VR

IMD Builds the Future with VR - Literally

Though still in its infancy, virtual and augmented reality are opening up new approaches to industries that for decades have been technologically stagnant. Locally based Illustrate My Design is taking a stab at the nascent tech by applying it to architecture.

Ten-year-old IMD aims to bridge the gap between professionals and non-professionals in the real estate design process by creating visual experiences for projects before shovels hit dirt.

“There’s typically a misunderstanding when engineers are putting technical drawings in front of people, and there are just nods,” co-founder Florenica Bialet said. “Ninety percent of the general public can’t imagine 3-D space – when you talk about the size of a room or ceiling height, those translations into a mental image just don’t happen for most people.”

Virtual Reality Takes Over the Wharf

Daniel Zeballos is COO and Creative Director at Illustrate My Design, or IMD. The company creates virtual renderings of building projects, allowing architects and designers to tour structures that don’t exist yet. He said just a handful of companies are in the market, and hopes widespread adoption of VR will put more headsets in more architects’ offices.

"The Future of Visualization" at NeoCon 2017

Illustrate My Design (IMD) is a boutique Architectural Visualization firm, established in 2008. Traditionally, the firm’s offerings included 3D Rendering and Animation; the firm now offers Virtual Reality (VR) as a new, innovative solution. For the past 2 years, IMD has created many Virtual Reality Experiences for Education, Commercial and Residential projects.

IMD presented a seminar on Virtual Reality at NeoCon 2017. The seminar, titled The Future of Architectural Visualization: New Developments in Virtual Reality examined the current state of visualization and VR technology, what is up and coming, and how companies can react to the changes. Daniel Zeballos and Florencia Bialet, Principals at IMD, presented this content.

Virtual Reality for Architects

Virtual Reality has been a buzzword for years; however, there’s a great lack of use in the architecture field. “Why the hesitation?” asked Daniel Zeballos and Florencia Bialet, principals of the visualization company Illustrate My Design, during their conference The Future of Architectural Visualization at this year’s NeoCon.

They looked to tie up those loose ends of doubt by showing a video of a VR visualization which allowed the audience to see just how interactive and life-like this technology has become. By clicking on specific spaces with a controller, one can test furniture and fabrics and can visualize depth of field in order to easily see—instead of imagine—how a space could look. These VR experts, who are among the avant-garde in the industry, emphasized the fact that it’s time for workers in the AEC industry to adapt.