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Personal Project

VR & AR: how important is it for architects

Before I jump in into this topic, I want to have a personal note about last week’s meeting.

I was very happy to take part into a meeting between Nemetschek companies, Nvidia and MAXON employees. This year was special for me, since it was the first time I had to organise this with my family as well. Before the first day of this event, I had mixed feelings. I was wondering how my one year old daughter will react to my absence? It’s not a big deal in the end, I can see now. We’ve had even a stronger bond between us once I got home at the afternoon.

For a long time, I’m seeing the need for exporting from BIM software to game engines. The main reason is the quick access to create VR content.

But is it real VR what architects need? Or is it more like an automatic (guided) fly-through with hotspots and not an interactive ‘real’ VR environment?
And what about AR? Is this still a niche market?

This week, I’ve heard about possible use-cases:
– Building inspection is done using a mobile device on site to check if the structure was built as it was planned.
– to do design review for designers
– to present the design to clients
– to measure

Although this is still a niche area, I expect a boom in the available software solutions for AR. In my opinion Augmented reality could be applied to the needs in the AEC sector even better than VR could be.
This topic is widely discussed for a long time but now, I think we are closer to a solution where both hardware and software are in a state to provide a useful platform for these needs.

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Personal Project

Update

Today is a big day for my family! We are celebrating my daughter’s first birthday. I haven’t posted anything since this article was published. Time flies!

I haven’t skipped much time at work. I was back to work in November 2018. It was important for me to keep myself up-to-date regarding software for archiviz. And so many things have changed during the past one year: from the acquisition of Redshift by Maxon to the new Cinema 4D subscription model, it seems to be completely different than before although the Cinema 4D remains the same.

In March, I was celebrating the completion of a successful project: Apartment retrofit in Budapest 8.

I’ve learnt the importance of real-time rendering. Therefore I spent some time on Twinmotion testing and Unreal Studio too. In the upcoming posts I will share my thoughts about these.

My workflow hasn’t change much. It means that I still use ArchiCAD and/or Cinema 4D for creating the geometry and rendered image. I’m still looking for the render engine which fits the best for my use.

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Personal Project

Light + Building Frankfurt 2018

With the below photos, I’m going to provide an insight to the Frankfurt Light + Building Trade Fair.

Same as last year, there were plenty of visitors on the first day already.

Be prepared to the large amount of halls and long time you need to commute between them from A to B. Keep you wish-list on hand and do some research on the exhibitor before you want to approach them.

On my wish-list, there were only the new exhibitor’s award winning lighting fixtures since I was attending only the first day.  Here it is:

  1. Pong lamp ( by Nyta)
  2. COS (by Konead Weinhuber Design GmbH) : the staff was very friendly here and explained many things about their innovation and new lamp called COS. COS lamp’s position is adjustable vertically and horizontally  and even its color temperature can be changed to warmer or cooler. The price for the 3 lamps model around 2.200 Euro.

    Image source: http://www.komot-design.de

    The SPIN lamp by Konead Weinhuber Design GmbH

    Image source: http://architonic.com
  3. Lighting Passion 4 wood has the following solution for the shades made of wood veneer sheet. I’ve found it unique in a way and stylish too.

    Company website: http://www.passion4wood.be
  4. Mosaic LED pane (volatiles lighting GmbH) : This looked disappointing in real life since the LED lights were clearly visible which resulted to a ‘pixelated’ look
  5. Accidentally I came across with the booth of Patinas Lámpa Kft.  Their products have an art-deco style which goes well in theatres or restaurant. Interestingly all lamps have had the  ‘handmade’ label on it.

Post in Hungarian:

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Personal Project

Looking back at Light + Building Fair 2016

Since I will attend the Light + Building Fair Tomorrow in Frankfurt, now, I look back at the event I attanded in 2016.

The Light+Building 2016 trade fair in Frankfurt Messe was accompanied by the 8th Luminale Lighting Culture Biennale. This event is unique because it is organised for both experts and the non-professional public.

I’ve arrived at around 2 pm on 15th March to Messe Frankfurt. [I’ve spent there only a half a day only]. Since the building complex of the Messe is constituted of at least 11 large halls on a huge area, there was easier to stay in one conference room for the whole afternoon and not to spent much time with moving to different halls.

I attended on three presentations organised by the Federation of International Lighting Designers (FILD). This, one day event, titled by ‘Seeing light, Understanding light!’ , was about emotions, moods and wellbeing influenced by lighting. To understand the relationship between humans and the light, first of all, professionals need to understand how light works, then, this knowledge can be integrated into our design work.

First presentation was about ‘ Buildings and spaces defined by luminance’ and held by Frank Vetter from Munich.

About the second one: ‘Light and emotions’ , held by Reinhard Vedder.

Here are the design work of Mr. Vedder which was presented on the conference:

1 ) ALLIANZ Arena, Munich

Image source: https://allianzdeutschland.de

The arena facade is constructed of 2,874 ETFE-foil air panels… The panels are lit for each game with the colours of the respective home team—red for Bayern Munich, blue for TSV and white for the German national football team. White is also used when the stadium is a neutral venue, like the 2012 UEFA Champions League Final. Other colours or multicolour or interchanging lighting schemes are theoretically possible.

With electricity costs for the light of about 50 Euros (75 USD) per hour only, the construction evolved such luminosity that in clear nights the stadium can easily be spotted even from Austrian mountain tops, e.g. from a distance of 50 miles (80 km). (Source wikipedia)

2) Molecular Imaging center, Abu Dhabi:

Image source: https://www.clevelandclinicabudhabi.ae

 

Mr. Vedder was also speaking about the importance of the lighting quality. He also explained why online shopping is still not as popular. Consumers go into shops where they see products in natural like lighting. The most popular effect is the snow white with the warm touch of the morning sun.

The third presentation, titled: “Back to the Future” ,  was about lighting of public places in cities. Focused more on the incorrect lighting solution in Dresden.

As an example, Mr. O’Brien showed his design work for the market place in Freiberg:

Image source: http://www.ruairiobrien.de/

My photos from the 2016 event:

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Personal Project

Heimtextil and interior design EXPO review

As I was visiting the Heimtextil 2018 expo at Frankfurt am Main, Messe I want to share my photos and notes to give some insight from the event.

There was a presentation held by Kate Franklin (from FranklinTill) at 2 pm on Wednesday titled: “The future is urban”.
Main topics: Soft Minimal, Perfect imperfection, Co-living & Co-working, Maker’s space like Opendesk, Biophilia, Re-made space (reuse of recycled materials)

A few examples grabbed from the presentation:
– 13 m2 Flat by Studio Mama

Image source: http://www.studiomama.com/13m2-house

Urban nomad furniture by Hannabi

Itaca furniture system for nomads by Elena Bompani

co-living in ‘Old Oak’ London by The Collective

co-working, a house for creatives: Alma in Stockholm

My personal opinion on this:

Digital nomads, tiny homes, co-living and co-working is clearly a trend which will dominate our industry. The main reason is the housing problem in big cities which provide the workplace but less and less available homes for rent.

In the video linked above, it was mentioned that “by the end of this century, almost all of us will live in cities”. I believe we won’t see this happening. First of all because as soon as I will have the possibility to work remotely, I will take this opportunity and move out to the country side. This is just my personal taste but I think I’m not the only one who likes calm atmosphere closer to the nature.

Co-living and workshops, maker space can be a good thing though. I love to see that there is market for unique (not mass produced) products and craftsmanship can raise again.

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Personal Project

INTERIOR – HOSPITALITY EXPO at Frankfurt Messe

Today, I’m on vacation officially 🙂
I take a small break from daily madness and going to attend the INTERIOR.ARCHITECTURE.HOSPITALITY EXPO at Frankfurt Messe which will be also chaotic!

Pictures will follow!

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Personal Project

One shared house 2030: Co-living by IKEA

I’ve completed this survey recently about people needs who are considering co-living.

I personally don’t want to do that type of co-living what the survey suggests but it was still interesting to learn from design perspective what other people found important for themselves. You will see the percentage for the already given answers from others after you give your take for the question.

The above image shows my vision about a suburban housing development. It would be ideal for couples and families with young children. It has shared common rooms, kitchens. The modular blocks can be added or removed to adjust to actual needs. When I was first thinking about the items or services I would share with others , these three came into my mind:
– shared child-care and,
– library (or public book shelves)
– appliances

Of course, there will be even more on my final list…

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3D Software Personal Project

Gothic monument reconstructed in 3D


This gothic fountain is the masterpiece of the Basel based craftsman, Konrad Lux, built in 1494. The original statue is located in the historical museum and this one is only a copy of the original one.
The first section shows the original footage, I made with my mobile phone.
The next section of the video is about the reconstruction in 3D. Of course the quality of the polygonal model is just as good as the original footage is.


Here is a video about the material editing and finally the rendering.

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3D Software Personal Project

Something new, something old and a surprise!

What’s new?
Cinema 4D R19 first shipping day is Today!
Among the new features, the GPU renderer: ProRender which will be developed further for the next release!

Surprise: ArchiCAD 21 Beta Test Award
Old: look at the 3D model at the background

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Personal Project

Bank project – retro style goes well for Budapest

I’ve shared the work in progress photos about the Bank project earlier in January.

Now, I publish a few pictures which were taken by Norbert Baranyi after the project was finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Before – After images:

 

 

Interior design by Eszter Kallai