Archinect - News

Three triangle-shaped buildings 'transformed' into tortilla chips as part of new Doritos marketing campaign

2022-08-29T13:29:00-04:00

Apparently, Doritos are everywhere. What you thought was Bjarke Ingels Group’s VIA 57 West is actually a cheesy tortilla chip.

Through a new marketing campaign by Frito-Lay North America titled Triangle Tracker, people can currently utilize Snapchat’s augmented reality software to seek, scan, and convert triangular shapes anywhere, including buildings, into Doritos for the chance to win money and other prizes. The company launched the program by illuminating three triangular-shaped structures in bright orange. Along with the aforementioned BIG building in Manhattan, the upside-down triangle shape at the top of Atlanta’s 101 Marietta Street skyscraper and the Memphis Pyramid were converted into gargantuan chips.

To participate, users need to point their Snapchat AR lens at any triangle in their environment or use TikTok to engage in weekly challenges.

Herzog & de Meuron's exploration of the SongEun Art Space showcased possibilities of augmented reality technology

2022-03-18T14:31:00-04:00

Seoul’s latest cultural mainstay was a recent subject of an introspective investigation with help from its creator Herzog & de Meuron.

The Swiss firm returned to its debut Korean design with an augmented reality exhibition titled Exploring SongEun Art Space that uses physical and digital models, drawings, sections, and printed images to give visitors a real insider's perspective on the creation and inner workings of the new 11-story museum.

Previously on Archinect: Seoul's newest art space opens in a triangular concrete shape from Herzog & de Meuron

With help from Swiss VR/AR specialists Bandara, the installation delved into the new building in an extraordinary high-tech way, displaying documentation that explored the design and construction process from the initial conception in Basel to the physical realization last September in Seoul's Gangnam district. It consisted of seven augmented reality stations, where different images in the room triggered videos, models, and other media f...

MVRDV's new Flores Tower is a top-to-bottom exhibition of flower power

2022-03-14T13:25:00-04:00

The colorful new centerpiece of the 2022 Floriade horticultural exhibition is now set to debut after MVRDV announced the completion of its 43.5-meter (142-foot) Flores Tower in the Dutch city of Almere.

The vibrant structure comes complete with a custom-made, AR-enabled panoramic facade artwork titled Sympoiesis from Rotterdam-based Arttenders and the Flemish artist Alex Verhaest.

Image © MVRDV x Arttenders x Alex Verhaest, © 3D Capacity

Taking the surrounding MVRDV-designed arboretum as its inspiration, the glass-paneled facade is activated by a digital scripting technique that projects a layered composition with images of 1,800 different floral species taken from various databases and university libraries.

Image © MVRDV x Arttenders x Alex Verhaest, © 3D Capacity

The illustration covers the full catalog of plants and flowers available to visitors of the expo with an interpretive key located in the building’s plinth that offers itself as a proportionate wayfinding guide indicating th...

German universities develop "virtual meeting room" where users can meet with colleagues as avatars

2020-07-27T15:58:00-04:00

Developed by visualization experts from six universities in Baden-Württemberg with members of the Visualization Department of the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS), a new project entitled "Virtual Collaboration Laboratories Baden-Württemberg" (KoLab) allows users in different locations to meet and collaborate in a virtual settings.

AR and VR collaborative environments aren't new in the design and construction industry, but often, users need to be in the same location to participate, usually viewing a localized model in a central location. According to Tech Xplore, "meeting participants are represented by avatars that can communicate in virtual reality, where they can collaboratively observe, analyze, and interact with 3-D visualizations — all from their workplaces or even home offices."

The Berlin Wall made discoverable again via AR, 30 years after its fall

2019-08-27T17:36:00-04:00

The installation is part of a week-long festival running from 4-10 November for the 30th anniversary. It aims to “celebrate the successes of the revolution and to recall the joy at regained freedoms and the risks and pains of social upheaval,” according to a statement from the organisers, Kulturprojekte Berlin.

As the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches this November, various art projects prepare to commemorate the events of the peaceful 1989 revolution throughout the city.

Via large-scale interactive installations, 3D video projections, and an augmented reality app, artists seek to give back relevance and historic significance to places that can easily be overlooked and forgotten.

An AR version of the old Berlin Wall "death strip" fortification overlaid on a Berlin sidewalk via the MauAR app. Image via mauar.berlin.

This mixed-reality hard hat connects with Microsoft's new HoloLens 2

2019-03-04T16:12:00-05:00

Microsoft will allow businesses to customize HoloLens 2 before purchasing a fleet of headsets. Trimble, the owner of 3D modeling package SketchUp, has already modified the headset so that it can be worn like a hard hat in construction sites and other potentially dangerous locations. The rebranded version will be called Trimble XR10 and is set to launch alongside the regular HoloLens 2 later this year.

One of the first 'working-in-the-field' customizations of Microsoft's newly unveiled HoloLens 2 mixed-reality headset is a hard hat by Trimble for construction workers that pulls up holographic CAD data on the worksite.

Image: Trimble/Microsoft

"It will have all of the same specs, performance, and functionality as the new HoloLens, including improved sensors and processors, a significantly larger field-of-view, 10-finger gestures, eye-tracking, a flip-up viewscreen, and more," promises the manufacturer's description.

The hard hat headset connects with Trimble's suite of spatial computing software and will be available later this year for a slick $4,750 a piece.

As augmented reality further permeates the urban environment, do architects play a role in planning virtual spaces?

2018-10-03T17:59:00-04:00

Over the past couple of decades, artists and designers have developed augmented realities that propose vastly different, and often more radical perspectives of what a digitally enhanced public realm could look like. [...] many actually existing AR projects instead ask critical questions about the implementation of this novel technology and its potential to shift both the everyday experiences and political economies of architecture and cities.

In his latest Failed Architecture piece, Joshua McWhirter offers an insightful history of noteworthy augmented reality-powered works of art, activism, game design, and simulation while also issuing a warning call about the impending privatization and commodification of the virtual public space without much input from architects. "And as this landscape increasingly constitutes a public realm in and of itself," McWhirter writes, "a collection of hybrid real-virtual public spaces, there are even glimmers of direct challenges to its creeping privatization."

An augmented reality art exhibit hijacks MoMA's Jackson Pollock gallery

2018-04-27T14:57:00-04:00

NEW YORK’S MUSEUM of Modern Art is under siege. Well, a virtual siege, at least. A group of renegade artists has co-opted the brightly-lit Jackson Pollock gallery on the museum’s fifth floor, turning it into their personal augmented reality playground. [...] those that have downloaded the MoMAR Gallery app on their smartphones, the impressionist's iconic paintings are merely markers—points of reference telling the app where to display the guerilla artists’ works.

MoMAR's augmented reality app and the unauthorized accompanying group show Hello, we're from the internet explore the intersection of private physical space and the public digital realm. "MoMAR is an unauthorized gallery concept aimed at democratizing physical exhibition spaces, museums, and the curation of art within them," the group explains on its website. "MoMAR is non-profit, non-owned, and exists in the absence of any privatized structures."

Get the app on Android or iOS and head to MoMA's Jackson Pollock room on the 5th floor to see Hello, we're from the internet until May 3.

Bringing Augmented Reality for architects to the small screen: Morpholio launches Trace app for iPhone

2018-02-07T18:24:00-05:00

If you've already liked or used Morpholio's popular Trace app on the iPad Pro, you can now also get excited to put it to work on your small screen: TracePro just launched for iPhone and presents a powerful architectural application of Apple's ARKit augmented reality framework in a pocket-friendly format.

AR drawing

The app positions itself as a helpful tool in the field where critical design decisions have to be made consistently — with the amount of on-site design often outweighing planning in Concept and SD combined.

"Not only do budgets, scope changes and fast track schedules force important design decisions on site," Morpholio explains the need for TracePro, "but unforeseen field conditions, contractor errors and never ending client changes can all keep your team designing and problem solving throughout CA."

Scale photos

Five so-called "CA Super Tools" are the app's key features designed to make architects' lives in the field easier:

AR Drawing on Site: utilizing the iPhone's pow...

Is that Augmented Reality in your pocket? Morpholio updates their apps to take advantage of Apple's new ARKit

2017-09-19T15:46:00-04:00

Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 11, just released today. One of the biggest updates that should get the attention of architects is ARKit, Apple's new augmented reality framework. ARKit provides the opportunity to for Apple and 3rd party developers to create AR experiences anew, or to enhance existing applications for iPhone and iPad.

Augmented reality is relatively old news, but the fact that this framework is now baked into the most popular mobile device in the world, soon to be married to Apple's latest AR-friendly hardware, is big news. Millions of people around the world will soon have some of the most advanced AR tools in their pockets, regardless if they want it. Businesses and app developers now have the opportunity to show the potential of AR to people without requiring them to purchase expensive new hardware and software.

Morpholio, a company that we've covered previously on Archinect, is dedicated to bringing this new technology to architects and interior des...

Ikea is developing an Augmented Reality app

2017-06-19T20:30:00-04:00

Valdsgaard believes Apple’s know-how and recent progress within AR will be a crucial complement to Ikea’s in-house competencies. Another major benefit of working with Apple is the company’s gigantic ecosystem of users.

Ikea will partner with Apple to co-build an AR-based shopping app that will enable its users to try out virtual furniture at home before making buying decisions. Michael Valdsgaard, Leader of Digital Transformation at Inter Ikea, noted that the app is intended not to replace the company's physical stores but to compliment them.

Upon its launch in the Fall of 2017, the new AR app will have 500-600 products available.

Pokémon Go is forcing us to grapple with 'virtual usage' zoning

2016-08-11T13:22:00-04:00

“if augmented reality really catches on, and an internet environment overlaid on our real world surroundings becomes common, what will be the rules around using that augmented space?" [...] Could you sell, lease, or subdivide the digital rights to your own home, yard, or lobby? Could you extract a toll, tax, or commission from virtual usage?

Referencing multiple, international cases of private property disputes over the mega-popular Pokémon Go game, Geoff Manaugh floats the idea of zoning regulations for virtual and augmented reality instances.

As players wander through public and private spaces alike to catch 'em all, they inevitably trespass on certain stakeholders ideas' of what's allowed in that space—especially if the 'Trainers' are profiting financially in any way from occupying, say, a suburban front yard.

As these disputes proliferate (whether from Pokémon Go, or the next AR/VR game to takes its place in popularity), Manaugh's piece poses the following: What rights do virtual entities have to be in those spaces? What rights to property owners have to keep Snorlax from napping in their hammock?

More AR/VR on Archinect:

Moscow's own version of Pokémon Go will let you "catch" famous figures from Russian history

2016-07-25T13:46:00-04:00

Moscow City Hall has announced the launch of its own version of online game “Pokemon Go.” Russians will be asked to find and "catch" historical figures in the streets of the capital via an app called “Know Moscow.Photo.” [...] people will be able to catch and take a selfie with [...] Yury Gagarin, Alexander Pushkin, Pyotr Chaikovsky, [founder of the first Russian university] Mikhail Lomonosov, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte and the tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich,” [...]

No, Pokémon Go is not an urban fantasy for the new flaneur

2016-07-14T15:27:00-04:00

Have you heard? There’s this game called Pokémon Go, and it’s responsible for a radical new relationship to the city!

Think pieces are clogging Twitter and Facebook expounding the virtues of the augmented reality game that has lead distracted pedestrians off cliffs, into muggings, and straight to a corpse, while simultaneously and dramatically taking away attention from more pressing topics like, say, police brutality.

Here’s a pessimistic (cynical and snarky) round-up of some of the commentary making its way through the internet tubes:

“In our collective hunt for silly cartoon monsters, Pokémon Go players are discovering history and architecture left and right,” writes Mark Wilson for Fast.Co Design in an article entitled "Pokémon Go" Is Quietly Helping People Fall In Love With Their Cities.” In the optimistic article, Wilson notes how many Pokéstops – sites where you can find Pokémon – are real-world historical buildings and landmarks. They’re also strip clubs, abortion memorials, a...

NBBJ's VR venture: Managing Partner Steve McConnell and John SanGiovanni, co-founder of VR firm Visual Vocal, on Archinect Sessions One-to-One #23

2016-05-16T15:01:00-04:00

Today's podcast guests are NBBJ Managing Partner Steve McConnell and John SanGiovanni, co-founder of Visual Vocal, a new company bringing virtual and augmented reality systems to the architecture industry. As an investor in Visual Vocal, NBBJ plans to foster the company in all of its design processes, using its collaborative platforms to communicate among designers, clients, and users, at all stages of project development. With a beta program launching this summer, Steve and John gave me a taste of how NBBJ plans to use the service, why it invested in the company in the first place, and how ubiquitous VR stands to dramatically change the architectural process.

Listen to One-to-One #23 with Steve McConnell and John SanGiovanni:

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Virtually Inevitable – VR and AR, IRL on Archinect Sessions #51

2016-02-04T18:43:00-05:00

Virtual Reality is very much here, in all its messy, beautiful, uncanny glory. The gee-whiz factor notwithstanding, the technology holds a bevy of architectural applications and implications, and manages to hold a mirror up to the built environment to show us things that we couldn't understand before.

This episode, we discuss a host of recent VR stories, from the narrative VR journalism of Emblematic Group to Thorsten Wiedemann's VR performance art, an AR helmet that streamlines the construction site and VR-value-added rendering services for firms.

Joining us on this VR-trip is Rebecca Howard, freshly returned from New York where she developed video content for the Times, and helped them launch their entry into VR content.

Listen to episode 51 of Archinect Sessions, "Virtually Inevitable":

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Augmented Reality: Peeling Layers of Space Out of Thin Air

2011-07-04T13:06:01-04:00

Architects: Acconci Studio, Asymptote, Cleater Studio, Kol/Mac, Metaxy, Leeser Architecture, Studio Daniel Libeskind, SHoP, and SITE

Opening Saturday JULY 9 2011 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM The Fields Sculpture Park at OMI :1405 County Route 22 Ghent, New York 12075. Bring your smart phone for an evening of architecture in the landscape. By pointing your iPhone or Android at the sky, you will see virtual pieces of architecture installed in the physical landscape at Omi.

For more information email architecture@artomi.org,visit artomi.org,or call 518-392-4740 Via Bruce Sterling here