Synopsis Within architecture a focus has remained on the physical forms that we occupy or that surround us. As technology has progressed our way of viewing the world has also begun to shift. However, this can’t be said for how architects are currently utilizing the digital content their firms create. Full scaled buildings are designed digitally to include materials, sun path and day lighting patterns. They even create interactive models for users to experience before occupancy. The Digital twin of a building is then widely under utilized, once construction is finished it lays dormant on the cloud. This project looks to investigate ways of incorporating [X]R technology through the field of Architecture. By creating a blended reality experience for users within public spaces. Utilizing current technologies to support and measure the user experience and the impact that digital environments could have on the public. We have seen digital environments interacting within the real world in movies. Most often it is futuristic utopia or dystopia environment. Where digital content is thrown at the face of the main character as the walk through the streets like scenes in “Blade Runner”. Or like in another popular movie “Ready Player One” where the citizens stand around outside waiting for a bus with a VR headset on. Its movies like this that make me question how virtual place making would exist within public spaces and architecture? Technology has already started to encroach into the public realm with autonomous cars. It has been in our hands for years in the form of our cellular devices. While [X]R I currently used mostly within the gaming and industrial industries. The opportunities for our environments to become digital immersive experiences has never been as possible as it is right now.
“Technology is a vocabulary and a language in which you can say many things.”- Santiago Calatrava
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