UNStudio and BIG invest in virtual platform SpaceForm

UNStudio & BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group invest in SpaceForm, Squint/Opera's virtual design and review platform for architects, developers and designers...

Project's description: As the built environment increasingly focuses on more sustainable and effective ways to design, review and present complex designs to stakeholders, the joint project, developed by creative studio Squint/Opera, and the two leading architecture studios, offers a new and more sustainable way to meet, collaborate and design remotely.

Since March last year, business travel has been severely disrupted. This has had a major impact on the architecture and design world where communicating large scale, complex projects is nearly impossible over Zoom. The latest iteration of SpaceForm has helped to fill this gap. Looking forward, it can help global teams present and design more effectively remotely, reducing the need for travel. 

UNStudio and BIG have partnered with SpaceForm to co-develop a real-time, virtual meeting and presentation platform, building on over 30 years of project collaboration experience. An inclusive design process is paramount, where all stakeholders have a voice, which is why SpaceForm will allow for enhanced team communication, abridged client interaction from abroad, and interactive work sessions that will unlock new opportunities in the design process.

The prototype of SpaceForm was built in 2018, it has since been developed further with the help of the Epic MegaGrant and feedback from many architects and designers. The latest prototype is a 3D multi-user platform for presenting architectural designs and digital twin data in real-time.

Some of the key innovative features of SpaceForm include:
- Simulate immersive, 3D environments in real-time for collaborative reviews and presentations with key stakeholders;
- Seamlessly connecting other visualisation software such as Rhino 3D, Rivet, Sketchup and Unreal to allow easy data sharing between both software;
- Effectively communicate complex architectural designs improving understanding and solutions of complex design issues among stakeholders, reducing friction and the need for physical travel for meetings;
- Visualise digital twin and urban data for better decision making and design choices;
- Immerse virtual audiences in architectural designs on any device;
- Host up to 100 people for collaborative presentations and reviews;
- Collaborate and review designs in a 3D environment.

Jan Heuff, Squint/Opera Director and SpaceForm CEO said: “We used a gaming technology stack, very similar to Fortnite and applied it to the world of architecture and design. The use of immersive, real-time gaming technology in the built environment is exciting as it opens up new ways to explore and engage with the unbuilt world. Real-time environments allow people to feel what a space might be like, when you can explore that space with your team and clients, together, on any platform - this is a game-changer. The recent shift in remote working has presented new opportunities, as the right platforms will converge to reduce the need for so much business travel -  SpaceForm wants to drive that shift. SpaceForm allows for smarter, more sustainable designs, and better decision making along the way.”

Ben van Berkel UNStudio Founder said: "SpaceForm provides a platform for story-telling and the ability for design teams to turn a project into an interactive narrative experience. Stakeholders can discover their own journey throughout a project while helping make key decisions. SpaceForm is the first online platform that allows for immersive design reviews with clients.”

Bjarke Ingels BIG Founder and Creative Director said: “In the future every physical object will be connected to one another, sensing each other and everything in between. For every physical object, there will be a digital twin. For every physical space a virtual space. SpaceForm is the augmented creative collaborative environment of the future which will allow an instantaneous confluence of actual and imagined realities – the present and the future fusing in our augmented sense of reality.”

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