Depiction of a person immersed in a 3D environment

Virtual reality is changing the features of all sectors, especially in Architecture. We are not talking about the future of architecture but of the present. The advantages are exponential in terms of design presentation and safety of what is presented to customers, making them participants in all the design phases.

THE VIRTUAL REALITY AT THE SERVICE OF ARCHITECTURE

We know that rendering, even the most realistic, does not allow us to better communicate surfaces, spaces and light. The perception is limited and there is always the risk that the customer does not clearly perceive all the design phases.

Thanks to virtual reality, colors, materials, lights and above all spaces can be evaluated. Evaluating this factor already in the preliminary phase allows us to know everything in preview, guaranteeing the customer the possibility of making design changes to elements that are not very perceptible in the plan and in photorealistic renderings.

This brings considerable benefits both to the designer, who manages to express himself to the customer in the best possible way and consequently leads to an acceptance of the project in a very short time and very few hitches in the execution phase, both for the client who, travelling inside his future apartment, will have full knowledge of all the work and changes made at the design level.

Every customer can live his/her project before it is built. Walking inside, considering the dimensions, the details, the materials become a strength for the designer. These are some of the advantages that virtual reality can give to design. For the customer, once he enters his project, everything becomes clearer by evaluating everything to the point that any second thoughts are almost completely absent.

And Studio Bellucci is working on this aspect. For over a year, he has been working on a design combined with virtual reality, ever closer to the demands and needs of the client. The study was to combine the software for making video games with those for the realization of 3D models for architecture. It has made it possible to bring design to a new dimension where customers are not only fully satisfied in terms of design understanding but also become a pleasant and not disturbing element, feeling more confident about what they will have to face.

Studio Bellucci’s goal was to make design combined with virtual reality a global design standard.

PROJECT OF A VILLA INTEGRATING THE VIRTUAL REALITY

Render of a living room with a white sofa in the center and, behind it, a bookcase

The project consists of the realization of the interiors and exteriors of a Villa under construction in Genoa. Both internal and external design has been developed both with classic photorealistic renderings and with immersive virtual reality. The villa has enormous potential in terms of space and, despite all, the customers could not really perceive the great spaces they had.

Thanks to virtual reality they had the opportunity to understand the real dimension of the living area by walking in the areas where they had various doubts such as the area between sofa and wall unit, the table area and the island placed in the kitchen.

Doubts about the understanding of spaces have also been highlighted by the fact that in most photorealistic renderings a large optical cone is used, or rather it is often useful to use in such a way as to facilitate the understanding of everything in that environment , but the result leads to slightly modify the perspective points, altering the depths and consequently the perception of the dimensions and here comes the virtual reality.

Render of a wall fireplace with a door next to it

While using the viewer, the sensors perceive the height of the person wearing it in real time, proportioning it instantly with what is around it. This is very important for the perception not only of the space but also for the perception of the encumbrance of each single object or furniture included in the project.

Render of a dining room with a table in the center and a fireplace next to it

Render of a kitchen with an island in the middle and furniture around

Thanks to the realization of about 20 projects with the combination of virtual reality, we can say, with extreme security, that virtual reality replicates the reality of a world that is not real but a world that “will be”, where design becomes an active part from a sensorial point of view ( visual, auditory, tactile), performing actions in the virtual space, overcoming physical, economic and safety limits. In virtual reality, the information we perceive becomes design strengths and becomes preponderant, to the point of deceiving the senses, with the feeling of actually being “immersed” in our own desire, in a new materialization of dreams, but with certainty and security that what we see will become reality.