Collaboration in AEC using Virtual Reality
Last October, I spoke at the 2017 AEC Technology Symposium and discussed how at IrisVR we are creating products to integrate virtual reality (VR) into architecture, engineering, and construction to facilitate project communication, design review, and coordination.
Optimizing Revit models for Virtual Reality
Here I walk IrisVR users through steps to set up their Revit models so that they are processed efficiently by Prospect.
Experimentation & Practice – Center for Architecture
Last December I spoke at the Center for Architecture in NYC with the CORE studio team. Description and video below (my section begins on minute 28).
Technology drives innovation, experimentation, and efficiency in the AEC industry, but implementing technology into practice and everyday use requires a larger strategy. Often, the needs of projects and practice exceed the capability of commercially available software packages, requiring us to build our own tools. The CORE studio is a computation and research group within Thornton Tomasetti that experiments with and evaluates technologies for use across the diverse practice areas of the entire firm.
How Open Source Enables Innovation
In September I spoke at the AEC Tech Symposium. With Mostapha Roudsari, we discussed how some of the most recent web-based development projects at CORE studio – including VRX – are enabled by open-source initiatives and how these platforms are being used for better collaboration inside and outside Thornton Tomasetti.
VRX: Virtual Reality for Building Information Models
This past year at Thornton Tomasetti’s CORE studio, I have been designing and developing VRX – a project to view Building Information Models in Virtual Reality. This web application allows the model creator to guide others in a shared virtual environment using the Google Cardboard. I just published a blog post about it, and you can read more about it here.
VR workshop at ACADIA!
Next week, I’ll be teaching a workshop called Prototyping Experiential Futures at the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). The 3-day session will be co-taught with Woods Bagot’s Director of Technical Innovation Shane Burger. See description below and sign up!
The field of Interaction Design has come to dominate our experience of the digital world. As our physical world increasingly takes on digital threads in our everyday experiences, the role of the architect needs to actively engage IxD for the built environment. We need to move from prototyping form to prototyping experience.
Applications of parametric design tools in Horizon House
Tomorrow we will be presenting Horizon House at the Graduate School of Design as part of the program of ‘Innovate Talks’, introduced by the Chair of the Department of Architecture Iñaki Abalos and moderated by Professor Mark Mulligan. We will be explaining how the competition asked for a sustainable solution for a retreat in nature set in rural Hokkaido (Japan) and we envisioned a house built with re-used local materials.
In March of 2013, I created a simple Grasshopper model that allowed for geometric explorations but also provided a general overview of material needs. You can check out the definition and some of the iterations below, extracted from a report I submitted at the end of the Spring semester. In addition, I have attached some of our original construction drawings.
Want to know more about Horizon House? Go here and here
MDesS Thesis mid-term review
This will be part of my thesis mid-term presentation on digital design and robotic manufacture of wooden reciprocal frame structures, which will take place next week. The digital workflow described is under development.I have made some tests using the robot and it seems to be going in the right direction. I will post pictures of the prototypes in the next few days.
Among other features of this workflow, the designer can access each larger ‘quad’, by using a path number that is the same of that of the original face it belonged to, while they can also retrieve the smaller configurations, which respond to the numbering of the vertices. More features coming soon!
Snow piles up around Horizon House
Akiko Kubo, one of the the caretakers of the experimental houses built in the Memu Meadows, has shared the most recent status of Horizon House under the snow. We are very excited to see the evolution of this winter and getting up to 1.00 m of snow. This will cover the railroad-tie base, leaving the house ‘floating’ in the white landscape.
Go to Horizon House page.
Horizon House gets published in EL PAIS
Under the title of ‘Horizonte Sostenible‘, Anatxu Zabalbeascoa has written an article for the digital version of the Spanish newspaper EL PAIS as part of her blog ‘Del Tirador a la Ciudad’. You can read the whole article following the link above or clicking on the picture below.
