Fraunhofer institutes demonstrate tomorrow's architectural design tools

Participants will meet some of today's leading architects to discuss ongoing developments, they can explore 3D models of some ancient buildings and a few still “on the drawing board”, wander around cities that never existed, or discover what effects their own building designs will have – before they are implemented. The workshop will be held on Fraunhofer's Schloss Birlinghoven Campus in Sankt Augustin near Bonn.

The creative part in design projects typically extends over a series of steps, from a first rough sketch to a detailed plan, from the initial discussion with the client to a full-fledged call for tenders. In each step, design drafts and alternatives are presented, discussed, evaluated, modified or discarded. Reduced-scale physical models play a major role in this creative process; building and modifying them manually is a significant part of the cost and duration of the design process.

Virtual and Augmented Reality technology can speed the process and reduce its costs. It can visualize designs, help to modify them in real-time, switch between CAD drawings and intuitive presentations and models that determine how the sun will heat up the building or simulate how streams of visitors will move through the building in a range of situations.

In this workshop, the Fraunhofer institutes for Applied Information Technology FIT and for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS open their VR/AR labs for hands-on experience of their systems for design; leading vendors and users report on current development projects. In his keynote presentation, Peter Noever, CEO of MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art in Vienna, will reflect on 'the state of architecture today'.

The workshop targets architects, designers, sculptors and artists. Presentations will be in English. Participation fee is 250 Euro.

Workshop program and registration form at
http://www.fit.fraunhofer.de/veranstaltungen/vr-ar-in-architecture.html
Contact:
Alex Deeg
pr@fit.fraunhofer.de
Telefon: +49 (0) 22 41/14-22 08