Augmented reality as a communication tool

Communication of complex renovation and
Construction projects through XR technologies

Refurbishments of theatres and cultural venues bring great communicative challenges for all involved. The classic tools of digital architectural visualisation, such as drawings, models, photos, renderings and animations, are only suitable to a limited extent for the requirements of complex spatial situations such as those often encountered in theatres. In close cooperation with Fabian Schröter, the technical director of the Luisenburg, and the renovation consultant Christian Buschhoff, usage scenarios were developed for renovation planning and discussing stage productions.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

  • How can complex architectural transformation processes be presented in an understandable way?
  • How can digital technologies such as augmented reality be used to add information to physical scale models, on drawings and in full scale?
  • To what extent can planning processes be digitally supported using XR technology and how can it help to allow frictionless communication between all stakeholders?

Complex building projects, new buildings and renovation projects for theatres and cultural venues bring great communicative challenges for all involved. Not everyone is trained to read floor plans and many find it difficult to translate a plan drawing into a three-dimensional image. Tools familiar from architectural visualisation, such as rendered 3D views and animations, facilitate communication but often only show selected aspects – an understanding of the overall spatial context often does not emerge. A built model lends itself to spatial understanding, but this often does not meet the requirements for variability, mobility, scalability and expandability. There is also a great need for interactivity and flexibility.

To what extent can digital technologies such as augmented reality be used to support communication by adding digital layers to built scale models, on drawings and in real space and to present complex architectural transformation processes in a comprehensible way? digital.DTHG explored this question in a cooperation with the Luisenburg Festspiele in Wunsiedel, Upper Franconia.

Since 1890, Germany‘s oldest natural stage with its complex rocky landscape has been a spectacular backdrop for actors and spectators alike. Every year, up to 150,000 spectators visit the festival, which has been under the artistic responsibility of Birgit Simmler since 2018. Every season, musicals, plays, comedies, opera and operetta are shown for a broad and interested audience. The tradition of showing own productions is continued by Birgit Simmler. In addition, the Festspiele develops new formats and plays that are produced especially for the Felsenbühne.

The natural stage of the Luisenburg Festspiele is located in the middle of the forest and can hardly be compared to other theatre spaces. It covers an area of 4,000 square metres and is a place of animate and inanimate nature. Nature itself thus plays the stage designer here – and has done so since the beginning of the earth‘s history about 300 million years ago, when the Kösseine granite was formed as the basis of the imposing rocky landscape. The stage space is constantly changing and never looks the same on any given day.

The building structures installed by man in the last decades, such as stairs, platforms, scenery walls or lighting installations, require a fundamentally new consideration in the upcoming renovation process. The refurbishment is challenging due to weather conditions and production processes and requires a high degree of professional competence and expertise. In addition, the complex system of cavities, corridors and stairs is difficult to manage with conventional planning methods. In its form, this venue is therefore an extreme example in the theatre landscape.

„Not everyone is skilled at reading floor plans and even for us as experts, the mishmash of voids, corridors and staircases is hard to to grasp in its entirety.“, Fabian Schröter, Technical Director of the Luisenburg Festspiele

In close cooperation with Fabian Schröter, the technical director of the Luisenburg, and the redevelopment consultant Christian Buschhoff, we have developed usage scenarios for redevelopment planning and the discussion of stage productions. In addition to the digitally supported „expert discussion“ between the people directly involved in the renovation, a moderated „presentation“ with less involved actors also plays a role. These include, for example, the theatre management, political decision-makers, potential cooperation partners and financial backers. When communicating with these groups of people, it is important to give a concise and understandable overview of highly complex planning processes and building projects, so that well-founded decisions can be made without lengthy familiarisation.

The auditorium, which holds a good 1,900 spectators under a curved tent roof, was built in the 1960s according to an idea by the architect Prof. Dr. Frei Otto. Frei Otto became famous for his constructions, for example for the Munich Olympic site in 1972.

Based on the excellent existing 3D database (terrestrial laser scans, drone-based photogrammetry and CAD planning) of the present spaces, we first tested the use of available software solutions in the various scenarios. This showed that these tools can be used well for the coordination processes among experts and can be integrated into the planning process; for use with external stakeholders, however, these applications are usually too complicated to handle and can hardly be operated without an introduction.

Based on these experiences, we outlined an easy-to-use, „augmented“ presentation format: Using a tablet, smartphone or AR glasses, users can present three-dimensional content on a drawn floor plan or a physical terrain model, for example the current planning status or variants of a stage design. The physical-real objects serve as anchor points for the overlay of digital three-dimensional content. The presentations can be prepared in advance by the presenters and contain a wide range of information. Similar to the slides of a PowerPoint presentation, the presenter and viewer can then click through the different 3D models.

After we defined the required features – such as the positioning of objects, scaling and the interface – in preparatory experiments, the findings were brought together in the prototype application „XR Editor/Viewer“ as a sample solution and thus serve as a starting point for further developments. The technical basis for the application is the new WebXR standard. It enables three-dimensional content to be displayed on a wide variety of devices, whereby the type of display depends on the technical possibilities of the hardware. The resulting application consists of two related components: On the one hand, this is the WebXR editor, in which the „slides“ are compiled and prepared, and on the other hand, the WebXR viewer, which can be called up online to display the presentation. This browser-based and device-independent use allows the same content to be played out in different ways.

Both applications were designed in such a way that they are not only specific to this subject area, but can also be transferred to other areas: Thus, with this application, we were able to develop parallel adaptations for the topics „Augmented Reality in Event Technology“ and „Digital Twins of Theatre Technology History“.

„Unlike in an urban, classically built theatre architecture, there are no sufficiently precise construction plans for this theatre landscape constructed in and around the mountain and grown over the decades. Only with a spatial survey by laser scan, which we created in 2018, can we distinguish and separate animate from inanimate nature in sufficient detail in distinction to the man-made path network and the playing areas.“, Christian A. Buschhoff, Redevelopment officer and external consultant

 

Project team digital.DTHG
Project lead: Franziska Ritter, Pablo Dornhege
Development: Lea Schorling, Sascha Sigl
3D-Modelling/Scans: Sascha Sigl, Pablo Dornhege
Design and Interface: Maria Bürger

Partners and experts
Luisenburg-Festspiele / Naturbühne Wunsiedel
CAB Dienstleistungen Christian Buschhoff
Komische Oper Berlin
Fabian Schröter, Technical Director Luisenburg Festspiele
Christian Buschhoff, Commissioner for Renovation

News about the project

 

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Results of the project Augmented reality as a communication tool

Complex building projects, new buildings and renovation projects for theatres and cultural venues bring great communicative challenges for all involved. Not everyone is trained to read floor plans and many find it difficult to translate a plan drawing into a three-dimensional image. To what extent can digital technologies such as augmented reality be used to …

Results, licences, sustainable usage

The solutions we developed as part of the research project “Im/material Theatre Spaces” (2019-2022) serve as sustainably transferable concepts due to their prototypical model character. The gained insights and developed model solutions were published on various channels and are made available to the entire cultural landscape for free and flexible use.  Licenses For this purpose, …

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Kick-off workshop and prototype development

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