VR Interfaces for Architectural Exploration

Architectural design is a highly collaborative process involving a variety of users with different levels of expertise such as architects, engineers, investors or end customers. An efficient process requires all involved parties to obtain a common understanding of the architectural models and problems to be discussed. This is an ambitious task as architects often work with 2D floor plans. While these plans are meaningful and easy to interpret for professionals, ordinary users often face problems when deducing 3D properties of a building.

In our project we address this problem by introducing a hybrid virtual environment for collaborative exploration of virtual 3D architectural models. Inspired by real-world processes we develop natural user interfaces allowing co-located or distributed teams to review building designs cooperatively. Since our application is based on a client-server architecture, it works on different VR devices such as the Oculus Rift, a touch table or an L-shaped projection system.