Big data meets VR

The convergence of architectural software, big data and virtual reality is opening the door to exciting new designs for educational establishments, writes Phil Bernstein, an architect, Autodesk Fellow and faculty member at Yale University.

Big data is already transforming They would build all the structures, then the way that architects design wait for three to four weeks to see where buildings, but the combined everybody was walking. Anywhere the forces of big data and virtual grass was worn, that’s where they paved reality (VR) will advance the architectur- to make a path. While that was clever al practice by leaps and bounds. planning, it’s primitive compared to

Consider how far architects have come Sasaki’s current methods – and especial– before even integrating VR – using data ly to what’s coming up. from sensors and crowdsourcing.

A few years ago, the John F Kennedy Data-infused virtual students School of Government at Harvard There’s a lot of data out there for archiUniversity hired Sasaki Associates to run tects to absorb – so much that it can be a master-planning tough to figure out exercise, gathering how to go about it. feedback from stu- About the author According to infordents and faculty mation-theory about the campus. The first question the Phil Bernstein is an architect and an Autodesk Fellow. He research, the brain is inundated with 11 Sasaki team tackled teaches Professional million bits of data was, “How do the stu- Practice at Yale, per second, yet it can dents get into the where he received only process around building?” both his B.A. and his 50 bits at a time. But In the old days, my former firm (Pelli M.Arch. He is coeditor of Building (In) The Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture and BIM In Academia, just as a photo is worth a thousand Clarke Pelli and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures words, so is a VR Architects) would just Council. experience worth hire some college kid thousands of data to sit out there with a points. Infuse data clicker and click, click, click every time into an immersive visual experience, and someone entered the building. More designers will be able to take it in more recently, the Sasaki team used its effectively and efficiently. MyCampus programme to track student What I suspect we’ll see more of in the movement in and out of buildings. They future is behavioural modelling, not also asked Kennedy School students to through complex system simulations, but draw diagrams of their paths through using avatars (virtual people) with indithat section of Harvard’s campus, to wit: vidual characteristics that interact “Where do you start, and where do you accordingly. end up?” When preparing a campus master plan

In the end, they discovered the main of the future, architects can have class entrance for K School students was schedules, diagrams of the 40 or so relealmost never through the front door. To vant campus buildings, and an avatar the Sasaki team’s surprise, everybody cut representing each student. The masterthrough the loading dock. plan proposal could be tested by running

It’s reminiscent of how design and con- simulations of what people do at any struction teams used to build army bases. time, day or night.

The opportunities possible with behaviour modelling are huge. I remember working on a project for Wake Forest University, designing a shared building for the law and business schools. Both schools had a lot of the same needs: number of classes, faculty offices, student activity offices, libraries and so on. But if you took all those individual needs for both schools and compiled them into one set of demand parameters, you’d end up with a building much bigger than it needed to be because of the enormous overlap.

Changing the rules Consulting with the fire marshal about exit requirements for that building, we argued that it wasn’t possible for every person to be in all spaces of the building simultaneously. A student couldn’t be in the classroom, the library, the courtyard, and the dining hall all at once, just as a faculty member couldn’t be in the cafeteria, her office, and a classroom at the same time. We eventually agreed that the overall demand for stuff like exit stairs and even toilets could be computed according to traffic estimates, resulting in a much more efficient building.

These sorts of data-based decisions will be much easier in the near future. If an architect wants to make her case to the fire marshal, she could just run the simulation in a virtual model and show them. I imagine that she’ll be able to buy a ‘Midwestern Liberal Arts campus student body’ of avatars, plop them into her simulation engine, and watch what they do all day long.

Then, when the school says, “We need a new English building”, the architect could start testing against the number of English majors, determine where people would have their previous class on campus based on actual schedules, and on

and on. That is a major shift from experience and intuition to actual performative analysis based on big data. ‘‘ What I suspect we’ll see more of in the future is behavioural modelling, not through instruments. And we can present that with high-resolution 3D rendering, as if it’s a realistic game, or paint

Here at Yale, we’ll likely complex system simulations, but using that environment with data be doing the same thing avatars (virtual people) with individual to show our clients, quantisoon, as the undergraduate population is scheduled to characteristics that interact accordingly tatively, what’s going on. They will quickly learn expand by 15% next year, with no new classrooms ’’ about the proposed space: How noisy is it? What’s the being built on campus. plan everybody thought would work. But temperature like? How much air is movonce we built it, there’d be a million ing into this particular location? And I see you in the ICU details and refinements left to resolve. most importantly, how can we deliver the Another example of pairing the power of Contrast that with an ICU planning best care here? virtual reality and big data might be exercise that uses VR in the year 2022. There’s going to be much better data, found in the design of intensive care Architects can gather usage data from 25 both in terms of what’s happened in simiunits (ICUs) for a hospital. Any good or 30 other ICUs, so they understand the lar spaces and how architects can simuhealth care firm has likely designed doz- traffic patterns. They’ll have a digital late the representation of what’s going to ens of such units, and in theory, their model of how materials flow through the happen. And as a result, they’ll be able to designs have continually improved over hospital and can build a 3D model of the make much better design decisions for the years. ICU. future buildings.

When I was doing this work 20 years Instead of the ICU staff looking at floor ago, the first thing we’d do is sit down plans, which they can’t read anyway, they This article originally appeared on Redshift with the client and ask, “How many beds can walk through a virtualised environ- (redshift.autodesk.com), an Autodesk publido we need, how’s the building coming ment (using a VR headset and something cation dedicated to designers, engineers, together, and what does the floor plan like Autodesk Live), so they can actually builders and makers that explores the future of look like?” see and use the space. making things, shares inspiring stories of

Then we’d sit down with the staff, look The staff will be able to move the lights innovation, and offers practical advice to help at floor plans and iterate until we got a around, open doors and turn dials on the businesses succeed.