Entitled ”Drawn to the Future”, the Building Centre’s latest exhibition explores how innovations in technology are changing the way architectural ideas are communicated.
The public exhibition aims to showcase how innovative technologies are used to visualise construction projects. It includes augmented and virtual reality demonstrations, aerial animation and planning tools alongside "sci-fi" drawings.
A highlight of the show, which looks to demonstrate how “gamification” will influence architecture and planning, is a virtual reality Urban Roller coaster designed by the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA).
Built using Autodesk 3ds MAX and ghostTown Lite, riders of the roller coaster will experience the ride through an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.
Digital visualisation company Soluis will be demonstrating its AR Building Services app that allows visitors to see the structural elements of the Building Centre during the exhibition.
The app harnesses as-built 3D data and augmented reality technology to present detailed building services information on screen.
Soluis’s immersive virtual reality dome is also included in the exhibition and will be used to display fly-throughs of restored versions of the Glasgow School of Art and St Peter’s Seminary near Cardross in Scotland.
An aerial animation of the High Speed Two (HS2) route from Birmingham to London, created by Arup, is also on show. The proposed route was flown over by a manned helicopter and a coordinated three-dimensional model was then camera-matched with a virtual camera, rendered and composited over the original footage.
The exhibition also includes a virtual hotel room where you can “live specify” your own choice of interior design and a planning tool that enables visitors to model a mini-Shard or Guggenheim museum next to the Building Centre.
Alongside all of the virtual reality displays there are drawings that drove the designs of sci-fi environments in Guardians of the Galaxy to show that drawing remains an essential skill in creative industries.
The free exhibition runs from 27 July to 5 October 2015 at the Building Centre, Store Street, London, WC1E 7BT.
