As more and more technologies converge into smaller and more mobile devices, the spaces that we build are being understood and perceived in entirely new ways. In fact, when a person experiences a physical space with a mobile device, it can be augmented — where new dimensions about the space are revealed to the observer, within which it is made easier to navigate, remember, and find comfort.

For instance, in the following video, technology augments life’s experiences from the point of awakening every morning. This may be where technology is headed — and if so, how would you as an architect design for such augmented perception? Think about this question as you watch the following video.

As you can see from the video, at just about any point during the day, an event can occur that may be acted upon, shared, or downloaded for future retrieval. With the help of mobile technology, you could be reminded, taught, or even asked to socialize in new ways. So, what does this mean for architecture?

In a world where “places” are being shared virtually, or where way-finding becomes more intuitive, the architecture begins to enter into a new type of conversation with its visitors. The transformation of “place” that yields more real-time “events” means that architecture is becoming ever more dynamic.

With added layers of information making up a physical space, would it be possible to accomplish more in that place for the occupant? And if so, how could the architecture work hand-in-hand with the augmenting technology to feed occupants not only when they need it, but also where they need it?

In the end, augmenting mobile technologies are making it easier for people to find and act upon what they need. But how does the “static-ness” of architecture interact with the dynamic qualities of such technologies? How can the two come together to impact and uplift human experience?

One way, is for architects to consider that in addition to the classical human senses, occupants are gaining dynamic real-time information, visualized and understood as an added layer through technology. For instance, when technology is connected to the internet or is “crowd-sourced”, there is a deeper sensing that can occur. The trick then is to use such information and engagement to inform the design of buildings.

Augmenting mobile technology does seem to make a lot of experiences “easier”. But with architecture that takes such technologies into account, perhaps experiences can reach higher and richer levels — all in real-time, seamlessly woven into the fabric of daily life.

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

There is a point where architecture works hand-in-hand with the objects within it: such as in a museum which houses artifacts in exhibits or in a home which makes way for different technological installations like phones, televisions, and computers. That is where we are today, but what about tomorrow?

What will happen to architecture when the objects within it gain these mega-functions? How will that architecture change from where we are today?

For starters, buildings will gain a more advanced “nervous system”. They will be better connected, and because of that — they will be better communicators. Buildings will pull information from objects to help occupants live better, healthier lives. And interactivity between architecture and its occupants will be more meaningful and personalized.

After all, just think about what architecture could do if the objects which its occupants use everyday could tell it more about how to help its occupants. Interactions would be better between buildings and people, and between person-to-person interfaces.

In the end, a better communication between architecture and its objects, assuming those objects gained mega-functionality, would lead to buildings that could lead the way toward prevention, quick treatment response, and highly tailored in-progress assistance for occupants.

So, keep an eye on those everyday objects which your building occupants use. There is a wealth of information in them that can make your building better.

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

As technologies continue to advance, building occupants are becoming capable of more and more. It began with the introduction of the computer, then went onto the smart phones, and now on the forefront are augmented reality technologies — one of which carries with it far-reaching implications.

I speak of computerized contact lenses.

If you think about it, it makes sense that the next evolution of computing would be to enter the realm of the bionic eye. For, when computer capabilites are added to the functionalities of a human using vision, one must think twice about how environments are to be designed.

Today’s environments are mostly a “what you see is what you get” type result. In the future however, with computerized contact lenses in the mix, environments will yield more than what you would see in them at first glance.

Suddenly, environments could themselves provide for information visualizations. They could redefine what it means to “connect” between real and virtual worlds. And environments would gain entirely new levels of funtionality — standing ready to act as a bridge between the virtual, informational, and the real.

Thus, with the simple addition of the computerized contact lens, environments will have new contexts with which to respond. And for designers of such environments, new chance will be given to redefine interactivity.

I invite you to question what might happen to the design of environments once innovations like the computerized contact lens arise. Think about any “new senses” that your given building occupant might gain. Would they be able to literally see through walls by gaining access to what is going on on the other side? Navigate in entirely new ways? Or even come to understand their environment through an entirely different process: perhaps web-based?

The key is to get you to think about environmental design at a few steps ahead of where things are today. Perhaps this will get the profession moving in the right direction — while also breathing new creative life into your ongoing projects.

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Brain EEG

Researchers at the UCSD division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) have developed innovative CAD (computer-aided design) software called CAVE-CAD that, when integrated with novel hardware to monitor human neurological and physiological responses, makes architectural design more efficient. CAVE-CAD also adds an important feature missing in conventional CAD: an ability to immediately experience the consequence of modifying design.

Source: UC San Diego News Center, CAVE-CAD Software Will Help Mine Human Brain to Improve Architectural Design

This exciting latest development of CAVE-CAD means great things for the evolution of occupant-centered architectural design. While this instrument is used to measure occupant response to an immersive experience of an architectural building design decision, I see many other uses for such a development that can really help our profession as well as all people that experience architecture.

To give you a better idea of what this simulation/experiential tool can do, please watch the following video which will show you CAVE-CAD in action, while also explaining some of the research team’s future plans for development:

As you can see, CAVE-CAD is a great instrument for testing architectural designs in terms of how occupants will be likely to experience them. As an immersive testing and design tool, it is possible to make design changes on the fly while simultaneously analyzing how an occupant would respond to such change. I particularly like that the aural environment that goes along with the visual environment which can be tested simultaneously for an occupant’s experiential reaction. It’s a great way to get inside the head of an occupant, and to get inside the design before it’s constructed so as to better understand how design decisions impact occupants.

While being immersed in CAVE-CAD, occupants might feel lost or overwhelmed, surprised or bored, or curious and happy.And if steps can be taken to delve into such occupant physiology, emotion, behavior, cognition, and even spirituality — then CAVE-CAD can prove to be a very powerful tool for architectural design.

As you design your buildings using your own process, just imagine how you might like to test certain aspects experientially, going beyond the visual. By finding and developing a testing ground where you can fuse the different senses together into a virtual experience of a space, you will likely make better design decisions and will also be able to communicate your design better to future occupants.

And don’t think that you need CAVE-CAD to do all of your testing for occupant experience. For example, you can set up virtual aural and visual simulations using your computer along with a projection screen and speakers. The trick is to devise a plan to study your occupant’s reactions: whether physiological, intellectual, emotional, behavioral, and/or spiritual.

For optimal results, keep track of what research materials and tools are becoming available to you as an architectural designer. Try to improve your designs for your occupants by better understanding not only your designs before they are built, but also by better understanding your occupants’ reactions to those design ideas. In following along this path, you will stand in prime position to boost your design process to yield higher quality design with less error.

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Aka Hige | Flickr

Many major companies and institutions (like Starbucks and some major airports) are now making sure to include free WiFi wireless connection to boost sales through major increases in customer traffic. And in doing so, they are using this incentive for customers to come in and buy their products and services.

But, as more and more people come to these venues with their mobile digitally connected technologies, what does that mean for the design of the buildings which house them? How do you as an architect account for higher volumes of traffic that may congregate, use the space differently, and be technologically connected at just about all times?

Almost gone are the few coffee shops where the space is simply a place to enjoy that warm cup of coffee and perhaps a slice of desert with a friend or with a good book. Instead, being added to that picture, is the rapidly increasing popularity of free WiFi connection — which, with it, is bringing about some new occupant interaction behaviors within such established institutions like cafés and airports.

In fact, I went into a café recently and saw their new renovation which “updated” their previous standalone tables and chairs to now be replaced by one elongated cafeteria-style table where cyber café customers now sit with their laptops, androids, ipads, and other mobile devices. What I find interesting is that in a world where so many people are “on the go”, it seems that mobile devices are simultaneously better connecting them to information, while also disconnecting them from various social or “sensorial” interactions. Being interpreted loosely, being “on the go” time-wise does not necessarily mean moving between only physical spaces, but it can now mean moving between virtual ones as well.

A Place Where Bits Merge with Bites

Thus, I think it is the new challenge for architects to straddle both areas — providing building occupants with both greater digital world connectivity to social and informational networks while also providing them with a way to “disconnect”, or better “bridge” with the physical world so they can sensorially experience what is happening around them in real time. After all, I think that the two can work together very well for people, as they feed in and out of each other. For example, your design could bring sensorial and social interactions to impact building occupants’ way of thinking, which, in turn, will impact what they do with their virtual connections…and visa versa.

I was recently reading an excerpt from the book Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City (affiliate link) where William J. Mitchell makes a point about just how interconnected virtual bits are to their physical body counterparts. That is to say that actions that occur in the physical world, are almost timelessly linked to the actions that are now occurring in virtual space. With that in mind, it should be your job as an architect to design physical spaces that impact not only the building occupants within them, but also the stream of bit-like interactions that will result because of them.

So begin simply by taking a second look at those cafés and airports which are often taken for granted. For when you think of a café and its customers, think of the physical and sensorial interactions that occur there — and then think of the parallel effects of those interactions in the digital world of virtual space. How will the two merge within your design? How can you play off of one to make the other better? And is there a place within which you would ever try to separate them? Today, architects must often design for not only the physical, not only the ethereal, but also the digital world of bits.

So, perhaps the reason customers go to these places are changing. And as what they do there changes, will you be adjusting your architectural designs to their change in behavior after the fact? Or will your architectural designs lead the way?

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I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter and Facebook followers by clicking on the “re-tweet” and “like” button at the beginning of this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Before we go on to talk further about the application technology, I think it best to show you a glimpse of what such multi-touch devices can do:

As you can see, 3-D visualizations are developing past solely working with still renderings or even scripted and locked in place animations — which today mostly run as “replays” of camera movements that serve to walk someone through a space along a predesignated path. But what makes these new multi touch virtual reality environments even more helpful is that they give architects the ability to interact with their construction documents in new ways, that are a bit more interactive and intuitive as they are tools that can be used to answer possible questions that may arise or to spot potential problems that may need to be solved in real time during meetings or client presentations.

By making construction documents link to more comprehensive building “models”, they become a bit more of an immersive experience that not only helps architects “see” their designs better, but also helps them to “explain” them better as other members of their design team, consulting team and client teams seek to more fully understand the implications of certain design decisions…thus, preventing future problems that may arise.

Image: campuspartycolombia | Flickr

When presenting, such an interactive table or screen application might help clients or other reviewers to feel more “in control” as they travel through a space — being able to question it in the places where they think it needs questioning. In turn, this helps by making them feel more confident if they like what they see and experience, all because this interface helps architects to better communicate their most complex of architectural visions.

Essentially, such new and interactive tools that can be used within both architectural working environments as well as architectural presentation environments are quite important to keep developing. For when designing a building, it helps when tools are optimized so that they help bridge the gap between architects, the unrealized building, and their clients — helping them to make smarter decisions more quickly, prevent future problems from arising during construction, and ensuring that the client sees and is confident that they are getting what they want and need. Needless to say, I do think that there will be a bright future for such multi touch architectural design and presentation interactive tools. So what you think? How could such an interactive tool help you with your architectural design process?

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter and Facebook followers by clicking on the “re-tweet” and “like” button at the beginning of this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: bittbox | Flickr

Who would have thought that a concrete block could be rendered invisible? Well, with the use of augmented reality technologies, just that has been achieved. By allowing sensing technologies which are capable of face-detection to act as an intermediary, the invisible concrete block system is able to tell exactly where an observer’s line of sight is, in relation to the concrete block. With that information, the system projects images of the surroundings that coincide with that observers perspective — making a concrete block render virtually invisible.

I think that such an augmented reality exhibit is quite inspiring to see because it shows how designers can push certain boundaries by combining a unique recipe between technologies, materials and their own creative talents. For instance, just imagine if within your own building design you are able to take a material that has been thought of (and physiologically perceived) in a certain way for a long time, and then create an alternate or unexpected condition by which it can be experienced. This element of “surprise” is one way for you to elicit certain occupant behaviors, memories and learning experiences.

Materials and the many behaviors which they can manifest temporally is a very interesting thing for you as an architect to explore and push. The key is to first understand how those materials are being perceived, have been perceived and how that might need to change in order to convey a certain message through your architecture. For example, the invisible concrete block might serve to create an illusion within a wall or act as an interactive three-dimensional building feature — where its chameleon abilities might be just the thing needed to create a certain lightness, transient ability and ethereal effect for a space at a particular time of day.

In the end, it is most important that you see building materials for what they are at face value, but also to never stop searching for more on what they can become. As a painter paints with paint, architects often “paint” with materials. As you watch the following video, ask yourself just how creative you can be with your materials — even with the most mundane of ones.

To get you thinking, here is the video of the invisible concrete block exhibit and how it works:

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: plantronicsgermany | Flickr

As people travel through the world today, they experience many dimensions to the spaces they encounter. Whether within a building, or when exploring a city, people are navigating with the help of things like cars, handheld instruments like smart phones, cameras, books or various map-like devices. However, one thing is for sure…

New technology often leads to realizing new ways of designing spaces with a “sense of place” — and that is something you should be keenly aware of as an architect.

When a certain building radiates this “sense of place”, it often can lift occupants to higher levels where greater learning, spirituality and a sense of well-being can be achieved. And it is no secret that many places have exuded this “sense of place” in both timeless and universal fashions — well before certain state-of-the-art technologies that we see today ever existed. But, I do ask…what happens when new technologies find their way into architecture? Do they enhance or detract from it as they augment its very being?

That, furthermore, leads me to ask…”What does “sense of place” mean today? And with all of the new and rapidly developing technologies being literally carried around by occupants all over the world, how does this re-preset, re-define and re-introduce people to the built environment which surrounds them?

Including Augmented Reality Technology to Exude a “Sense of Place”

When I can walk down the street and “see” to form an impression of a building, using my smart phone for example, I am often given a preview (whether it be accurate or not) of what an architectural “place” might have in store. But then the question really becomes… Is this sort of augmented reality really enhancing that buildings’ ability to lift me to that higher-level I spoke about earlier? And what happens once I bring that augmented reality with me once I step inside?

In other words, does augmented reality help a building when it is an accidental after-thought? Or when it was well pre-conceived and designed by an architect to help that building to teach me, spiritually lift me, or guide me to have a better sense of well-being?

So, take a moment to consider how the widespread use of augmented reality technologies will impact your building, and its occupants. Ask yourself how such devices can contribute to your building’s message and its ability to convey that message. After all, not only do buildings exist in the moment as an occupant physiologically experiences them through their body’s senses, but they also exist well before (and after) that occupant ever steps foot inside.

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter and Facebook followers by “tweeting” and “sharing” it using the buttons at the beginning of this page.

* This idea for this article was inspired by: A Sense of Place: A World of Augmented Reality

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: shadows44 | Flickr

It is undeniable that mobile phones with operating systems that get updated frequently are becoming more widespread globally. In fact, phones like the iPhone are helping people with a variety of tasks ranging from keeping track of their health and finances, all the way to realizing new types of face-to-face communication, social media and now 3-D video — see the new Samsung W960 phone here.

The introduction of 3-D into the world of mobile gadgets makes me think of what might happen when these “gadgets” are being carried around by occupants within architectural designs which include office buildings, museums, schools and even hospitals. Is there any reason why you as an architect should ignore such devices and what they can do to help your architectural designs? Think mobile augmented reality here.

Such mobile devices can be not only a great way to pool information about your occupant(s) “status” within your building, but can also serve to help you design new adaptive systems within your building in entirely new ways. Just imagine the more personalized experience and better collective effect your architecture can give them.

Here’s a quick example:

In much the same way as you might design a large architectural design element in one place, and then indirectly refer to it through your design within a smaller element somewhere else, you could design a 3-D video or hologram visible to occupants that might carry their mobile device to certain parts of your building to augment what they experience there. Yes, this can bring signage and wayfinding to a whole new level.

Beyond Typical Building Signage and Wayfinding

When I think of this, I think of more than just creating a 3-D map that your occupants might carry around to help give them a sense of where they are, or they are going, within your designed space. Instead, I think of an augmented reality type experience where the 3-D virtual meets 3-D real-world space. It’s as if your occupant were carrying around a 3-D flashlight, but instead of simply illuminating light to see where they are walking — it would act as a 3-D fully colored “model” that changed dynamically with each experience they had, helping them along the way.

With this, might you create a new kind of architectural narrative for your occupant? Giving them hints of what is just around the corner through their personalized and mobile handheld 3-D virtual world? Or might you let them take home a personalized montage of different “elements” that made up their experience within your architecture — not to be too cliche, but kind of like a transient “souvenir”? Or better yet, a 3-D “memory” derived from a real-life experience from within your architectural space.

This is just some food for thought to get you thinking about emerging technologies in a new way. Think about how you might be able to use them to your advantage as you develop experiences for your occupants within your building spaces. If you have not seen it yet, here is a look at the new Samsung W960 mobile 3-D technology by Dynamic Digital Depth:

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I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter and Facebook followers by “tweeting” and “sharing” it using the buttons at the beginning of this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: jericho1ne | Flickr

Augmented reality and other virtual digital displays can revolutionize they way we interact within architectural spaces. When sitting in your office, experiencing a museum or simply learning in school, occupants already use digital media to carry out even the most basic of tasks. Just imagine what the evolution of augmented reality can do.

For starters, we can now see the beginning to how buildings can evolve internal “nervous systems”. Designers are beginning to think of “connections” in whole new ways.

Not only can spaces become less “local”, they can gain even greater dimension as real-time information gets processed through the building to provide visitors with a broader sense of where they are and what they can do.

YOU ARE THE BAROMETER

Similar to the glass evolution in architecture, real-time virtual “models” of information are making space less limited. Space is gaining transient abilities. It is becoming less static and more in tune with what its occupants really need and want.

Architects will need to act as the barometer for these augmented reality spaces — so virtual information can integrate and work with architectural form.

The key is to bring all of these emerging technologies back to the essence of human comfort: health, safety, happiness, productivity and so on. Without targeting the most basic of human needs, everything else could fall by the wayside.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman