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II stood at the table and looked at the 3D architectural model of the room. Then I press the button and suddenly I’m in the model itself. I can walk around and get a feel for the space, see how the pipes and lighting systems intersect, and flag any potential issues for the room designer to adjust.
Of course, I wasn’t actually huddled into the desk: I was wearing a headset in an architectural VR app. Over the past few years, more and more architects have begun incorporating immersive VR tools into the architectural design process. They say VR can help them understand a space better, facilitate better collaboration, and spot errors that might not otherwise occur. These architects hope that as VR technology advances and becomes more commonplace, it can fundamentally change the way they work and lead to more efficient and effective designs.
However, some architects believe that the current large number of VR products have not yet achieved the promotional effects of technical experts. “We can already answer some questions very effectively in 2D on the screen,” said Jacob Morse, managing director of architecture and design firm Geniant. “Putting on the goggles is just a gimmick.”
Built from scratch with headphones on
For decades, architects designed buildings starting from two-dimensional blueprints, which required technical knowledge to fully understand. Jon Matalucci, manager of virtual design and construction at global design and engineering firm Stantec, said working in two dimensions “is not a natural experience” when it comes to design. “We experience things in 3D, but there are losses in the conversion process.”
A few years ago, for many architects, the cost of using VR was too high, and it took too long for design programs to render a 3D space. But upgrades in hardware and software mean that many construction companies now have VR headsets, whether they’re Meta Quest or Google Cardboard. Design tools such as Revit and Rhino can convert blueprints into 3D digital models. In programs like Enscape and Twinmotion, architects can walk into the spaces they design within minutes of creating them.
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Architect Danish Kurani runs his own design studio and has been using VR tools for seven years. In the early stages of designing a room or building, Kulani puts on a headset to review the suggestions made by the team’s architects and discuss different options. When they complete preliminary designs, he takes clients on tours to get them excited and seek feedback. During our interview via Google Meets, Kulani walked me through a virtual rendering of a nonprofit children’s entrepreneurial center he’s designing in Baltimore, its rustic brick walls lined with 3D printers and other tools.
“As we walk around, I ask them questions like, ‘Is there enough space in front of the laser cutter?’” Kulani said. “They really appreciated being able to see it that way, rather than looking at abstract black and white lines on a floor plan. They were really able to immerse themselves in it.
Kulani said VR allowed him to spot subtle design issues that he might not have noticed on screen. For example, walk around a classroom in VR with an audiovisual engineer and have them figure out the best positions for cameras so that remote teachers can clearly see their students and vice versa. In virtual reality, Kulani can also see if exit signs block the view of students sitting in the back row trying to watch the presentation on a tall projector screen.
Stantec’s Matalucci said his company now has the ability to “put headphones on every desk.” The company is a customer of design software giant Autodesk, and its employees were among the first users of Autodesk Workshop XR, a 3D design review software released in beta in November. The software allows architects to create virtually at a 1:1 scale. One of Stantec’s most recent projects using Workshop XR is a hospital in rural New Mexico. Matalucci said VR is particularly useful when designing healthcare buildings, with all the overlapping systems required, from process piping to oxygen to electricity.
Mattalucci said VR helps Stantec’s designers receive customer feedback and make adjustments on the fly. They even sent VR demos to night shift nurses to see how they felt walking around the virtual hospital halls. “We equip the facility with features based on their requirements. Whenever they want to see where we are in the process, they can put on a headset and go out to remote rural New Mexico and let them understand a very complex process, “He said. “As a result, we got answers to questions we never thought to ask.”
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Experiencing Workshop XR in person through the Meta Quest 3 headset is a surreal experience. With the help of Autodesk XR Product Marketing Manager Austin Baker, I teleported in and out of the building model and flew around the Boston Municipal Building to see how its grand staircase unfolded into a large atrium. I can track how the sunlight and shadows move across the floor. In theory, dozens of different people responsible for various aspects of the project could gather here to discuss decisions on the fly before a brick is laid.
“What would have taken dozens of back-and-forth emails, Zoom calls, and attempts to share renderings of 2D data was now just a 15-minute visual walkthrough with all the data at my fingertips,” Baker tells me, his avatar floating next to me . “We were able to identify issues that could cost millions of dollars downstream.”
Steffen Riegas, partner and head of digital practice at Basel-based Herzog & de Meuron, said VR is particularly useful in designing and reviewing complete interior environments such as staircases. “It’s really difficult to convey those tight vertical spaces and depth in two dimensions; it’s almost impossible,” he said. “VR solves that problem.”
Herzog & de Meuron has integrated VR and XR (extended reality) tools into many parts of its practice. The company’s partners and project teams sometimes wear headsets to make design decisions. The firm’s architects even brought Microsoft’s HoloLens, a mixed reality headset that allows users to project virtual objects into the real world, to actual project sites in Basel to see how their new building designs would stack up against existing physical buildings. What the design would look like compared to. “If you want to understand the feel of a website, it’s difficult to experience or illustrate it with pictures,” Rigas said. “But with XR, you can go to the other side of the block and see what the new building will look like from a different angle.”
Limitations of current VR tools
But current VR tools have not been universally popular with architects or other professionals in the design field. Kulani said he has encountered general contractors and subcontractors who resist using these new tools because of the learning curve, which makes integrating them into the process less worthwhile. “If subcontractors don’t have access to the technology, you’re wasting time and energy,” he said.
Geniant’s Jacob Morse said he’s observed many architects using VR goggles solely as a marketing tool rather than integrating them into their design processes. “Besides sales and demonstrations, I haven’t seen a compelling use case that really moves the construction field forward,” he said. “Overall, it hasn’t unlocked new insights and new solutions that we couldn’t achieve in desktop computer programs.”
Morse does hold out hope, however, that as headsets and software improve, VR could allow him and other architects to view design as a more iterative process, using it to research, prototype and test people’s responses to virtual reality. Realistic response to slight adjustments. David Dewane, chief experience officer of Geniant’s physical space, hopes that VR can also be used in education: allowing students to virtually accompany an elite design team from conception to construction, or study the world’s most famous buildings up close.
“Any architecture student should be able to go into the library and not just take out a book about Barcelona, but go to Barcelona,” he said. “We have it ready now. But no one in the market has gone out and built it yet.
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