Virtual reality helps solve design problems, architects say

This is the third story in a three-part series on virtual reality.

The walkthrough stage of new construction nearly always creates change orders as clients learn that what looked good on paper doesn’t always work in real life, resulting in delays and expenses. But what if that walkthrough stage could happen earlier in the process? That’s how virtual reality (VR) is being used in several Idaho architectural firms.

For now, VR is somewhat experimental as the architects themselves become familiar with the software and the process. But the results they’ve achieved so far are encouraging them to proceed, as the sort of problems that would typically be discovered only after the building was built can now be uncovered during the design stage.

In one example, a pizzeria owner doing a virtual walkthrough in his new restaurant mimed taking a pizza out of the oven with his long-handled peel and discovered he’d constantly be bumping his elbow into the wall, said Joshua Pinkert, modular design manager for neUdesign, in Meridian.

“He was our beta test to see how it worked, Pinkert said. “The contractor said, ‘Thank God. Now he’s made those changes before construction. If he’d walked through after I built it, and he hated it, it would have cost a lot to rework the building.’”

A virtual walkthrough isn’t part of every design review yet. Converting a design into a VR model that can be walked through, particularly if details like finishes and colors are added, can take many hours on top of the original design. Plus some clients are reticent to put on the VR headgear, said Rory Heggie, an architect with CSHQA, which has been working with full immersive VR for about three years. But for certain clients – such as Black Box VR, which is building a VR exercise studio in San Francisco – a VR walkthrough is a no-brainer.

“Every time someone came over, they wanted to put on a headset and put on VR,” Heggie said.

“We recently visited our space in person that is currently under construction in San Francisco and felt like we’d already walked the halls a hundred times,” said Preston Lewis, co-owner and chief creative officer for Black Box VR. “Having iterated on the design in VR with CSHQA before construction, we avoided costly mistakes and are going to have a beautiful space that is exactly what we wanted for the world’s first virtual reality gym.”

Ironically, it was a VR arcade, VR1 in Eagle, that accelerated architectural VR in Idaho. Pinkert is related to Brendan Smythe, owner/building designer for Draftech, in Eagle, and they were helping Smythe’s son create the arcade.

“I saw the need right away in architecture,” Smythe said. “It allows you to get a sense of size and space and scale. It allows you to interact with your home like you never have. Clients look at a two-dimensional floor plan, and they can’t visualize what that’s going to feel like. VR puts them in that room, and they can say if it’s too big, too small, if the furniture is going to work, or stand at the porch and see if the ceiling is too low.”

While it’s an investment of time and money for the architect – 30 to 40 additional hours for the standard sized home, or 35 to 40 cents per square foot – it helps the client save money later, said Smythe, who has done about five so far.

“One builder said, ‘If you could pull that together, you could save me $20,000 to $30,000 in change orders out in the field.’ He said that instantly. The cost to make changes out in the field is 10 to 20 times to do it on paper early on.”

In addition, the VR rendering helps members of the design team spot problems early on, such as ductwork that runs through trusses, said Jeremy Putnam, director of design for neUdesign. “It’s a great tool for the contractor to get inside and see what the environment is supposed to look like,” he said.

Architecture is also starting to look at augmented reality, where the computer-generated image appears on top of something in real life, Heggie said. That would make it easier for a client to see how something might look on something that was already built, such as a remodel, he said.