Vision Mapping is a research project aimed at extend the sphere of pedestrian simulation and crowd analysis in the planning and design of buildings and precincts. Using our MassMotion software we have been analysing the science behind people’s field of vision and the impact this has on their decision making. Preliminary research has focussed on the representation of pedestrian’s cone of vision in retail contexts.  Currently retail layout and placement with shopping centres and terminals/interchanges is undertaken with an intuitive approach. The value of adding science and a methodology to the approach is in reducing the risk and cost of spaces that just don’t work, that people seem to ignore or plainly don’t see prior to construction.

As simulation tools continue to increase in their sophisitication, mapping a persons cone of vision will be a valuable tool when offered in conjunction with people modeling skills in 3D environments. This study includes a client focus to identify needs and markets for the research. We have been meeting with designers as well as retail centre owners and operators, leasing agents and airport or station operators and commercial managers to identify the needs and current best practice in the market place.

Next is the use of cameras to film actual fields of vision in poor and good performing retail environments. The footage will be used as part of a calibration process.

This video shows that over time, and with an increase of population going through the same fields, areas will become highlighted showing as ‘hot’ which indicates the line of vision, therefore the interest/ influence locations.

Links – MassMotion. http://www.oasys-software.com/products/engineering/massmotion.html

For further information on this project please contact David Young.

A few years ago Jon Morgan, our Building Physics leader in Australasia, made the following slide to illustrate just how many different software analysis tools his team uses on a regular basis. When you multiply that across all the services a firm like ours offers that is a lot of software.

Specialists need specialist tools and sometimes software doesn’t cut it. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has its place but it isn’t about to replace wind tunnel testing. DesignLink, which is open via a collaboration agreement, is one of the ways we address how to shift and manage data across projects.

With all this in mind, we have created Submerge to visualise multiple analysis results that are generated on projects in the one space. Large multi-disciplinary projects create huge datasets and we have been expending research and development effort to combine this data and create richer spaces for design navigation. The aim with so many disciplines is to clearly tell the story of an emergent design and Submerge is a data visualization tool that integrates the datasets into one 3D environment, providing an immersive and interactive presentation experience.

Above: Geometry and CFD analysis

Rather than presenting images from various analysis tools, we can now walk through the design with people and cars moving, or with the wind blowing as predicted by separate analysis programs.

The above image shows geometry (from Rhino via Grasshopper), wind streamlines (from CFD), structural analysis (from GSA) and Pedestrian analysis (from MassMotion) in the one 3D environment.

We have made it possible to publish the content so others can wander through in their own time and on their own computer. There is more work to do in 2012 with navigation, testing physical spaces for Submerge projection – our SoundLabs would be great – and playing with more controllers like the  Kinect. All good fun and its been nice to see client reaction to Submerge over the last few months.

I joined the Perth office in January this year from the Cardiff office, via a stint in London, as a GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and 3D Realtime specialist. My background is primarily in GIS, but over the last few years working with the graphics and 3D visualization teams I have become more and more involved in developing realtime environments for 3D models from a range of disciplines across the firm. For me combining the data and information aspects of GIS with high end visualizations is very appealing, and finding innovative ways to present data is something that can set us above the rest.

I have worked on a range of projects, from navigable environments of single rooms to entire cities, creating highway visualizations that allow users to explore planned road schemes and view modeled transport data. Just before I came to Australia I won the Welsh Water Chairman’s Innovation Award for work visualizing the sub-surface sewer systems in Cardiff in an interactive city model. I also presented some of the work at the Quest 3D user conference in Amsterdam.

Realtime 3D environments offer the user the opportunity to navigate themselves through a 3D model, viewing from any perspective and interrogating the model and imported data. Arup have a very strong capability in this field, and are able to very quickly create realtime representations of 3d models as they are being designed. Viewing a design in realtime 3d is a very powerful tool both in the design phase and in the final project stages where visualizations are becoming much sought after.

I import modeled data from a range of sources, including pedestrian, vehicle, blast and fire simulation packages. Subsurface utilities can be shown in their real world locations, and any data with a spatial location can be imported through GIS to create a single source for all 2D and 3D data to be visualized, even if it’s not been done before we can probably import your model and data!

Self contained applications that require no specialist software are compiled and distributed as a standalone file, containing all the models, textures and data required, allowing universal access. We use a variety of realtime engines to suit different purposes and scales of projects. Some examples that I have worked on since coming to Perth earlier this year, and from the UK using the Quest 3D platform, are showcased in the animation above.

I am always on the lookout for ways to push this technology forward, and for more project examples to apply these techniques to so if you have any question, ideas or would like to be involved please don’t hesitate to contact me

The May/June edition of Architectural Design presents an unusual take on generative architecture based on field theory.  Sean Lally offers a new way of thinking about the design of environments.  Instead of conceptualising indoor environments as a space defined by its surrounding surfaces (e.g. a curtain wall glass facade), Lally conceives of a space as the boundary (isovalue) of a spatial field at a specified value.

For example, we might use particular arrangement of hot and cold panels to generate a radiant field, and if we could visualise the isosurface of a particular temperature then we’d be generating a form within which the environment was controlled without the use of boundary surfaces.
Various articles in this edition of AD explore a fluid dynamics solution as part of the generative process.

It’s an idea that we’ve been playing around with for a while too and this seemed like a nice opportunity to see what could be created.  I’ve used a computational fluid dynamics package (ANSYS-CFX) to set up convection currents within a box shaped volume and visualised the isosurface of a constant temperature.  This has then been exported, translated and rendered using the Radiance visualisation package to produce the image above, with a rather unlikely sky.  It’s an interesting problem to contemplate how the people within the space would modify this environmental boundary, i.e. there is an interdependency at work here …

The use of custom tools can improve efficiency, especially when handling large structures with thousands of elements. One of the most useful tools I have recently developed is a strength based optimisation program that links with Arup’s in-house structural analysis software Oasys GSA through its API (COM interface).

The COM interface uses Visual Basic (VB) scripting and allows remote access to most of GSA’s functions, enabling the user to drive GSA externally through programs such as Excel. This means the user can automate calculation intensive processes and handle large amounts of data in an efficient manner.

While working on a multi-billion dollar project in Singapore, I was faced with the challenge of analysing and designing several large steel structures with highly complex geometric form and 5000 plus elements in each structural model. I initially developed this tool merely to deal with the sheer number of elements that were required to be analysed, designed and sized.

Later, I saw the potential for expanding its use by incorporating an optimisation routine. This was achieved by running a computer automated numerical algorithm to determine the least steel-weight of the structure while still satisfying the relevant design codes.

The optimisation algorithm will not attempt to modify the geometric form. Instead, through an iterative process, the sizes of the structural elements are continuously substituted (from a user selected pool of sections sizes), analysed, designed and resized based on the results of the analysis, until the structure with the least steel-weight is found.

It is also possible to calibrate the algorithm for different optimisation criteria. For example, an alternative criterion to the least steel-weight solution could be shallowest depth solution, least cost solution or fastest procurement solution, or a combination.

I have used this optimisation tool on two other projects. In these cases it was used for rapid design and member sizing of various scheme options and allowed the design team to quickly assess the most economical design options.

Not only was this an effective and highly efficient method of managing the data from large structural models, it also offered the opportunity to fine tune the steel weight of the structures, resulting in potential cost savings.