From Virtual To Reality

VR is no longer a fancy feature that comes after the design and documentation are done and dusted. Today, thanks to BIM, it is the platform on which architects collaborate and reclaim control as the master builder.

- Asih Jenie

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a prototype as “the first example of something [...] from which all later forms are developed”.

In this context, if we approach architecture as an object-making process, then – barring some 1:1 scale prototype of some small parts or details – it doesn’t really have a prototype, because the final product (which is the built environment) is the prototype.

For the longest time, scaled models were the closest thing to a prototype in architecture.

Today, we have a more immersive tool: Virtual Reality (VR).

In its early days, VR technology came at the tail-end of a built architecture project, after design and documentation processes, usually as the centrepiece of the project’s marketing campaign.

The advent and subsequent availability of BIM (Building Information Management) has helped architects to integrate VR into both design and documentation production streams.

No longer must architects split their time and manpower to produce items for both streams – they can document while they design.

No longer do they need to complete the design and documentation processes in order to produce the VR campaign – the VR is the platform on which they can collaborate.

ARCHITECTS REGAIN CONTROL

First developed and flourished in the gaming and entertainment industry, VR technology has become ubiquitous in architecture, construction and engineering industries – be it as a tool for an internal design review, or cross-discipline collaboration between consultants.

It is a highly effective tool of communication between those who speak the technical language of design and those who don’t.

What then is the outlook for VR in architecture in 2020 and beyond?