Contract - December 2016 - 70

For the design of outdoor
courtyard upgrades at
National Instruments
headquarters (above and
opposite) in Austin, Texas,
STG Design, in conjunction
with Stantec, used VR to
show placement of new shade
structures, furniture, gaming
areas, an outdoor grill station,
speakers, lighting, and a food
truck area.

Architects. This results in fewer mistakes and more overall happiness.
Once inside a virtual model, users-including designers, clients, and
clients' employees-intuitively understand the design and its elements,
from scale and surface to lighting and details.
IA has employed InsiteVR software and HTC Vive hardware
on more than 30 projects in 18 months. Messick, who has taken the
firmwide lead to initiate VR technologies, prefers InsiteVR because
"InsiteVR has a more developed workflow for portable solutions, which
can be critical," he says.
The technology helped IA revive a steel framing system that
had been value engineered by one client, a venture capital company.
"[The client] finally understood the complex ceiling design for the first
time the second they walked into the VR model," Messick says. When
another client, a LinkedIn executive, walked through a virtual dining
area for the firm's new San Francisco tower, he decided that the table
placement was too tight, leading to a change in the space planning.
VR also helps IA make the case for designs like never before.
"It really opens doors," says Messick. "It's the difference between looking
at a photograph and really going to a place."
VR as a design tool
The tool has a similar effect on many designers who use VR to get
a much more realistic sense of their work before it's built. Decisions
on scaling, signage, and surfaces would have taken countless hours
before but now can happen almost instantaneously once designers
put on the goggles.
John Higgs, a principal in the Dallas office of Corgan and
founder and president of Corgan MediaLab, points to the firm's work
with IrisVR on three key projects: John Wayne Airport in Orange
County, California; Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport; and Corgan's own
headquarters expansion in Dallas. Higgs's team realized that the scale
was too large for portions of the Phoenix project, even though it had
seemed correct when looking at the original SketchUp model. A similar
phenomenon took place in Dallas, where designers got a chance
to experience the true scale and see parts of the building they might
never have rendered before.

first. Ennead Architects, for instance, is finding ways to express data
with VR. Partnering with IrisVR in rendering the Shanghai Planetarium,
Ennead represented sun exposure with varying colors, from white
to red. That way, the designers knew exactly where the light hit.
Distortion or limitations?
In terms of the technology, are there issues of distortion in a VR
scenario? "The primary issue of distortion is in the difference between
your perception of the environment on screen versus in a headset,"
Messick says. "The headset experience is true to the space and
the human focus, whereas the screen view is distorted the further
away from the center you look. We do find that people do correct
this perception as they get used to it and have not had an issue."
And are there any limitations in terms of how realistic
everything-furniture, wall and floor surfaces, materials, textures,
and the quality of light-is rendered in 3-D? "Much of the quality of
the environment comes from Revit," Messick says. "But the conversion
from Revit to the immersive environment is the final process,
so we always seek better quality there, especially in lighting."
Perhaps the biggest hurdle for implementing VR is initially
convincing skeptical employees and clients to get on board. At
FXFOWLE, New York-based Director of Technology Alexandra Pollock
is working on a cloud-based VR system with InsiteVR, hoping to have
firm colleagues from various offices get inside a VR simulation at the
same time. Both Pollock and Higgs give VR presentations internally
at their firms on nearly a daily basis.
"We tell designers and clients that you're not leaving the room
until you put the headset on," says Higgs. "Then they say, 'I get it.'"
Really, they will get it. But first, they must put on the headset. c

An added comfort level
"It's no longer a guessing game," says Higgs, who adds that VR makes
a difference when hours of work and millions of dollars are on the line.
"Virtual reality is giving us and our clients a comfort level we might
not have had before."
One of the most exciting aspects of VR is its untapped potential.
Often, VR's uses extend well beyond what even architects think of at
70

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