

Artificial Realities : VIRTUAL AS AN AESTHETIC MEDIUM IN ARCHITECTURAL IDEATION

about

background

“Every architect will soon design using 3D goggles, virtual architecture will be as convincing as the real thing within five years. It's going be more powerful than cocaine." Olivier Demangel, IVR Nation, UK 2015, in Dezeen

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Where

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Scope