Rita Deo

DRONES IN ARCHITECTURE – HOW THEY HAVE EVOLVED Origin and development Everyone has heard about drones and you do not have to be fan of science fiction movies to see them in reality. These unmanned aerial vehicles have helped create virtual reality videos of surrounding landscape from hitherto unexplored summits like the top of Brazil’s “Christ the Redeemer” and Peru’s “Machu Pichu”! The bottom-side videos of vanishing edge pools perched in mid-air above high-rises and mountain cliffs that you would have forwarded to friends on social media are also the product of incredible capability of drones. Drones were developed and used for combat and after several experiments at trying out small and large UAV’s some of which were declared as alien aircraft by locals in United States and Europe, the US Navy successfully created radio controlled aircraft in 1936 and coined the word “drone”. But if supermarket giant Walmart’s proposal gets cleared you could soon be greeted and assisted by drones on the shop floor! Drone specific conventions like the NewYork City Drone Film Festival and the UAE based Drones for Good Competition showcased innovative uses for these UAV’s in urban planning and design sectors. Drones now play an active role in architecture and construction by helping architects to visualize and create virtual structures using 3D design tools. These are used to create textured exteriors of high rises, fly through objects and when fitted with Light detection and ranging) LiDar scanners they can produce three dimensional details of scanned environment with accuracy. To showcase the abilities of drones, architectural firm Gramazio Kohler Architects and robot scientist Raffaello D’ Andrea formed a partnership with ETH Zurich to lift and place several polystyrene bricks at FRAC Centre in France. Evolution of drone from toy to work tools Drones today are a part of everyday life as more than 2.5 million were sold in the domestic sector during 2016 which shows that these machines have far outgrown their initial applications as hobby toys. It is now a commercial tool and is being used as safe and cost effective alternative to aerial photography that earlier used to be done by choppers and airplanes. Drones have become data gathering tools that can be relied for precision and quick turnaround to meet industrial needs. Government agencies and environmentalists are using drones to take real time pictures of remote landscapes and wildlife without disturbing the environment. Drones in architecture The introduction of drones into architectural sector began due to growing demand for bird’s eye views from high rises, skyscrapers and historical buildings. From assisting builders to detect structural issues during construction to providing homeowners views of their prospective home from every angle, drones have become an integral part of architecture. Commercial drones are increasingly been deployed for landscape mapping, work floor of factories, energy industry to enable large scale processes. Time consuming tasks like land surveys, mapping, site inspections and security surveillance have been made easy with drones which provide qualitative data and in short period of time. According to a Eric Reinholdt, architect and writer of book series Architect +Entrepreneur, Mavic Pro built by DJI is the best drone for architects and designers that offers features like reasonable cost, quality images, stability and ease of operation. Landscape designers use it as a tool to design three dimensional layouts of project presentations and showcase them. Drones have revolutionised architectural visualisation The ability of drones to provide aerial site images that can be used by architectural designers to develop 3D structures of small and large buildings over them cannot be disputed. In recent years, these images along with new age technologies like 3D printing and robotic fabrication are being used for 3D architectural rendering of building projects. Drones in architecture now perform multiple operations like surveying construction sites from varied angles, collecting landscape data with infrared scanners and sensors to help designers and architects create realistic 3D pictures for client verification and marketing activities. Architectural firms like Bechtel and AECOM and several others use third party drones to gather photogrammetry data from regions where it is risky to deploy humans and store these on cloud which can be analysed and viewed by their design personnel at different locations. Landscaping architects now use drones for taking pictures of actual site at the planning stage for large residential and commercial projects. These photographs are then processed through Drone and UAV Mapping software to develop 3D architectural visualisation of the entire landscaping project. Drones take photographs of bird’s eye views of buildings from vantage points that would otherwise have been impossible for creating virtual reality images. Maps made through landscape photographs taken by drones are combined using 3D rendering to create virtual reality images for impressing home buyers and investors in both residential and commercial buildings by selling stories about construction projects. Next big trend in architectural visualization 1. Large scale projects (public and private) / monuments - The new headquarters of DJI, market leader of drone and robotics technology at Shenzen, will comprise of a pair of towers made from glass blocks and steel trusses with flight paths for drones within them. Timelab Production’s vimeo videos allow you to explore famous architectural buildings across Moscow, Georgia, St. Petersburg and also view surrounding buildings from the famous Lakhta Center. According to Mary Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture, “Drones will bring “unforeseen changes to architecture and cities, and humans will see things in vertical dimensions”. 2. 3D modelling – In recent years, aerial imagery has been used to create detailed 3D models of both landscapes and structures within a few hours using 3D visualization software. 3D models of famous tourist structures like Devil’s Tower in Wyoming and Great Wall of China have been created to allow people to view them in detail without visiting them. 3. 3D Virtual Reality (VR) of large projects – Just a couple of years ago, LNG Studios partnered with Concord Pacific to showcase one of its construction projects in Canada with the help of virtual reality software. By creating an integrated real estate showroom with virtual reality, the firm was able to take attendees on a virtual walk across different rooms of an apartment. The attendees were given VR headsets that could be fixed to their mobile sets and used via internet to show 360˚ view of Concord’s projects in Canada. 4. Future of drones in architecture – Still aerial photographs and videos of buildings and landscapes captured by drones according to Goldman Sachs (the largest buyer of drones in US) are likely to be used by architectural photographing enthusiasts and advertising companies besides being used for 3D photo rendering of construction projects. Photo Rendering with Rayvat Engineering Photogrammetry is now used by architects and designers to create photo rendering of construction projects and interior layouts of apartments which can be shown to potential buyers. At Rayvat Engineering, photo rendering is increasingly used to show exterior and interior views of how a completed apartment complex or house would appear after completion. Exterior photo rendering is used to show the impact of the building on surrounding environment while interior photo rendering will show the layout of houses on each floor and interior layout of different apartments followed by view of outside environment from inside the building.