Boutique Design - May 2016 - 84

VIRTUAL MAGICIAN
Casey Mahon leverages innovations in virtual reality and
gestural mapping to create immersive 3D environments
that designers can explore-and alter-without taking
their headsets off.
InTeRVIeW By ChRIsTIna GReen

Casey Mahon has been one of design's go-to techies for more than a decade.

In 2005, he joined architecture firm Davis Brody Bond, where he says his role as a
junior architect "quickly shifted focus to the use of technology applications for
the design and fabrication of complex geometry and environmental analysis."
He joined San Diego-based CarrierJohnson + CULTURE in 2011, subsequently
launching its Design Technology Group, a unit dedicated to introducing
emerging tech tools to the architecture, interior design and branding practice's
workflow. The firm has since integrated new building information modeling
methods and advanced visualization techniques into its presentations.
How do augmented reality/virtual reality (ar/vr) and gestural
modeling work, and wHat applications Has your team developed?

The focus on AR and VR platforms kicked off in 2013 with the first Oculus RIFT
developer kit. We saw the potential to evolve renderings into immersive 3D
environments as a game changer. When we acquired the second kit early last
year, we adopted several VR software platforms, which allowed us to translate 3D
models into 3D environments that could be explored via a gaming controller. This
led to the investigation of input technologies for controlling the avatars' positions
within the 3D world and adjusting materials, textures and geometry without
removing the headset. Then we looked into Microsoft Kinect and Leap Motion
controllers to pick up hand and body gestures that could be linked to softwarespecific commands, giving us "gestural" control inside the 3D setting. We have
since developed custom-written programs that allow us to map hand gestures into
computer commands-sort of a sign language for talking to the computer. This
way designers can make changes to the 3D environment while wearing the headset.

I teach a course at Woodbury University, San Diego, with the general premise
that architects have been forced to work "at scale." This means our experience as
designers has been unique to other art forms because we have never been able
to make decisions at the full scale of the finished work.
Some firms have been getting around this issue by building large-scale models
and in-house mock-ups. We are currently taking that approach on several projects. In those cases, the VR model has helped us visualize the project, but now we
want to physically see and touch the proposed design. Digital fabrication tools,
such as 3D printers and CNC routers/plasma cutters, let us quickly mock-up,
modify and realize design changes on the fly in a way that drawing or computer
modeling would limit. The real impact of VR models is that the amount of time
between design iterations is dramatically shortened. 
For more from Mahon on new visualization techniques, visit boutiquedesign.com.
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boutiquedesign.com MAy 2016

s a m a n t H a o l i va r r i a / m e l o dy n a Z a r e n o

How can tHis tecHnology impact tHe design industry and tHe
cHallenge of scale in project presentations?

http://www.boutiquedesign.com http://www.boutiquedesign.com

Boutique Design - May 2016

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