My Reality: Virtual Reality

Last semester, I took a workshop focusing the College of Design's brand new Virtual Reality Lab. The main goal of the 8 weeks was to design models on SketchUp and then to walk through them in virtual reality. What ended up happening was we became guinea pigs for experimentation in virtual reality.

In coordination with a developer in England, we became the first VR lab to use a rendering software to allow shadows and reflections in VR. The program is LightUp. You can purchase it at this site http://www.light-up.co.uk/ and I highly recommend it for anyone doing a lot of modeling in SketchUp in need of rendered images. It allows you to render your model, not just an image of your model. In Kerkythea, what took 4 hours per image now takes 5 minutes per model in LIghtUp. From here, you can take pictures of your model, as many as you want from any angle you want. This is why it is so much faster and this is what allows for rendering in the VR. By uploading a rendered model, you get to experience the lighting effects as they would be in real life. The really sets the tone for a project and allows you to feel completely immersed in the VR environment.

Throughout this workshop, I experienced some things I never imaged I could. I felt the butterflies and stomach tying knots of vertigo while standing on the level floor of the lab. I felt gravity shift as I walked down a corridor with angling walls. I nearly toppled over while walking that same corridor. All of these feelings great architecture can create were experienced in the lab in my architecture building.

This workshop involved creating several models, of which I only took photos of my final model. That is because all my early models were duds compared to my final. I created a challenge for myself to recreate that iconic photo of Grand Central Terminal (another train station, of course) with the light rays streaming down from the clerestory windows of the great hall. VR would give me the change to actually insert myself in that picture and to walk around, experience the great hall of Grand Central Terminal in the 1930s. That was the end goal.

To explain how I did it, I will speak generally, as the detail of this even confuses me. There are two basic sections of the model, the bays and the ends. I created a bay, then copied it 4 times side by side to create the length of the great hall. I then created an end and copied that, rotated it, and place it on the other end. Thus, my room was complete. Then, I got to work on the lighting. It is a bit complicated, so let's just say I created 5 tubes shaped like the arched clerestory windows. I made them light elements and rotated them, placing them in the hall. Then, I traced around where these tubes met the floor and made these sections light emitters, to imitate reflection of  the light. Finally, I placed silhouettes in the room to give it a sense of scale as well as crowdedness.

The result was magical. I mean, not in the "hey everyone pat me on the back" way, but in the "this took my breath away when I put the helmet on" kinda way. Once I finished it and stepped into a different world, what others though slipped my mind and I was in love. I felt so small, but the space was so warm, with the glow of the sunlight flowing through tubes of volume lighting and reflecting off the floor. I had no words, only a gaping mouth. It was an experience I have never had before. (I don't get out much) But the fact that I haven't been to places like this, but was still able to have this experience is why VR is so invaluable. Whether its a alien hall on another planet or a bungalow in the burbs, VR provides the opportunity for people to inhabit a space never possible before. You can walk through your own design to look for potential flaws, travel overseas to see buildings not accessible to everyone, even create the world of your imagination and inhabit the (virtual) reality of your own mind. That is why during fall 2012, virtual realtiy was my reality.

My Great Hall (modeled on Grand Central Terminal).

Volume Lighting, Light Emitting Surfaces (on the floor)

End details up close.

Clerestory windows.

The final version I walked through in VR.

Finally, From Humble Beginnings: Union Stations in America

So I am finally putting up one of my projects form last semester, a timeline for my Modern Architecture class. The assignment sounds simple enough, choose a topic that covers the time period of the class (1870-1930) and create a graphic timeline with 20 entries. Each entry must be 100-200 words long, with 5 "longer focus" entries of 300-500 words each. Sounds easy enough, right? Right? WRONG!!

This project not only required the research of 20 different train stations (my topic of choice), but required countless hours in design. Call me an overachiever, but I created 2 documents, a graphic timeline and a text timeline. But I am really excited by how well they turned out and I am awaiting comments from my professor. Hopefully she loves it as much as I do.

Here is my introduction to the project and my choice of topic:

100 Years of the Train Station as a Building Type in America

 

In his book about the history of train stations, Carroll Meeks quotes Building News,1875 in saying, “Railroad termini...are to the 19th century what monasteries and cathedrals were to the thirteenth century. They are truly the only real representative building we possess...Our metropolitan termini have been leaders of the art and spirit of our time” (Meeks, iii). Had this book been written today, it would have also compared railroad stations to the airports of the 20th century. Railroad stations are a very interesting study because they were not around before railroads were invented. Prior to 1800, there were no train stations. But as the railroad grew in importance, so did the railroad station, combining the utility of a transportation building with the form and ornamentation that dominated the decades.

In order to keep this project to a manageable size and detail level, it is limited to train stations in America, focusing on the union station building type. Not all of the entries focus on union stations, but the majority of them do. Why union stations? Because these buildings, unlike company stations, were dictated by the need for efficient passenger movement. In other words, while railroad companies each had their own standards for their stations and all buildings along their routes followed these standards, union stations were collaborations between several companies servicing a city. Therefore, the building plan and decor was a compromise between the companies. They highlight the larger design movements taking hold the world over, such as neoclassicism and the City Beautiful movement. Their decor evolved from Victorian to Romanesque to Beaux-art classicism to art deco. The plan of these structures evolved from a single room to massive complexes with spaces for waiting, boarding, and departing trains. Traffic was separated based on where it was going and by pedestrian and car traffic. These were all design features that architects in the early 19th century could have never imagined.

From 1830 to 1940, America saw the rise and end of the great railroad station. After WWII, train traffic slowed as air travel increased in popularity. Thus, in just over 100 years time, this building type began, grew, evolved, found itself, and ultimately ended. These written entries and the accompanying graphic time line attempt to do this process justice, by examining just how far the train station evolved in such a short amount of time, perhaps more than any other building type ever has. These were the gateways to our great cities. People from all over the country and all over the world entered the city through the station. They were the first impression and last impression cities left on travelers and tourists. While America did lag behind Europe, by the turn of the century, these structures were impressive. Grand Central Terminal, Kansas City Union Station, Penn Station, and others became cathedrals to travel, much as the skyscraper had become cathedrals of commerce. All that was American architecture was embodied in these buildings, and that is why the American union station is such an important part of American architecture.

Not one single element, facade treatment, layout, use of train shed, or style, dominates this time line. Rather, much like the evolution of the station type itself, it focuses on a combination of these factors, and how their combination, change, and experimentation led to the design and construction of some of the most grand stations in the world. Beginning in 1830 with a single room brick structure, the railroads began their dominance over the American landscape. From humble beginnings, the train station building type was born.

Graphic Timeline

P.S.- I welcome comments. What do you think? What should I do differently next time? Want more information? Let me know, and I'll tell you what I know, or send you to the place that knows.