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paper published in inForma

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Ming Tang’s paper “Architectural visualization in the age of mixed reality” is published by the architectural journal inForma.

Tang, Ming. 2018. “Architectural Visualization in the Age of Mixed Reality.” informa 11: 82–87.

Having been a promising visualization tool since the 1950s, ironically, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) were not widely used in the architectural design and evaluation process due to the high cost of equipment and complicated programming process required. However, with the recent development of head-mounted displays (HMD) such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Microsoft HoloLens, and easy-to-use game engines, both VR and AR are being reintroduced as Mixed Reality (MR) instruments into the design industry. This paper explores research related to VR concepts “essential copy” and “physical transcendence” (Bicocca, Levy. 1995), and their use in architectural design studios at the University of Cincinnati. We explored various methods to integrate MR in the architectural design process. This paper discusses two main aspects: (1) how to integrate MR into the design process as a design instrument, and (2) how to valuate MR methods for communicating architectural data, based on the workflow efficiency, rendering quality and users’ feedback.

This issue “Hybrid Realities“of inForma explores architectural discourse by looking at how twenty-first century economic, academic, technological and political shifts have set up conditions for architectural hybridity. We define ‘hybrid’ as points of convergence between different ‘breeds’, resulting in the creation of dynamic architectures and frameworks. Parting from the premise that disciplinary and theoretical crossovers can produce alternate readings and conceptualisations of space, ‘Hybrid Realities’ seeks to discuss the effectual offsprings between two different components, wether typological, disciplinary, idealistic, or others. Similarly, it aims at discussing works and research which places these crossovers in a wider, contextual discussion representative of our current moment in time. Borrowing ‘hybrid’ from biology, the issue situates it within the discussion of the built environment to challenge notions of architectural singularity and highlight the diverse ways in which the field is expanding.  

Mixed Reality for medical data

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Grant: “Magic School Bus for Computational Cell”,  the Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences and Integrated Research Advancement Grants. (AHSS)  UC.  $8,550. PI: Tang. Co-PI: Zhang. T. 2016

The AR & VR project for medical model. Animated heart. magic school bus project at the University of Cincinnati.

 

Funded by the 2017 AHSS and Integrated Research Advancement Grant at UC. Magic School bus for Computational Cell” project constructed a mixed reality visualization at the College of DAAP and College of Medicine by integrating virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for molecular and cellular physiology research. The project employed state-of-the-art VR and AR software and hardware, which allows for creative approaches using holographic imaging and computer simulation. This project expanded our cutting-edge research in space modeling & architecture visualization to the new computational cell field, including the creation of 3D models of the intestine tubes, and envisioning cell changes through agent-based simulation.

PI: Ming Tang. Associate Professor. School of Architecture & Interior Design, College of DAAP.

Co-PI:Tongli Zhang. PhD. Assistant Professor. Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. College of Medicine.

Data Managment: Tiffany Grant. PhD. Research Informationist. Health Sciences Library. College of Medicine.

the web3D model is here.

Animated Heart
by Ming Tang
on Sketchfab

Project featured in the IDSA’s Innovation magazine

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Our project is featured in the summer edition of IDSA’s Innovation quarterly. “Design for ________”. by Jacqueline Kern. The article discussed the UC and Live Well Collaborative’s Boeing Onboard project which was covered at UC Magazine in Spring 2018.

DATA & MATTER Exhibition, Venice Architecture Biennale

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Mara Marcu, Ming Tang, Adam Schueler’s project “Optical Illusions of Volume” is exhibited at the ‘DATA & MATTER’ Exhibition in Venice. 
Palazzo Bembo, Riva del Carbon, Venice, Italy.  May 24th to November 25th 2018.

Images and video creadit to DATA & MATTER Exhibion. GAA Foundation – EUROPEAN CULTURAL CENTRE
“Time – Space – Existence” during the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale
May 26 – November 25,2018  Palazzo Bembo,Venice, Italy

Exhibition curated by: Marcella Del Signore, Nancy Diniz , Frank Melendez.

More information on our exhibtion is avialble on the UC News “UC’s Mara Marcu talks ‘Optical Illusions of Volume’ exhibit at Venice Biennale” by Michele Ralston. August, 2018.

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 DATA & Matter Exhibition at the GAA Foundation and European Cultural Centre during the #2018VeniceArchitectureBiennale May 26 – November 25, 2018 – Palazzo Bembo, Venice, Italy
Exhibition Curated by: Marcella Del Signore, Nancy Diniz and Frank Melendez.
https://dataandmatter.wordpress.com

12 projects at the “Time – Space – Existence” during the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

The exhibition presents a group of projects by leading international designers using emerging and novel forms of reading and producing spatial conditions that connect/visualize data, responsive systems, and sensing/actuation technologies, through micro and macro scales. The exhibition takes the opportunity to exhibit a range of projects, side by side, that transform DATA as an abstraction into spatial and experiential configurations. It aims at triggering discussion and debate on how the use of data in design methodologies and theoretical discourses have evolved in the last two decades and why processes of data measurement, quantification, simulation, ubiquitous technologies and algorithmic control, and their integration into methods of making architectural form and spatial experiences, are becoming vital in academic and industry practices.

Thesis: Layered Space

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This is the thesis book of my graduate student Adam Sambuco: 

Layered Space

Toward an Architecture of Superimposition

by Adam J. Sambuco
University of Cincinnati, 2018

Degree. Master of Architecture

Thesis Chair. Ming Tang

Historically, the physical nature of architecture has caused it to remain functionally static despite evolving theories, materials, and technologies. The design of spaces and the actions of occupants are fundamentally limited by the laws of physics. This thesis and associated project explore and present ways in which architectural spaces can incorporate extended reality to enhance the design and use of buildings in ways that were not previously possible. Due to their part physical, part-virtual nature, superimposed spaces can change over time, on demand, or contextually, based on their inhabitants. Extended reality can assist with wayfinding, socialization, organization, personalization, contextualization, and more. This thesis asserts that it is essential for architects to familiarize themselves with this technology, exploring new methods of design and presentation for such radically different end products.

It is with this in mind that this document establishes the basic functionality, terminology, and history of extended reality before moving on to more modern capabilities. After a glimpse into the near future of XR and a look at its relationship to architecture, the philosophical basis for treating the virtual as real is explored. Having establishing its history, functionality, and reality, the idea of spatial superimposition is then explored through the lenses of visitor, designer, and presenter. My previous work is then covered, touching on how XR technology will become normalized in society and investigating an approach to XR renovations that brings virtual mansions to the masses. Finally, my thesis project, an XR-enabled media the que in downtown Dallas, is introduced and my processes of creation, experimentation, and presentation are detailed so that others might learn from and build off them. Despite its large scope and cutting-edge subject matter, this work scrutinizes only a small portion of the changes that extended reality will undoubtedly bring to architecture and greater society.

View the full thesis book. 168 pages. 14MB