The New York Times article “For New Buildings, Digital Models Offer an Advance Walk-Through” was a very interesting article that reminded me of the rendering article that was assigned two weeks ago. The article talks about AEI Digital, which is a company that develops digital models for buildings. Much more advanced than renderings, the digital models actually allow viewers to walk-through the building in a very realistic way. What the company did was actually to use gaming softwares and methods to create the most accurate and realistic models. As they explain it in the article, the digital model is a great tool for investors to see exactly how a building will look or how a material or fabric will look, basically “it’s really just a communications tool”.
Although it is a great communication tool, Mr. Schuldt also emphasizes on the fact that architecture as a whole has been very slow to adapt new technologies because sometimes those new technologies are not very practical and people working on construction sites tend to prefer to write on paper than walking around with laptops. Some architects are very conservative and do not work a lot with the new technologies but then others do, take Frank Gehry as an example. Gehry would never be able to work without new technologies as his buildings are so complex and could not be constructed without computers calculating even the smallest thing.
I believe that this new software is a great tool as it allows viewers to see the building in a more realistic way than renderings. Renderings are great too but if you can have digital models such as the AEI ones then why not. They are much more advanced and will allow viewers not only see one part or façade of the building, they will show everything in a 3 dimensional form rather than in 2 dimensional form.
Digital Models
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