Fang Fang, Xuechen Kang, Darren Sun
Instructor: Luisa Caldas, TA: Vedant Saran, Stephanie Daffara Spring 2019
Wurster Hall is the Department of Architecture building on the UC Berkeley campus. Most of the creative work produced by students happens inside the studios, private areas inaccessible to visitors. Studio reviews and the occasional open house are the only occasions when student work is on display on the actual physical building. This project creates a virtual replica of Wurster Hall, where visitors can walk around public lobbies and exhibitions spaces at any time and observe student creations in permanent display. Contrarily to a web-based 2D archive of student projects, visitors can experience the projects three-dimensionally, taking advantage of the sense of immersion, scale and virtual presence that VR creates. Visitors can hold 3D models on their hands, rotating and observing them as they would with an actual physical artifact. Large scale drawings, such as the ones presented during exhibitions, are on display pinned up on the virtual walls. Users can also get a glimpse of the actual studio environment by entering floating spheres that display 360 immersive videos of studio, as filmed by the students themselves. Finally, users can virtually ‘jump’ into 3D models of student work and explore their interior spaces, an entirely unique experience that only VR can provide.