No longer Green behind the digital ears

As of late, I have been witness to an explosion of interest in the web3D open standard by the Green community. Beyond the work our group is doing to promote green with Architecture For Humanity, I am constantly approached by those in the green space from both the design and manufacturing wanting to migrate to the 3D web. Many see the high barriers to entry for using virtual worlds, their platform limitations, and don't really need avatars. "I want to show how my building or design is Green", is a growing theme.

Even in a recent issue of 3D World it was covered that a study by Autodesk and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) said clients are driving architects to green design. The Autodesk/AIA Green Index, which measures how architects are practicing sustainable design, reports that 42% of their clients are asking for green building elements on the majority of their projects. The Green Index also found the 66% of the architects surveyed said that this client demand is a primary influence on their building practice.

Famous architecture firm Anderson and Anderson (featured in above article) incorporates innovative technology in many elements of their design and building process. I have talked with Peter and Mark Anderson before and I have to say these guys are at the forefront of their field. They used Autodesk solutions to design and visualize their Wuhan Blue Sky Prototype project for a 12-story housing and mixed-use development in China. To design the project, the firm relied on AutoCAD software, Revit Architecture and Revit MEP software for building information modeling (BIM), as well 3ds Max and Maya modeling, animation and rendering software.

IDEAbuilder, a building company that uses web3D technologies and robotic manufacturing to produce homes more efficiently is a huge supporter of open standards. Founder Greg Howes has spoken at many various events in multiple industries and is one of the first real world builders to use the 3D web and other Metaverse technologies to improve the building industry. That is true Metaverse building, from real-virtual-real.

Greg was a part of the first Open Metaverse Roadmap and recently his company completed a project (image) around Tahoe that helped build a 5,000 sq ft custom home $100K under budget, reduced waste by 80%, and completed in one month what would have taken several. Great accomplishment there to Greg and his team. IDEAbuilder is also a supporter of Web3D Students and has sponsored many different projects to promote green, the open standard, and collaborating with those changing the world.



ModSystemSB is a prefab builder that has used web3D technologies to tell their message of green. They recently built the Holiday House in Aspen for the Aspen Skiing Co. using modular building and wanted to communicate in interactive 3D how the building was assembled and what components in the house were green. A cool project overall but sad to say that ModSystem SB's Bill Boyd and his team screwed over the student group that worked on the project by not paying once it was complete. Well with them lesson learned, but it still won't stop the group from helping those promoting green and better building practices.

So as more from the real world adopt the open standard for bringing their messages and services to the web of the new millennium, I expect to see some interesting innovation, design, building, and architecture in the near future.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Its definitely sad to see a "professional" not following through. Makes you wonder, if one would want to deal with someone like that. Lots of credibility lost.
Anonymous said…
I am really sorry to hear about Bill Boyd. He sounds like a shady character. But otherwise, cool stuff!

Popular posts from this blog

A quick response to QR and Data Matrix code.

Full of AWE at Augmented World Expo 2017

Artificial Intelligence & Robots