My area of interest lies in making construction easier to understand through augmented technology. I want to use augmented reality to assist builders and designers in better understanding how materials are put together – for example, through augmenting complex detail drawings. Architectural details are one of the most intricate parts of buildings, so ensuring they are well communicated to the builder is vital for accurate construction and assembly of designs.
In large building projects, detail drawings can often become abstract diagrams which are difficult to read and understand. Through augmented reality, I want to help remove the difficulty involved in interpreting detail drawings. I see augmented reality as providing another medium to aid the understanding of construction details in practical building situations.
The portability of A.R. technology makes it an ideal option for practical day-to-day building situations. Through use of an i-phone or similar, dull detail drawings will be brought to life in the virtual world. Colour will help enhance and define different materials and the ability to view the 3-dimensional drawing from different angles will help a person to quickly understand the design and therefore its ultimate method of construction.
The technology also has the potential to become an educational tool for architects and builders. At the touch of a button, complex details become simplified layers of materials that describe the configuration of a particular area on a building, without the need for excessive lengths of architectural drawings being carried around building sites. This would allow architects to communicate construction details more precisely to builders and clients, allowing them to easily and quickly understand what the final result will look like.
