Learning from that experience, I push designers to build out “quickies” in VR, because a sketch or simple massing model or mockup of a wall detail can be phenomenal for communicating the intention of a design without distracting the viewer with the wrong parts of a project.

Finally, I would just like to encourage anyone making a custom VR experience to limit the use of buttons on a controller. For someone who has never touched a video game before, the Vive, Oculus, and Windows Mixed Reality motion controllers can be incredibly intimidating. So even though you can (and it’s fun to) have each button and swipe and combo do something different. I try to lean toward making every button perform the same action (e.g. next waypoint, grab object, or change the design option). That way, you give the viewer a ‘primary’ action, and if the experience has a lot more customization, you or a guide can control the rest through, say, the keyboard.

Will people come to expect a VR model, the same way they expect a ‘to scale’ model now?

I hope so! There’s so much benefit in maintaining of VR model throughout the design process, for everyone from the design team to the marketing department. And unlike a physical scale model, it can represent many stages and choices throughout the design process while, and I’m going to keep saying this, providing insight into the human experience.

Architecture projects often have tight budgets. Training to use a new software or hardware is usually the last thing an architect wants to deal with, because they’re dealing with a lot of pressure and restrictions already. The stats are out there though, and I’m certain architects see there is a little bit of overhead upfront to learn the VR workflows, but it does save you time. It saves you money. It builds confidence, and invites everyone into the project.

I had meetings that used to take two hours, now that we have VR, it takes 20 minutes. In architecture we deal with a wide range of what I call “visual literacy”: how well someone can look at, say, a plan drawing and understand what’s going on. A lot of people fake it. And you can tell from the questions, and the problems they have with a design, they don’t really understand what they’re looking at. VR is a tremendous way of getting everyone in the same space, and on the same page.

One quick example: If you design enough theatres you know the general setup for a good theatre. I remember when I’d be sharing renders of different seat views, and the comments would be:

”You know the stage looks really far away” and I’d think:

“Well it’s 50 feet away, and I know empirically, that’s a perfectly fine distance to be from the stage and you’re going to see everything fine”

And the next comment would be, “It looks like the person in front of me is really close, that’s going to be really uncomfortable.” And I would think “no the row depth is 3 feet and that’s the standard depth of a row”

And I’d know they have no reason to be concerned, but sometimes renders and drawings don’t convince, so at a certain point they just need to trust you. But what if they don’t? What if they’re not confident that the design is going to work? But if they’re in VR and looking around, they’re not asking those questions, they just get it. And if they have concerns at that point, after they feel like they’ve been inside the space, well, that is likely to be a much more productive and meaningful conversation.

Will VR make it easier for people to become “Architects”?

Absolutely. For the past three years I’ve been guest-critiquing architecture finals at my alma mater, Syracuse University, and it’s been a blast seeing how they’re incorporating various immersive technologies into their design thinking. They’re looking at their projects more completely than I was able to in school. Mind you, I was using some AR for my thesis in 2010, but we’re at an entirely different level now.

For the clients I work with who are already architects, especially some of the smaller upstarts, I can’t wait to hear about one of them winning a competition or RFP based on a VR sketch or immersive narrative experience. Situations in which the judges are comparing conceptual sketches and parti diagrams from some entries, and then they put on a headset, experience a beautifully considered progression through a VR sketch, and understand the design intent and potential better than they could with any flat medium. I’m hoping this becomes the norm rather than an outlier; done well, this can truly help ensure the best design wins.

In the future will there be other opportunities for Architects in VR?

I do think we’re headed in a direction that’s very much in the vein of Ready Player One, or Snow Crash. People are going to be spending more and more time in virtual worlds, and people will start thinking about the designs for these virtual spaces. Many of these spaces are currently being designed by people with a video game or just very technical background. And if people start to spend 8 hours a day in an ugly virtual world, whether for business or for pleasure, I think architects and professionals with a design background are going to quickly find themselves in demand. Which is exciting! What’s an ‘ideal’ design for a virtual museum, or conference room, or vacation destination? When you’re suddenly without restrictions on budget or even the laws of physics, what do you do? Roofs and walls exist to protect us from the elements. In VR do they simply exist to become delineators of space, do we rid ourselves of them, or is there opportunity to redefine some of these anachronisms in new contexts?

How do you think about Photorealism in VR?

I remember as soon as the Oculus Rift DK1 came out so many designers looked to VR and said, “Photorealism — we should make everything photoreal.” I think that’s putting too much of a resource burden on VR projects. To be clear, the time and resources that go into a photoreal VR project certainly have their place, particularly when the design has reached a level of refinement that it’s necessary to see it in that way. However, I’ve had far more success with experiences that were thoughtful about what to show and what not to show. It can be very powerful to just show an empty room with no furniture, no lights, and no materials. It can make you think: “Oh my God, this space is going to be enormous and beautiful and I love the way the curve of the ceiling works there.” Sometimes you don’t even need a walkable experience, and a few stereo 360 renders can say everything you need it to. A minimal experience, carefully considered, can hit all the right notes and give people goosebumps.