The collaborative design platform - A protocol for a mixed reality installation for improved incorporation of laypeople in architecture

Presentations and discussions between architects and clients during the early stages of design usually involve sketches, paper and models, with digital information in the form of simulations and analyses used to assess variants and underpin arguments. Laypeople, however, are not used to reading plans or models and find it difficult to relate digital representations to the real world. Immersive environments represent an alternative approach but are laborious and costly to produce, particularly in the early design phases where information and ideas are still vague. Our project shows, how linking analogue design tools and digital VR representation has given rise to a new interactive presentation platform that bridges the gap between analogue design methods and digital architectural presentation. The prototypical platform creates a direct connection between a physical volumetric model and interactive digital content using a large-format multi-touch table as a work surface combined with real-time 3D scanning. Coupling the 3D data from the scanned model with the 3D digital environment model makes it possible to compute design relevant simulations and analyses. These are displayed in real-time on the working model to help architects assess and substantiate their design decisions. Combining this with a 5-sided projection installation based on the concepts Carolina Cruz Neiras CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE)¹ offers an entirely new means of presentation and interaction. The design (physical working model), the surroundings (GIS data) and the simulations and analyses are presented stereoscopically in real-time in the virtual environment. While the architect can work as usual, the observer is presented with an entirely new mode of viewing. Different ideas and scenarios can be tried out spontaneously and new ideas can be developed and viewed directly in three dimensions. The client is involved more directly in the process and can contribute own ideas and changes, and then see these in user-centred stereoscopic 3D. By varying system parameters, the model can be walked through at life size.