FULLDOME INTERFACING A Real-time Immersive Environment as a Tool for Design

The ability to communicate design intent to potential users, clients, and communities is fundamental to the process of architectural design. Conventionally, this need is addressed through phased submissions of drawings, renderings, animations, and physical models-all with the intention of representing space and its constituent elements. Recent technological advancements however-including tools like those produced by Oculus (TM)-have begun to present new opportunities for spatial representation through the use of simulated 3D environments that are both convenient for the design team and readily accepted by clients and end users.(i) While immersive technologies do present novel representational opportunities, current workflows position the potential at the conclusion of the design process, not as part of it. The project presented here moves beyond mere representation and positions simulated 3D environments within the design process itself. To this end, an integrated real-time computational workflow that enables the use of simulated spatial experience as an iterative design tool was developed in order to create the illusion of being in a space while it is being designed and allowing experientially informed decision making. The Fulldome Interface creates a collaborative immersive environment that utilizes a novel computational design workflow (linking the parametric Grasshopper (TM) for Rhinoceros (TM) design environment to the Unity3D (TM) gaming engine) that responds in real-time through dome-based stereoscopic projection that can be experienced by multiple occupants simultaneously.