New interactive tools are surfacing to help architects do their job better. One such tool is a multi touch 3-D architectural application which can be used as both an interactive table device and a larger scale screen projection. While I can see such devices being helpful to architects for brainstorming, project reviews, coordination meetings, and client presentations, we really should ask — is this just another “cool” device? Or, does it really help architects like you to do your job better?

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 Read more

Image: ralphbijker | Flickr

When we experience space by traveling through it, we interact with it affecting its acoustical behaviors in what can be unintentional ways — but what if an architectural design could make its occupants think more carefully about how they move through built space, where their movements yield more intentional acoustic behaviors? Instead of aural experience always being something that seems to happen in the background (from an occupant’s perceptual point of view), why not make it a part of the interplay between building and occupant that not only informs occupants, but also promotes enjoyment, awareness, and/or goal oriented cues.

Of course, within architectural space there is rarely just one person that occupies it. So often, occupants must make use of collaboration and teamwork, as well as help to foster a sense of community and enjoyment while engaging interactively within a building. Take, for instance, a museum where visitors may be educated by exhibitions both individually and through interactive collaborative learning moments. Within such a building, exhibits might use tools like what you will see in the following video, where interactive musical instruments can be coordinated on the fly by willing participants. I think this has merit because if this concept were to be taken further, museum visitors would have more of an immersive and social cooperative learning experience about a subject — where they could draw Read more

What was once a simple table can now be transformed into an interactive, multi-tasking, mutli-media “feature” that can redefine the way you would typically think of a particular space — thus, able to change some conventions.

Eating with your family in a restaurant or shopping at your favorite store can become not only more interactive, but also, highly customized.

In the following video, you will see such an “interactive table” used for a multitude of functions — which are really only limited only by your own imagination. Just imagine if surfaces, like the one you see in the video below, could be positioned vertically or horizontally anywhere in a building.

Think of how this could augment an architectural space. What possibilities do you see?

WHAT’S YOUR DESIGN INTENTION?

Applied vertically or horizontally, such an interactive installation can become a type of anchor for a space — not necessarily the central core, but possibly a focal point.

Perhaps, such “interactive tables” will also encourage your occupants to interact with each other differently — maybe more, maybe less. Parts of your design will gain greater ability to “behave” with occupants, while others will remain Read more