Author: Olaf Schroth

Master program in Visualization at Texas A&M University

| Olaf Schroth

The Department of Visualization at Texas A&M University mailed me the following call for applications as Master students. The program sounds very interesting to me and I would like to share it here with you:

"We are seeking qualified applicants for our well-regarded thesis-based Master of Science and our unique technology infused Master of Fine Arts programs in Visualization.

Twenty years after its founding, former students of our graduate Visualization program now constitute one of the largest groups in the animation, special effects and game industries. More than 200 of our former students are currently working in the animation and special effects industry, including PIXAR, ILM, DreamWorks, Electronic Arts, Blue Sky and Rhythm & Hues Studios.
 
If you know of students who have a strong interest in pursuing graduate work in the intersection of the artistic, scientific, and technical aspects of visualization, including fine art, electronic and digital media, and computer animation, please direct them to our website: http://www.viz.tamu.edu. For full scholarship consideration, the early application deadline for Fall 2013 is December 15. The final application deadline is January 5."

Architecture + Engineering = Stunning Visual & Structural Harmony

| Olaf Schroth
 
Today, I am glad to present a post by guest author Victoria Lipnick from the Engineering Degree Resources Project about integration and collaboration in the design and construction disciplines:
 

Integration, collaboration, and interoperability are still the buzzwords of architects, engineers, and designers. Increasing use of technology has allowed for seamless integration of many fields of study when designing and building structures ranging from public parks to private homes. Now, professionals can create increasingly effective and efficient solutions that take all the angles into account, together. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement, particularly regarding the interfaces of applications that professionals use to collaborate. To this end, programmers keep improving their products and honing their ability to predict what architects and engineers will want in the future.

Projects have benefitted so much from multi-dimensional teamwork in the field that students are being given similarly cohesive assignments. Texas A&M, for instance, started a new interdisciplinary initiative, which includes features, such as the Interactive Arts and Technology Initiative, the Green Roof and Green Wall Project, among others. One tine of the initiative will incorporate faculty and students from both visualization and landscape architecture departments.

The initiative is even ambitious enough to reach into the humanities for some of its inspiration. There will be 3-D reconstructions of museum collections, as well as renditions of landscapes and cities. Professors are even collaborating to teach a class on ways to render literature and musical forms in space. The results of student input and design will be displayed around campus, literally changing the world in which they live.

Although teamwork is being given increasing amounts of focus both in and outside the workplace, technology is not yet ideally suited for interdisciplinary collaboration. An Institute Research in Construction report on systems integration in architecture, engineering, and facilities management addresses some of the primary areas in which the technology can improve the efficacy of interdisciplinary work. The principle struggle is the same as that of consumer technologies. Namely, individual programs/applications do not know how to work in tandem, and no one has developed a single management system that can manage all of the different types of data.

The same principle extends to the multifarious factors that support the success or failures of projects. For instance, upfront costs for the construction firm may translate to long-term energy savings for building owners. Lifecycle issues, such as maintenance and environmental impact, have not been delineated and defined. In the end, professionals want a way to compute a total best value for each test case. Guessing is no longer good enough. Computing power has progressed to the point that quantitative computations of this order are now possible. It is only a matter of theorizing an equation and programming the solution.

Take a complex public project, such as proposed expansion to Los Angeles Union Station, which is set to complete by 2050. The Los Angeles Times reported the completion of the first stage of the project, which included plans and visual presentations to renovate the 40-acre plot around the current station. Large-scale projects, such as this one, bring all of the constituents and factors into full view. Some teams proposed plans for outward stretches of development, in the direction of the civic center, or toward the river. One of the most prestigious firms to bid, Renzo Piano, even suggested a small array of towers to be erected near the station, as it stands now.

 
Currently, there is no way to gauge all the aspects of one idea’s validity over another, because there are simply too many fields involved. Perhaps some day soon the technological infrastructure will be laid to connect and analyze the various scenarios under a single, coherent application.


Author: Victoria Lipnick

 

Visualizing Climate Change

| Olaf Schroth

Today, I would like to present the new book "Visualizing Climate Change: A Guide to Visual Communication of Climate Change and Developing Local Solutions", published by Earthscan from Routledge. In four book sections, Stephen Sheppard, Professor in Landscape Architecture and Forest Resources Management at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, continues the topic of his recent journal papers on using landscape visualizations for the communication of climate change related topics. In "I. Setting the scene on climate change", he provides an overview of the challenges that perception and visualization of climate change imposes. Then, he addresses in more depth the issues around perception and recognition of carbon and climate change in everyday landscapes at the local scale ("II. Knowing, seeing and acting on community carbon and climate change"). In the third chapter, "III. Switching lenses: Changing minds with visual learning tools", he focuses on the techniques and relative merits/constraints of visual media and landscape visualization in particular.  Lastly, in Section IV, he presents a range of hypothetical local future scenarios of climate change mitigation and adaptation through landscape visualizations and narratives ("With new eyes to see: What the future looks like with climate change").

A broad range of target audiences is addressed with this book and the author presents various stories and visual examples which make it very illustrative. Many of the discussed challenges and concepts also apply to other topics of environmental communication and make this book an important resource for anybody interested in environmental communication and climate change, from local community groups to planners, landscape architects, graphic designers, educators, and scientists.

For further information and details on how to order a copy of the book at discount price or its Kindle version, please refer to the following flyer.

More art than science: the sources and effects of stylistic variation in visualization for planning and design (Lewis 2012)

| Olaf Schroth

John Lewis published a paper in Environment and Planning B that I would like to draw your attention to. He addresses the important impact of "entourage" elements, e.g. atmospheric effects such as sky color and light, and human figures on the perception of urban design visualizations. An argument which resonates with my own anecdotal experiences designing architectural visualizations a long time ago and developers asking for "happy people" and "expensive cars" in their visualizations. More scientifically, Lewis quotes Luymes (2001: 200) who suggested that visualizations are “rhetorical products” that are “constructed with an audience in mind, with a specific intention, and from within a framework of personal or agency values." Do you agree and if so, what are possible solutions to make visualizations more objective? In my thesis (Schroth 2007), I proposed more interactive visualization, an argument that Lewis also presents. However, Lewis points out that more advanced interactive technology is not sufficient but the viewers themselves have to be more critical and develop appropriate visual competence. For example, it would be most helpful if standards such as Sheppard's (2001) code of ethics would be disseminate beyond academia and be applied by the viewers of urban visualizations.

In the following, please read the abstract from the journal page:

Visioning exercises using computer-based environmental visualization hold significant promise for communicating information and engaging communities in the development and review of planning proposals. The field of visualization research and practice has achieved significant advances in computer technology to the point where it is now possible to represent alternative planning and engineering scenarios with a high degree of photographic realism, data-driven accuracy, and spatial and temporal interactivity. Despite the noteworthy benefits and developments in the field of environmental visualization technology comparatively little research has investigated how visualizations are used in urban planning practice. In particular, research is needed that examines how visualization presentation is affected by the social context of planning practice and the independent judgment of the preparer, which may in turn influence plan evaluation and decision making. In this paper I discuss the significance of visualization for urban planning and design and present the results from a study where students and representatives of a citizen-led planning committee evaluated four visualization presentation styles according to perceived realism, credibility and preference for the visualized environmental plans.

For the full paper:

http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=/b37148

Trimble will buy Sketchup from Google

| Olaf Schroth

Now, that took me by surprise: On April 26th, Google announced that it will sell Sketchup to Trimble. In a statement on the Google SketchUp blog, SketchUp Product Manager John Bacus promises that they will further provide a free version of Sketchup and that it will appeal to various target groups while focusing on architecture, engineering and construction industries. However, an immediate implication is the transfer of licenses and personal data to Trimble including non-geolocated (!) 3D models in the Google Warehouse (geo-located models submitted before the closing date belong with Google but Trimble gets a license to use them in the future). I am not a lawyer but it shows how quickly data could change owners these times… Today, the 3D warehouse models we constructed were owned by Google, tomorrow they will be owned by Trimble (who develops, unlike Google, military systems as well).

Other than that, I tend to be slightly optimistic that Sketchup will keep being one of my favorite tools as Trimble has a good reputation in GPS and surveying. I still remember my undergraduate studies where we already used Trimble equipment… Lately, Trimble seems to diversify and has shown an enormous appetite for buying various companies specialized in aerial data collection, CAD and GIS software, mobile systems, laser scanning, photogrammetry, and even UAV and RFID technology. Well, I hope that Trimble will further professionalize SketchUp without loosing its amazing intuition that revolutionized 3D modeling.

 

 

 

Future of social networks and location based services

| Olaf Schroth

According to Josh Williams (formerly Gowalla, now Facebook), Facebook has 2 billion items per month tagged with a location. Add Microsoft's Photosynth and the possibilities for the automatic generation of 3D landscapes are endless.

LVIZ Blog in the Bauwelt blogschau

| Olaf Schroth

The German architecture magazine Bauwelt presents LVIZ in its third column about architecture and planning related blogs: blogschau03.

We welcome all new readers, who were inspired by the blogschau article to visit our blog, and invite you to browse through the LVIZ posts about landscape visualization and related themes such as geovisualization, representation of vegetation, virtual globes and much more.

Beyond Climate Models: Rethinking How To Envision the Future with Climate Change

| Olaf Schroth

On February 17th 2012, the symposium "Beyond Climate Models: Rethinking How to Envision the Future with Climate Change" took place at the Vancouver Convention Centre as part of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Guest speakers Mike Hulme from the University of East Anglia, Richard Moss, IPCC author on the IPCC scenarios, Stephen Sheppard and facilitator John Robinson from the University of British Columbia discussed the role of landscape visualization tools and processes to support climate policy and action.

After the speakers' presentations, participants discussed specific aspects such as the role of visualization in scientific collaboration, in combination with the scenario method, and the use of virtual globes and decision theatres. The evolving research questions were collected and will inform future research in the area. 

REAL CORP 2012

| Olaf Schroth

May 14-16 2012, Multiversum Schwechat, Austria

17th international conference on Urban Planning, Regional Development and Information Society
“RE-MIXING THE CITY” – Towards Sustainability and Resilience?

An overview of Accepted Papers/Presentations is available at http://www.corp.at/Download/CORP2012/REALCORP2012_programmedraft.pdf

Until March 10 the detailed program will be available at www.corp.at, early bird registration is available until March 15.

 

Social learning can benefit decision-making in landscape planning

| Olaf Schroth

A very informative new paper:

Social learning can benefit decision-making in landscape planning: Gartow case study on climate change adaptation, Elbe valley biosphere reserve  
Landscape and Urban Planning, Available online 8 February 2012
Christian Albert, Thomas Zimmermann, Jörg Knieling, Christina von Haaren

Highlights

► Participatory, scenario-based landscape planning may facilitate social learning. ► Social learning outcomes involve changes in participants’ understanding and skills. ► Learning outcomes can have benefits for subsequent decision processes. ► Challenges are issues of scale, personal involvement, and resource needs. ► Further research is needed in more case studies and on longer-term effects.