From pencil to 3D visualization

Good morning everyone. My name is Stephen Willissey. I'm the city architect in Oates City Council. I'm very happy to have been invited to make a talk this morning. I've called it from pencil to 3D visualization but this also includes virtual. Is it not on? Can you hear me? I've got your hearing aid into the air. We know almost but the idea is that we actually work in collaboration with most of our projects. One of the things that's important for us is this ability to imagine and to see the world and try and imagine how things will be positioned in the future. And as an authority it's very important that we have a correct view but at the same time we also want to have these possibilities for the visionary. These images are from the 60s, Archigram on the upper level and Voidman, Freidman here down on the bottom illustrating how Paris could look sometime in the near future. And of course Archigram, they were one of the first architects who really delved into the idea of personal information and personal computers. They talked more about telephones at that time and they arranged their society around this technology. Buckminster Fuller could also imagine a world where for example New York could be put inside a geodesic dome. This is not a drawing but it's a collage but it gives a very good impression about how some parts of New York would look. This beautiful building here designed by Schmidts Hammer-Lassen and the landscape area by Kirsten Jensen from Aarhus. This image on the upper level here, I think it's a pen drawing or a pencil I can't remember, it's Kim Hollis Jensen, the partner there, who illustrated a concept for the building and I think it's one of the absolute most beautiful images of this project. It illustrates that this building is an urban media space. It's a big roof with a public space underneath it and when you wander around the building you actually imagine you're a part of the city because you walk around with vistas and different views throughout the city, see the cathedral one way, go up some levels and look over the city that way, you go and see the industrial harbour the other way. I just think that explains everything. It's not about being virtuous, it's about telling a story and this is very important. This image below, it's a kind of a poetic image where we have to use a computer and a collage technique which is a, I don't think it's a 3D revit, but it's certainly a 3D model which has been built up and photoshopped. But it gives an impression, it was very early in the processes about how this building could look. This is a city called Mazda in the south of the country, in Abu Dhabi. It's the most sustainable city in the world and this is another, you saw the earlier images I showed from Archie Graham and Freud, this is Norman Foster in the middle of a desert trying to make a city which is completely surviving without the use of oil or renewable fuels. So it's another kind of way of explaining a story about how a city could look and I know they've used virtual reality in relationship to the way they tell the story and sell it. I won't talk about Smart City because I see it all, Neil said just mentioned it, but I think this image, you don't have to write Smart City Alls, the colour now explains Smart City Alls and it's also the idea of all things in behind, but this colour here has become an image of a Smart City. Just the other day there was a competition for a new Kureki building in Kilo and one of the teams came with a virtual reality as part of their project. We didn't ask them to come with it and it was a kind of an add-on, but we said we can't take it into submission in that way but you can leave the equipment here. So we had a sneak preview. But it was very interesting because that's the next level now of course about this ability to tell the story in new ways and go over the flow and the technology and I know Fris and Malka are going to give a nice talk about this possibly so I won't go into that in too much detail, but this whole idea that it's become so accessible and I know you have one of these boxes with it, to explain this, but I just find it fantastic now that your smart telephone can be used in a new way to imagine the world. We had a visit from Bjarke, he's from Big, we gave a talk for us at the town mayor's New Year's party, each year we have this in the start of the year, and he showed this picture and he said it could always be because of any sort of the north. I just think it's really cool this idea about telling the story. It's a very cheap and nasty way of doing it, but it tells the story in a brilliant way. It's not necessary to have a camera, but you can actually do it very quickly. I just think it's really funny that we can transform Gamma Beauty into something else. We're in the process of making a new commonplace and we're going for the plan strategy 2015 now and these are beautiful hand drawings by the architect and artist Pierre Petri and instead of going the traditional way we used before we thought we'd make this very much more inspiring, suggestive of ideas which are coming into play in our strategy and we've got 25 pages full with these types of illustrations. I just want to say that when we're talking about these strategies we also have other layers in the council, for example the culture and citizens magistrate here are working with, have done a project recently called the Digital City, where we're looking at the possibilities of an old station town like this in Malin could be transformed. They made a design and they built these two stations where people could interact with their local sites, one in Bidda and one in Malin. The information was called in and digitalised and of course mapped and registered and things like this so you can find ideas for what they could use or do on the site. This is Torben with some of the ideas which were coming out and there was a fantastic dynamic between the local citizens because the citizen participation was more and more a driver for the way we're developing our city. Similarly we talk about these layers of the sustainable city and the livability of the city. This idea of the digital and the idea of explaining a story, this is a sphere of different layers about the city and it also illustrates the new type of city which is a multi-layered. Now you might be thinking what the hell do you want to talk about Brunnes Galerie for Stephen? I'll tell you why. Because when they designed it they made this illustration in their planning to show that there will be no impact on the skyline from one of the main roads together and the main shopping street together. You wouldn't be able to see the Brunnes Galerie behind but what the hell happened? So this is quite a traumatic period for us because obviously there was one story, one and a half stories about the original planning and I was at the town hall that evening where this was discussed and I remember it was decided that we can't leave it in the hands of the architects, you just can't trust them. It's not that. They said we've got to get the other guys in the landing spectres involved to make sure that things are correct. So we talk about the verified view and this becomes very important in the way we see our city because we're growing like mad and we're also talking about going in height. This is how the city used to be illustrated. There's some images that show now from the beautiful exhibition of images from in the basement there. The cathedral is the most important building we have in the city and we have to take care of it. So when we talk about the skyline we're actually getting new buildings additions but we have to plan the way we go forward and this is becoming a discussion point in relationship to how certain parts of the city develop. Of course we're working with different strategies for this. We have a tall buildings politique but we're also developing a new one for this particular area in the area marked in blue and also these red areas. You see the yellow buildings there in the middle, this is 4X plus next to the tall building, the HL building. So we're developing strategies here. New buildings are being proposed. This is on Rannersweig and Rangbein with a water tower. This is by 3XN, a project for our new student housing and apartments. Similarly the same architects made a project for a tall building on the harbourfront down by Lighthouse and Oase Island. Unfortunately this isn't going to take place as it is but we're working on a process now. But the point is how can we make sure that significant buildings are taken care of? This is where I think this 3D visualisation is becoming important. By learning from cities like London where St Paul's Cathedral, I mean the Germans used it as a kind of pointer to find out where to bomb but they didn't bomb it. It's an old bomb building. So with inspiration from these significant viewpoints and significant buildings in the city, the dense area in the middle, this is where St Paul's Cathedral is, we've been inspired to develop ideas making visual corridors from significant points. For example following along the Standbein, there's the King's bathing house. For example from that point we're looking in towards the cathedral and similarly with the Town Hall tower, this is also a significant point in the skyline. So we have to take care of these. You can see the cathedral there. So we're saying we're going to divert the area down by the southern part of the harbour but we're going to make sure that that building is taken care of in the future. And similarly from Vyborg High and St. McRae's High and different places like this. We know this from Paris, London here. London has a problem. We've got 400 tall buildings in the pipeline in planning at the moment and we're talking buildings over 100 metres. It's not a small thing. Also in the evening, because I mean it's quite an impact. But the city's developing. We have to take, the people are willing to invest in the city. It's very important we get it right and look at the possibilities from lots of different directions. So the architects, engineers are working together in these processes. Similarly here in Foyer's Place, the white building in the middle, this is a HL building. I know it's black. It's just that if you painted it black it would take too much attention from the illustration. But it gives an idea of the, it's funny architects do a lot of people on these illustrations. So we have to take care, you know, if it's going to be like this. We hope it's going to look like this but Jan Gael has also been involved with CF Moon on this. I built this physical model in, what do you call it, blocks so that we can actually position things in it. We talk about the idea of being able to build a city but it's very important that we also have the physical view so that we can actually talk about the city from lots of different directions. We've got, remember this is the Bruins Gallery. But when we talk about Foyer's Place, how does that building sit in the city urban scenery? How do we frame views? How do we make connections? And this is from the steps on Bruins Gallery and how can we connect it. So we have to, we spent quite a lot of time developing the space between the two buildings so we make sure the building is correctly positioned. There's a project in the pipeline for an Uto building down by, this is Mina 6. Here you can see the 3D model we have in the city which has been constantly updated. Everyone can go in and use this as a tool and we use it on the go all the time in relation to how we position buildings. But this is a combination of virtual imagery visualisations together with physical models because we like to see them walk around the streets and see it in real time and put buildings into the model so we can actually see it. And also include our politicians who are actually people who are going to make the decisions about whether or not it's going to happen or not. And similarly we try to encourage the local population to be involved in these processes. When is the building tall? How tall should it be? This is a very important discussion and it's one that's going to be going on forever and ever I know. But this is a dog on the right and a possibility. I've actually in the physical model I've shown the Gerkin building in London which is 180 metres high on the physical model to illustrate when is the building tall or not and what is tall in Oaks. Of course until now we've used the datum as the tallest building should be the cathedral which is 96 metres. So we've used that as a kind of a guiding figure so far but it depends where you are. The tall tower and lighthouse is 142 metres. This is an important statement in relationship to the lighthouse and the viewing of the city. Lots of different viewing positions in the 3D model, visual 3D model. Similarly out in Oaks Oe, the island out there. How we're developing the strategy for the overall site, putting new buildings on and new old ones as they're being built. Of course the iceberg project which has just been published on Basin 7. This is a view from the inner harbour area illustrating the tower which could be built in one of the later developments. It's a framing of the view from the inner city. Winter view. These amazing apartments. You notice how high the rails are, handrails, both for the wind and also the sound from the harbour. So the building acts as a shield here. There's a great hope for this area to attract the general population of tourists. This is one of the illustrations which Bit made trying to explain the concept of the city, how it could develop. And I just love this diagram, it explains the story very quickly. This digital media gives us possibilities to explain the cultural connectivity of the city in the water and in the city itself. Now I want to go to something completely different. This is Michael from Caeser who's opened a new company for making prototypes of houses where you can actually go in and design your house virtually. In a similar way you can do with your car, but it's actually designing houses and making a program for making new kind of tube rooms. It's very interesting this concept, how this becomes a marketing tool in itself and you can choose if you want to monotate a roof or a flat roof or another type of roof, but also you can actually have any plan you would like. It's a very interesting concept because within the first meeting you have to decide if you want to do it or not. And there's something like 80% say yes. In those if they leave the space they're not going to come back in again. So it's an incredible development. Now the other point is media architecture. This is another layer of this virtual and this visual interactive architecture. You remember this from the festival week last time? The way the building was completely transformed in the evening, how the film was projected onto the facade and moved around. It was quite an event and a bit of a showstopper. I'm surprised there weren't any accidents with the cars around that area because it was quite a fantastic event. In a similar way transformed together with Collision and Martin in OHS, they've designed this building for Dansk Industries in Copenhagen. It's been programmed so you can actually make anything on that facade. And this is something we're trying to deal with and work with in OHS too in a way of opening up for this opportunity. I know it's possible with your own smartphone you can program that facade. You can actually change the facade itself and develop it. I think this is one of the most important trends that's going to happen and change the visual expression of the inner city. And obviously on the Perthory as well. We're building this building in Gellorp with one of the most important buildings for the Gellorp plan which we're working on at the moment. This is designed by Architima. But can you see the images on the underside of the ceilings? We're talking about making an interactive facade. Similarly here, where you can actually project text and illustrations on the ceiling itself. So the building actually starts telling something about what OHS is about and what the technical and environmental department in this council is and the social offices and also the police station integrating this project. Yeah, what do you think? Seventh floor, view across the city. The urban city lab, the model and the possibility of explaining how the city is developing is going to be a fantastic viewing point over the city looking down a new city street. Well this is one of my favourite illustrations explaining the project. It's a kind of 3D illustration but it's explaining the whole idea behind the building itself in as much as the building has to interact with the local community. So it's completely open house. So there's a cafe, a place where they make the coffee beans, a social capital project right at the entrance. I think it was there, this brick building on the bottom here. This project there and the restaurants and the cafes are also a possibility for the locals to use and also Made in Gelrop which is an entrepreneurial section which will be for younger people in the city and that district being able to make products together with the local citizens and mentors in this area. Likewise, this mountain of meeting rooms in the centre of the building will also have some kind of interactive interplay. Finally this project, Bispetal, a very interesting project. We decided to make a physical model here. This is the other part of the 3D. The models are produced three dimensionally by the computer, rapidly. This one's made in sections and built up from the 3D model but everyone knows you can make the 3D models themselves very rapidly. But that's the other opportunity of using the virtual and the physical together. We used it very much in relation to the explaining process for telling the story about the possibilities that this new transformation would enable. Of course, as well as it's being built, we had to make these visualisations for the newspapers. They won't just accept the photo, we have to make them. So that's the image which everyone remembers. This one. This project explains something about the way governing the city. It's telling the story. There's two models. One is top down management, the other one is kind of bottom up management process. I think these two are very important in relation to telling the story about the way the city develops. We want Melbourne's citizen participation but as the town mayor says, we have to have both to make a city in balance. So this is a sustainable strategy 2015 by Slate and this one is by We Architects, the architects who moved to Copenhagen and developed this strategy. This is where the canal could be down by Kulbyn. The Coheil is the restaurant just there in the middle. But it could be built up like containers and that kind of activity level which is down there with Coheil today, Martin Thiem and Daniel Washington people. So that's a nice way of explaining the way the city could develop in different directions but I think some kind of unison would be excellent. Similarly, this building, the Bextroos, the botanical garden in Oval, the modern technology now enables us to make anything, simply anything. And the digital media, the digital techniques, physical modelling, everything, it's just enabling new possibilities which really would have taken quite some time to develop before the technology became available. But what I would like to finish with is this one, Smart CDOs, the idea of the virtual. There are 6,500 people living in Gereup at the moment, over half of them are under 18. I'm finishing off now. And the point is, half of them are under 18, it's very important that we get this generation involved in the development of the city and that it's very feasible with things like Minecraft of course. And I think this is one of, I love this, where the kids, my kids have played with this, they still do, and how they can build their own cities but how we can actually, I think the 3D model of our city could also be adaptable in such a way that the children could also play with it more and more. And I think this is another layer we could take into our citizen participatory level. And I think also, as you will hear shortly, this virtual reality and the screens and everything, this is where it will capture the kids' imaginations and bring them on board. I think this is a great sense of hope for us, I think, for the future. And on that I'd like to say thank you.