Archinect - Features

How Digital Spaces Can Shape Cities as We Exit the Pandemic

2021-04-20T17:50:00-04:00

In May 2019, Nike released Nike Fit Digital Foot Measurement, an app that creates hyper-accurate sizing for its shoes by scanning the user’s feet through the camera of a smartphone. The reactions to this novel idea felt like another blow to a struggling typology, the shopping mall. People clamored for more augmented reality tools in the fashion industry that would limit the need for visiting physical shopping malls, for more neoteric features in digital spaces for online shopping, and for comfort in the absence of tangible architecture. With an evolving digital space that includes social media, virtual reality platforms, gaming worlds, online shopping platforms, and many others, public spaces have lost the title of being anchor social spaces while digital spaces are slowly becoming traditional ways of interacting in public life. In the quest for better cities, digital spaces might be a friend or foe to architecture, but as the pandemic forced cities to go on breaks, it’s a reflectio...

The Potential of Augmented Reality, From the Perspective of an Architect-Turned-AR/VR Specialist at Facebook Reality Labs

2021-02-05T13:41:00-05:00

In our third installment of our 4-part series Designers in Tech, Alessio Grancini, Prototyper Engineer at Magic Leap and ex-Morphosis XR developer, speaks with Lucia Tahan, Product Designer for AR/VR at Facebook Reality Labs.

Investigating the Emerging Field of XR and Its Applications in Architecture, With Popular YouTuber and Software Developer Matthew Hallberg

2021-02-04T14:26:00-05:00

In this second installment of our 4-part series Designers in Tech, Alessio Grancini, Prototyper Engineer at Magic Leap and ex-Morphosis XR developer, speaks with Matthew Hallberg about his work and research into Extended Reality (XR) and its potential in architecture and urban design.

With 50k+ subscribers, Third Aurora Software Developer and YouTuber Matthew Hallberg is well known for speculative cutting edge prototypes and demos that feature the most recent technologies available in the field of XR.

Designers in Tech: How Architecture Is Unlocking the Potential of New Emerging Technologies

2021-02-03T14:01:00-05:00

As 2021 starts, there is growing evidence that technologies connecting us together are scaling up the game. The COVID-19 lockdown has introduced a wider community to more new emerging technologies, like VR and AR, and we find ourselves integrating more smart devices into our daily lives. As the digital environment grows and the meaning of space starts shifting, the field of design and architecture is preparing to explore new media and expand its domain. In this miniseries, we are taking a closer look at a number of emerging technologies and software applications that are building the foundation of the future understanding of space. We are doing it, with the expertise of 4 guests that deal with the future of technologies in their everyday life in a series of four installments.

Unpacking Adaptive Reuse, Professional Practice, and Interior Architecture with RISD's Adaptive Reuse Program

2020-08-11T15:56:00-04:00

Unique to RISD's Interior Architecture Department (INTAR) is its one-year post-professional Master of Arts in Adaptive Reuse program. In this feature we take a closer look at the mission and goals for the students of Archinect’s newest School Partner. According to Interior Architecture Department Head Liliane Wong, "The program emphasizes the importance of understanding and respecting the context of the existing structure and making design interventions that contribute to the layers of history embedded in our built environment."

To learn more Archinect spoke with Wong, Graduate Program Director Stefano Corbo, and several current students and alumni from the MA Adaptive Reuse program to learn about their experiences and program takeaways. Together we explore the program's mission and how students are prepared to develop expertise in adaptive reuse, historic preservation, and architectural interiors.

Soapbox: Virtual Reality

2018-05-30T09:00:00-04:00

Soapbox is a weekly series delivering a curated set of lectures, talks and symposia concerning contemporary themes but explored through the archives of lectures past and present. With the plethora of lectures, talks, symposia and panels occurring world wide on a daily basis, how can we begin to keep up and if not, find them once they are gone? Soapbox looks to assemble a selection of recent, archived and outlier lectures surrounding a given theme. Soapbox looks to curate this never-ending library of ideas into an engaging and diverse list of thoughts and provocations. Soapbox is just that, a collection aimed at discovering the occasional needle in a haystack.

Morphogenesis, an Odyssey Through the Digital and Physical World

2017-03-18T11:15:00-04:00

Morphogenesis, a virtual reality art installation, is touring the globe, bringing a primal, otherworldly experience to audiences without the need for a ticket to Burning Man.

Strapping on the Sacred: When Religion Enters Virtual Reality

2016-12-15T12:14:00-05:00

A few months ago, I found myself a lone skeptic in a sea of believers at the VR L.A. Expo. I watched heads tilt toward the sky (then the ground, then side to side). I navigated long lines that snaked through a grid of cardboard booths, filled with eager believers awaiting communion not with God but with pixels. I heard the feverish whispers of the prophets of our 2D wilderness (they who consume Soylent instead of locusts and honey). A New World is coming, they said.

Rendered reality: the VR journalism of Emblematic Group

2016-01-25T11:15:00-05:00

“We took all the 911 phone calls – because this is all we know, I mean everyone is conjecturing and everything, but this is all we know – and we animated them,” explained Michael Licht, co-founder and executive producer for the Emblematic Group, sitting in his Santa Monica laboratory. Helmed by Licht and the journalist Nonny de la Peña, the Group has pioneered the use of virtual reality technologies for journalism, using original audio and other information from real events as the source material for virtual reconstructions.