AR Technology and the future of Architecture

Augmented reality technology (AR) has become ubiquitous in the last few years, showing technological advancement in vast areas of life and work.

Augmented reality technology (AR) has become ubiquitous in the last few years, showing technological advancement in vast areas of life and work. The term AR means the merge or mix of the computer-generated objects and elements with the real world, in other words, AR is the technology that let us place 3D computer-generated object in the physical world and interact with it as if it is real.

AR technology has many useful applications in many different fields and one of the main fields that is going to benefit from it most is the field of architecture design. There many areas in which AR technology can effect architecture design positively, but I will only mention a few main areas that will have the biggest impact.

The main advantage AR technology offers architecture designers is flexiblity. Today, the main method architectures design any project is using design software like AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS. Then these designs usually used to create a small scale version of the project. This process is long, costly and very unflexible to the point if anything goes wrong or not satisfy the customer, then the designer needs to start the process again from the beginning. AR technology can drastically reduce this rigid process as it allows us to project the design into real world and interact with it in its original size, then if the design had any flaw or it did not meet the customers satisfaction the designer can just make the desired change and export the design to the AR application for the customer to view. The entire process becomes much easier and flexible which leads to more efficiency. AR technology also allows us to view the design in its original size. This allows the architecture designer to view and gain a better understanding of the design which leads to fewer mistakes.

AR technology also makes the designer’s job more efficient by allowing us to negate the process of creating a small scale version of the design. This also allows us to waste less time on prototype development while if the designer made any mistakes the changes can be undone much quickly and efficiently.

Another great advantage AR technology offers architecture designers is project cost reduction in terms of manpower and finance. Using AR will considerably reduce the cost of developing an architecture design and individual involvement in developing the model. The time it takes to create a small scale version of the design or the cost of using the material or manpower can be reduced to almost nothing using AR technology.

The AR application only needs to be developed once and each time the architecture designer wishes to use it to project a new design, the designer only has to export the project from the design software to the AR application and it works. This process is much smoother and cost-effective than traditional methods of building models for each design.

There are many useful technologies that can be used to create AR applications. These applications vary depending on the programming language and the platform the AR app is developed for. But among the best and eases ones to use for the beginners are google AR kit or ARCore which can be used to develop AR apps for android phones and tablets, and also Unity 3D AR Foundation which can be used alongside Unity to develop AR apps for IOS, andorid and a few other platforms. These two AR development applications are easy to learn and use with a great amount of support from developers. There is also big community around each of these development tools which makes our jobs as developers much easier and faster.

The implementation of AR technology in the field of architecture design can lead to many great improvements in the process and work of architecture designer. It can lead to more efficiency, decrease the cost and time of project development. And overall AR technology makes the job of architecture designer much easier to do which allows for more creativity.