The biggest challenge faced by stakeholders in the AEC industry is to identify how their project would look like when the design on paper is brought to the real world. Can you imagine the power of designing with the perception of the real? It would provide a whole new perspective to visualizing design when compared to static 3d renderings and 3d models.
At Alcove, our largely millennial team had been exploring options of using virtual technology as a design medium that goes beyond the realms of authoring tools such as AutoCAD, Revit, and 3ds Max. In the process, we came across Trezi – a NextGen Virtual Reality product that would help us with this specific area of interest.
Before getting into Trezi, let us quickly understand a little more about Virtual Reality (VR). Simply put, VR is all about taking you to a whole new world by creating a simulated artificial environment. Combine that with architecture and you actually get to walk and feel the designs that you are going to build.
Trezi, the new software that we eventually chose over conventional ones, allows us to design for the real world by being immersed within the space, by being a part of it, being within, being outside or around the space itself. An empty canvas sans boundaries from where the dot becomes a line, a line becomes a wall where it allows planes to intersect to become volumes and forms and endless more possibilities. The main difference with conventional software is that Trezi allows us to design by being immersed within the space.
Our expertise at Alcove is workplace design and we have seen a massive shift in the design process using Trezi. It allows us to be within the workplace, drag and drop objects from the library, change material, move things around. All of this is possible just by using the VR headset and 2 handheld controllers.
Trezi allows the designer to be immersed within one’s own project and nurture it to the final outcome. For the client, Trezi allows them to perceive the space in 1:1 scale from within, and eliminates communication gaps. No more issues such as “I thought”, “this is not what I had imagined”, “I’m not sure”, etc. as nothing is left to the client’s imagination. The project is there right before the client to see and walk through. All of it – the layouts, the spaces, the volumes are there for the client to experience.
Using Trezi is helping us conclude projects a lot faster and is saving us tons of man-hour costs on rework and redesign. It is revolutionary and is leading us to question the very basis of the design and drawing process. Trezi plays a vital role in clubbing all design stages into a single solution.
This is our attempt to alter the design process through the digital world, our endeavor to embrace innovation from outside, think ahead and think beyond.
So; next time we are designing your office, we will let you walk through your office before it is built!
– Founder at Alcove Design Consultants
To experience a free 14-day trial using your own SteamVR-compatible Virtual Reality kit, please sign up here.
Or contact us to organize a demo at your office – our sales representative will set up an appointment at your convenience.
