Spaceform Virtual Design And Review Platform, Squint/Opera + BIG + UNStudio Sustainable Architecture

Spaceform Virtual Design And Review Platform News

13 July 2021

Spaceform Virtual Design And Review Virtual Workspace

Spaceform Virtual Design And Review Platform For Architects, Developers And Designers

July 12th of 2021 – UNStudio and BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group invest in SpaceForm, a virtual workspace, hosted in the cloud, a platform that immerses teams in projects across any device, developed by Squint/Opera.

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.

customised avatars:

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.

visualising data:

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.”

About Squint/Opera

Squint/Opera is a creative studio that brings together storytelling, media production, technology and design. The studio specialises in creating digital media and works with ambitious partners to communicate big ideas.

With studios in London and New York, they have an international portfolio of clients, including the Empire State Building, Toyota, Willis Tower, Tishman Speyer, UNStudio, BIG, Heatherwick Studio and Swire.

About UNStudio

UNStudio, founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, is a Dutch architectural design studio specialising in architecture, interior architecture, product design, urban development and UX Design. The name, UN Studio, stands for United Network Studio referring to the collaborative nature of the practice.

Throughout over 30 years of international project experience, UNStudio has continually expanded its capabilities through prolonged collaboration with an extended network of international consultants, partners, and advisors across the globe. This network, combined with the centrally located offices in Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Dubai and Melbourne enables UNStudio to work efficiently anywhere in the world. With already 120 built projects in Asia, Europe, and North America, the studio continues to expand its global presence with recent commissions in among others China, South Korea, Germany and the UK.

As a result of technological developments, in 2017 UNSense was founded, an independent sister company that builds upon the long architectural knowledge, practice and expertise of UNStudio. As a tech start-up and innovation platform, UNSense explores and develops technology to humanise the built environment. UNSense works in the intersection between technology and architecture and aims to improve quality of life through social innovation.

The office has worked internationally since its inception and has produced a wide range of work ranging from public buildings, infrastructure, offices, residential, products, to urban masterplans.

Current projects include the design for Doha’s Integrated Metro Network in Qatar, the mixed-use FOUR development in Frankfurt, the Wasl Tower in Dubai and the Southbank by Beulah development in Melbourne. Pivotal realised projects include the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Arnhem Central Station, Raffles City Hangzhou in China, the Mobius House in the Netherlands and the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam.

About Bjarke Ingels Group

BIG is a Copenhagen, New York, London, Barcelona and Shenzhen based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers and inventors. The office is currently involved in a large number of projects throughout Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.

BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. Not least due to the influence from multicultural exchange, global economical flows and communication technologies, which all together require new ways of architectural and urban organization. We believe that in order to deal with today’s challenges, architecture can profitably move into a field that has been largely unexplored.

A pragmatic utopian architecture that steers clear of the petrifying pragmatism of boring boxes and the naïve utopian ideas of digital formalism. Like a form of programmatic alchemy, we create architecture by mixing conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, parking and shopping. By hitting the fertile overlap between pragmatic and utopia, we architects once again find the freedom to change the surface of our planet, to better fit contemporary life forms.

Spaceform Virtual Design And Review Platform images / information from UNStudio

Virtual Reality

UN Studio / BIG Architects