“We look at the architectural design in ways where we see the virtual component that is added onto it as one of the elements that actually co-defines the space. So from that perspective, we don’t see it as opposed forces,” explains Thomas Soetens, founder of Immersive Design Studios in Montreal. “We don’t see the virtual space or the physical space as disconnected, but we see it as a hybrid space, as a single entity. And from that design perspective, we orient our solutions toward how then the user becomes part of that hybrid space rather than the physical space that we dress up with technology.”
Challenges and Solutions
Aging buildings can present a number of challenges when modernizing them to incorporate new technologies. Fortunately, advances in software can often help overcome obstacles, such as space, hard wiring and costs if planned properly.
“In today’s solutions we still have to bring computers inside spaces and that very often limits possibilities because you have to store [them],” Soetens explains. “Where we see this moving and where we’re heading with our company is to create cloud solutions. That means any computational power that we need to run what we want to do inside the building doesn’t need to jeopardize the architectural program because we can offload what we want to do.”
Soetens notes previously the biggest challenge for architects was to determine which hardware was best to apply, and how and where it ought to be installed, which was costly and sometimes nearly impossible if the buildings were too outdated. “We try to work as much as possible with software-oriented solutions because they tend to be able to update themselves over time and therefore they’re less hardware-dependent,” he explains.
Of course, given the speed at which software changes, the key to integrating new technology is to ensure the framework in which it is housed is designed with flexibility in mind.
“One of the things we like to do with our furniture and everything else is we design to house technology as it changes,” explains Steve Delfino, vice president, corporate marketing and product management at Teknion, Toronto. “You have to be very conscious of the speed of change. We try to design very open-ended and future-proofed.”
Similarly, Brian McCourt, sales director, architectural solutions for Steelcase, Grand Rapids, Mich., notes while the industry waits to see what the prevailing technology will be for large-scale architectural displays, it’s more important to develop a skin system that allows you to accommodate today’s technology and “to understand where future technologies are [going] so we can create a new skin that can be easily applied on top of the structure. So for us to look at retrofitting, it’s about changing the size of the room, but it’s also as simple as changing out the skin for the room, to change out the function to the level of privacy or the technology,” he says.