The last weeks of December are not just a moment to stop and take stock of what has happened throughout the year, but also an opportunity to sit down and ponder about what may become popular or trendy in the year to come in different fields and disciplines, from art and architecture to science and technology.
For what regards architecture maybe the Project Correl, launched a few days ago at the University Contemporary Art Museum (MUAC) in Mexico City, could be considered maybe as an introduction to the future of design. This is an interactive virtual reality experience demonstrating immersive technology for architecture as devised by Zaha Hadid Architects.
The project consists in studying the possibilities offered by emerging immersive technology for what regards architecture. While the discipline has radically changed with the introduction of new programmes and software, giving the chance to architects to come up with designs that were unthinkable up until a few years ago, this new project allows to develop complex assemblies inside virtual space.
The Zaha Hadid Virtual Reality Group (ZHVR) is one of the main players currently trying to use immersive VR technology for architectural design, including real-time modelling and visualisation tools.
The main hope for the ZHVR group is using virtual reality as a design tool and researching the potential of specific technologies that can enhance the architectural design process.
Partnering with leaders in the development of immersive software and hardware technologies such as the 100% royalty-free suite of tools and services Unreal Studio, HP Virtual Reality Solutions, NVIDIA and HTC VIVE, the ZHVR group developed Project Correl for Zaha Hadid Architects' "Design As Second Nature" exhibition at the University Contemporary Art Museum (MUAC) in Mexico City.
The project allows visitors to collaborate and collectively build a virtual structure, a digitally augmented design that will grow over the coming months.
After stepping in the virtual environment (with up to three others at the same time), visitors are allowed to move freely in digital space. They can then select, scale and place components according to their preferences and following a set of rules assigned to act depending on the chosen scale of the component.
Components and guiding principles informing the placement algorithms were designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, but visitors decide the scale of the components and their position of placement.
Unless they are connected with others to form a cluster, components will disappear from the VR space. The more components connected together within any cluster, the longer the structure will exist in the virtual space. Every cluster or component connected directly to the primary structure within the virtual space will remain as a permanent element of the design.
The emerging virtual structure created from the accumulated placement of components will represent a sort of collective memory and is defined by principles that echo systems of growth evident in the natural world, an on-going sector of research by Zaha Hadid Architects. Progressive iterations of this digital structure will be captured and exhibited in the gallery as scaled 3D-printed models.
Now the question about this project is whether it can be applied to other environments and disciplines: there have been some VR experiences in the fashion industry, for example, but they weren't too exciting as they were limited to runway shows and presentations.
Will instead be possible for fashion designers to design and experiment in a virtual space where all sorts of virtual materials, embellishments, shapes and silhouettes may be available to play with? Time will tell, in the meantime Project Correl can be experimented during the "Design As Second Nature" exhibition (until 3rd March 2019) at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) in Mexico City. The first exhibition in Latin America about the work of Zaha Hadid Architects, the event analyses the studio's methodology and creative process through projects, drawings and models, plus research in material innovations such as the Knit Candela installation.
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