Clients Take a Virtual Tour

Studios Architecture - San Francisco, USA

"When clients take control of the mouse and are able to explore a space in detail, they begin to understand the design more thoroughly."

Walls that curve and tilt in three dimensions are virtually impossible to understand through plans and sections alone, especially for clients not accustomed to ?reading? spaces through orthogonal drawings. So when architects at Studios Architecture in San Francisco want to explain the spatial quality of their progressive designs, they use ArchiCAD to create models, perspectives, animations, as well as working drawings.

One key to Studios Architecture?s success in communicating through modeling is QuickTime VR. This technology, developed by Apple Computer, enables designers to stitch together a panorama of digital photographs or renderings to create a full 360-degree surround. Users then ?navigate? this environment simply by dragging the mouse to the right or left, up or down. The sensation of movement enables them to experience the complex forms more directly.

Creating QuickTime VR movies used to be technically difficult until Graphisoft became the first CAD company to integrate Apple?s technology into its modeling software. A designer simply specifies the ?camera? locations, and the renderings and movie file creation are automatic. The resulting movies, which can simulate a walk through any number of spaces in a building, are relatively small and can fit on a floppy disk to send to a client.

ArchiCAD?s spline curves, make this feature even more valuable for Studios Architecture, which is known for its passion for nonorthogonal design elements. According to designer/systems administrator Bradley Skaggs, the firm?s architects as well as its clients benefit from being able to visualize their work through QuickTime VR. ?A lot of these movies and perspectives,? he said, ?are really intended for internal communications. Often though, we show them to the client as well to better convey our design intentions. There?s a misconception that we spend a lot of time refining these drawings for client presentations. In reality, we don?t have much time for that, so anything the client sees is simply a derivative of what we do for our own purposes.?

Which is not to say the client is short-changed on presentation quality. When clients take control of the mouse and are able to explore a space in detail, they begin to understand the design more thoroughly. This leads to both a greater appreciation for their proposed building and a more informed perspective from which to suggest changes.

In addition to educating clients, Skaggs said these animations have been instrumental in attracting the interest of his firm?s top designers. Skepticism about a new technology immediately disappears when they see how they can use it directly in their design work. Even computer novices can learn to be fully productive in about one week. And the firm?s upper management is impressed with how easily architectural presentations can be incorporated into the overall design process. ?Unlike with other packages,? Skaggs said, ?we no longer come to a crossroads where we have to choose between production and visualizations. With ArchiCAD, we can develop an area where we want to create a QuickTime VR movie or perspective, but at the same time, we?re moving the project drawings along as well.?

For more than 20 years, researchers and software vendors have promised the architecture profession digital tools that could integrate art and science. Now, they may well have fulfilled this promise. According to Skaggs: ?What it really comes down to is that Graphisoft has given us full integration.?