Walk Right In
Whether it’s a nifty DIY project, an experimental dish or a bold new hairstyle, all of us at some point in our lives have imagined something truly spectacular only for it to turn out not quite as expected. Transforming something you envisioned into a physical reality is a true talent, and doing the same for something someone else has envisioned is even harder. For a project as significant as your home, ensuring that you and your builder share the same vision is of the utmost importance and something as simple as a misinterpretation of a floor plan can throw your plans awry. Thankfully, the ever-expanding realm of technology has the solution, and companies like Vavedo Visual are forging the way forward, and ensuring that homeowners all over Australia can see and experience their new home long before the first brick is laid. Here, Katie Livingston of Sydney Home Design + Living sits down with the company’s founder and director, Rocco Alvaro, to unpack Vavedo Visual’s 3D Walkthrough technology and how its helping homeowners achieve their dream homes.
One Vision
Rocco Alvaro began his journey into the industry as a registered architect, and after taking on his own projects in 2015 he found that homeowners were having trouble comprehending his two-dimensional designs. To deliver a better service, and assist his clients, Alvaro started using 3D modelling software to depict his designs and he found that this really helped his clients to visualise their new home.
“As technology evolved, I began to experiment with different types of 3D software,” he says. The first true walkthrough software that he implemented was even built on a gaming engine, and while “this took an enormous amount of modelling time and required powerful computer hardware”, this laid the groundwork for Vavedo Visual. “We kept ahead of the technologies available to us until we finally found a way to create walkthroughs that could be viewed online,” Alvaro explains. “Our clients could view them anywhere, at any time, on any device with an internet connection. This was the beginning of Vavedo Visual,” he says.
I Can See Clearly Now
A 3D design in general has a lot of benefits over a two-dimensional plan, and Alvaro explains that “volume and space are difficult to demonstrate on a 2D sheet of paper”, and he adds that a floor plan’s purpose is to show the layout, siting and construction, but for a client to truly understand the space from a floor plan alone, they would need to have experienced this space before.
Something that is very difficult to do if the home doesn’t physically exist.
As the solution to this problem, a 3D walkthrough “allows the user to experience their floor plans in a virtual environment,” Alvaro says. The user is free to manoeuvre around their design and explore their future home from multiple angles, ensuring that they can experience and truly understand the space without relying on their imagination.
Vavedo Visual can customise these walkthroughs to suit your individual needs and can create a seamless walkthough of your whole design, or just a portion of the space as needed. Further points can be added at different stages as your plan develops. “At the click of a button we can provide material changes and even demonstrate layout or design changes,” Alvaro explains. “In addition to our standard walkthrough, we can add in additional functions to showcase different material ranges and the ability to show layouts. This helps when clients are considering how a change may affect their design and [helps to] work out if it is worth the additional construction costs,” he says.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
As Alvaro puts it, “a 3D walkthrough is like walking through a display home without it having to be built”, and while display homes are fixed and take months to prepare, a 3D walkthrough is ready in less than two weeks and takes a matter of days to change.
For homeowners, the cost benefits are immeasurable, and Alvaro explains that “the changes at the design stage have only a small cost applied to them”.
However, the same change during the construction phase can result in additional labour and wasted materials, which can add up to astronomical extra charges.
“Anyone who has gone through the building process can tell you that it is full of many unknowns and unforeseen challenges,” Alvaro notes. “The longer you wait to make changes during construction, the higher the cost,” he cautions. But this is where Alvaro highlights the true potential of 3D walkthroughs, by “having the ability to see into the future and work out weak points in the design, while the plans are still at concept stage”. Alvaro explains that you can make those important decisions at the start of the process, at a much lower cost.
Working Class Hero
“A lot of faith is put to the design and construction professional,” Alvaro says, and 3D walkthroughs are both a chance for the architect or designer to showcase their skills and a way to save everyone a lot of time and hassle. “When a client can see a concept at the final stages they make decisions based on what they can see, rather than what they are trying to imagine. Doing this removes the guesswork and back and forth trying to change a design to a client’s misunderstanding of the concept,” Alvaro notes. This gives the homeowner greater control over their project, and helps them to make better-informed decisions. “Decisions can even be made by walking through the problem areas and figuring out what effect a poor decision might make on the final result,” he adds.
With such boundless benefits, 3D walkthroughs are a gamechanger for both homeowners and building professionals Australia-wide, and with companies like Vavedo Visual at the forefront, this technology is only set to improve with time. For optimal planning, and smooth communication of ideas, a 3D walkthrough is a foolproof solution.
