Uni-Verse & the Architecture Sector
Background
Architecture has been hit by the enormous speed of changes and developments in the last few decades. Through the ever evolving nature of technology in this era, focused on information technology and computing industry the daily practice in architecture is based on very heavy and specialized software usage. Today’s architecture studios are unable to work without appropriate and efficient software. The freedom of flexible usage and creativity-stimulating effects offered by the possibilities of experimenting has a very important effect and influence on the architectural form itself.
Architects normally work in large groups with customers and other consultants. Understanding 2D drawings and imagining it in 3D is a hard task for a non-trained person. This means that tools which can facilitate the understanding and the collaborative planning and demonstration of buildings are very important and should have a market niche.
Use Cases
In architectural practice today, 90% of the design is done using software, and in many cases the actual software can be identified looking at the final building. The tool / media of design is both enabling and limiting, and should be considered more as a means of generating the outcome than simply representing ideas.
Uni-Verse can be an excellent testing, self controlling and demonstration tool at the architectural design phase of interior environments. The architect himself could restructure, remodel and ameliorate the spatial design of a space, and would have a competitive tool to collaborate with other disciplines and in representing the results.
1. Audio
Architecture studios themselves rarely do the real acoustic planning for a building. This is done by specialized firms, which work in collaboration with architecture studios. The advantage of Uni-Verse in this case for the architect is that during the concept planning phases there is a possibility to control the acoustic features of a space, to have the chance to experiment, and have an immediate response of the results of the changes made. It gives the architect feedbacks, a possibility to predict the final audio properties, and through the repetitive use, to develop a sense of 3D audio imagination. This experimenting approach invokes a learning process, joins the visual-spatial changes to the variation of the audio properties.
The possibility of applying and changing audio materials and characteristics would be an important issue enabling to adapt to different functions, scales and details. (A drama theatre, a rock pub, or a multi-functional sports hall require different testing and presentation properties and elements.)
2. Collaboration Working Methods
Architecture is based on individual creation, collaboration and collaboration between project partners. The most important demand that arises from these criteria is a powerful tool that is capable to bring together these activities. An important factor in this synthesis is the flexibility and ease of communication, dataflow and speed. The different actors of a collaborative environment should be capable of sharing their ideas, thoughts, and know-how without the least loss of time, and energy. The surrounding system that encases the design process should be optimized to the best communication and working conditions. Furthermore the platform shouldn’t freeze to a static environment, it must have an adaptive setup, following the changing needs from one project to another, or from one task to the next.
The Uni-Verse system is a flexible platform for collaborative working and creation. Through the use and integration of the different elements and plug-ins, the different participants of a project can share and unify their work in a manner that is comprehensible, accessible to the others. The real time data modification and updating features keep the information up to date, which minimizes the latency of a collaborative team. Since the actors see and get involved in each others work constantly, a sense of comprehension, and adaptivity, “a common intelligence” is likely to develop between them. This process of understanding the partners’ thinking offers a collaborative team a highly effective working practice.
