Opinion 3
3 Sketch style visualisation created using an Enscape render that was heavily edited in Adobe Photoshop using filters and handdrawn elements 4 High-quality Enscape render of the same scene
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Seizing the opportunity The best way to understand a space is to interact with it. Real-time rendering and virtual reality enable interaction with 3D modelling tools, bringing emotion, opinions, and agency into the equation, and allowing project stakeholders to collaborate throughout the entire lifecycle of a project. The power of that inclusive experience transforms projects. Through real-time architectural visualisation tools, stakeholders, including a structure’s future occupants and neighbours, can experience a building as it is being designed in a high-quality immersive experience. They are able to verbalise their opinions, suggesting, for instance, a window for a better view, and collaborating to collectively create what will become a part of their daily lives and their community. Real-time visualisation provides a type of rapid, informal communication that is so essential for an effective design process. And, it introduces an opportunity for the Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) tools that are becoming standard in the industry, challenging users to create designs and, perhaps more importantly, to share the emotional impact of designs in ways that go beyond what is now possible. This results in a future where the design process can be truly inclusive, where real-time visualisation means the ideas, opinions, emotions, and feedback of all project stakeholders can be generated and incorporated into a design. Potential future technology to further push visualisation as the modern equivalent of sketching include: 1) Instead of jumping between sketching and rendering design tools, a singular tool can combine rendering and sketch66
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ing workflows into one software solution, enabling designers to create visuals that will allow just the right type of communication, without interrupting the design. Designers are already using sketch style visualisations like the one in figure 3, in order to better communicate the state of the design and to draw their clients’ attention to certain aspects of the design. However, creating such images can be time consuming and hard to replicate, indicating a need for a more streamlined workflow that would allow for highly communicative images to be generated easily and intuitively.
the real world and applying it to a rendered object to create a more realistic visualisation.
2) Enabled by VR, innovation can allow for collaborative sketching. Rather than just verbalising a contribution, a person can “draw” over a model in VR with other participants simultaneously viewing and participating in the feedback.
From sketching through the evolution of digital tools, the architectural industry’s needs have evolved, and innovation continues to find new and better ways of meeting them. The opportunities for advancement are endless, empowering designers to more accurately convey concepts, gather valuable feedback, and strengthen relationships through more immersive, inclusive experiences.
3) Leveraging open source tools, the design process can take a mixed media approach, for instance, capturing the texture of a material such as a rock from
4) Looking further down the innovation pipeline, designers can train an artificial intelligence (AI) engine with samples of their preferred sketching style—essentially imparting their unique language and fingerprint on a project—and a rendering can then be automatically modified to reflect their style. AI-enriched workflows can bring emotion to design renderings, creating evocative experiences for participants in the process.
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22/05/2022 06:48
