Award-winning architecture firm SHoP Architects is on a mission to make the process for bringing buildings from vision to physical reality more efficient. Accelerating its progress, the firm is among the first in its industry to embrace Unity Reflect, the new architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) product from Unity.
Project
Custom real-time BIM applications for AR and VR using Unity Reflect and the Unity Editor
Goal
Decrease construction time and cost by making BIM more visual, interactive, and available on the job site.
Platform
HTC Vive for virtual reality (VR); iPad for augmented reality (AR) (using Apple’s ARKit)
Creating real-time BIM experiences with Unity Reflect
Headquartered in New York City, SHoP’s 200-person team works on marquee projects in its backyard as well as around the world. With a diverse portfolio of clients, from Google to the U.S. Department of State, SHoP Architects embraces technology to drive better collaboration and create more meaningful, beautiful buildings.
With Unity Reflect, Adam Chernick and Christopher Morse of SHoP’s interactive visualization department intend to catch design flaws early, solve problems faster, and reduce the time it takes to build. Based on their experience in Unity Reflect’s beta program, they see the product playing a crucial role in their firm’s ability to drive better alignment between design and construction.
The results:
- Streamlined creation of real-time 3D experiences takes minutes instead of days to optimize large design models
- Democratized access to BIM readily puts information into the hands of users, on any device
- Better communication with key stakeholders paves the way to reduce change orders, construction time, and costs