Subject: PUB: Designing with Forms and Forces in Virtual Environments [LONG]

From: [email-masked] (Robert Jacobson)
Date: 10 Dec 1994 22:52:37 GMT

[This file is available via anonymous ftp at our site:
URL=ftp://140.142.56.2/public/virtual-worlds/papers/Designing-VR-Jacobson.txt

-T.E.]

For the Fifth World Congress on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, 
"Habitat and the High-Rise:  Tradition and Innovation"
Amsterdam, May 14-19, 1995
Special Session on Virtual Reality

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DESIGNING WITH FORMS AND FORCES IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

Robert Jacobson, Ph.D.
Worldesign Inc.
5348-1/2 Ballard Avenue NW
Seattle, Washington 98107-4009 USA
+1-206-781-5253, -5254 fax
Email: [email-masked]

EXPERIENCING THE WORLD-TO-BE

        The tall building inspires and  awes.  When we think of modern
urbanization, it  is  the  skyline of  the  city,  that  mythical line
linking the apexes of  tall buildings, that  comes first to mind.  Yet
it is one  thing to encounter  the skyline  of  a city  already built,
complete  with its historical   accretions, and another  to imagine  a
skyline as yet unformed of tall buildings still to be constructed.

        In the past, architects and builders -- in the past, they were
one  -- used rough sketches, crude  engineering drawings,  and rule of
thumb to depict the future tall buildings of their times: the castles,
cathedrals, and in  a   few  more  egalitarian cultures,  the   common
dwellings that  reached to the    heavens or sheltered  among  cliffs.
Recently, the rough sketches and all have been replaced.  High quality
draftsmanship produced accurate plans and a new class of architectural
artists created both stylized  and lifelike renderings, so  that every
tall building could be envisioned structurally  and emotionally.  (One
might  question how much emotion  made its way   into the buildings of
Modern architecture, but  for better  or  worse, the Modern  buildings
have at   least survived.)  Lately these   crafts have themselves been
challenged by new technologies, like CAD and the telecommunications of
imagery that, while threatening  -- certainly changing  -- the life of
those who envision  (among  them, architects, artists,  and draftsmen)
promises to the rest of us a clearer picture of architectures still to
be born.

        One of  the  newest of these   technologies  is virtual worlds
technology.   In the interest  of precision,  let  us consider  that a
virtual world is  both a scientific  and a management term-of-art.  It
means the  dynamic mental picture (sometimes called  a mental  map) we
keep in mind  of people, things, and processes  we encounter in  life.
Virtual worlds    technology (popularly known  as   "virtual reality")
enables us to get these pictures  out of our heads  so that others can
experience them.  A written novel is one way to convey a virtual world
(and a good  way,  for persons with   time to write and  to  read).  A
better way to do it, for the majority of people who have grown up in a
mediated world, is to synthesize a representation of the virtual world
using  information technology capable   of   stimulating more of   our
senses.  Even better would be for the virtual  world thus designed and
generated to be interactive, so  that our  experiences in the  virtual
world are not merely passive, but highly active.  Interacting with the
virtual  world means interacting  intimately with the ideas of others.
Unlike CAD, which  essentially deals   with static objects,    virtual
worlds technology   is   intended to portray   that   which  is alive,
uncertain, and risky: human experience.

        In   architecture, ideas  are   of  the essence.  A  competent
virtual  worlds technological ensemble  (still on the horizon, but now
not so invisible as before) into which the architect  can bring his or
her  colleagues, clients, and  collaborators  (engineers and builders)
would be a strong addition to the architects' tools.  In fact it would
be a meta-tool, one that  integrates the production, presentation, and
modification  of concepts achieved   through the use of more  ordinary
apparatus (like the irreplaceable sketchpad).

        For the engineer,  the   uses  are obvious,  perhaps   because
virtual  worlds technology has some  of its roots  in engineering: the
need to  collect and analyze  information visually, for example, and a
focus on the user's needs  as the central  reason for the invention of
technology.  Engineers  are already  using near-virtual worlds systems
for the  design and   testing  of   new   components for  planes   and
automobiles.  A few have even  gone so  far as  to use actual  virtual
worlds  systems,  as  at Caterpillar,  McDonnell-Douglas,   and Sandia
National Laboratory, to mock up machinery and circuits that do not yet
exist.  The   pace is  slower   in  the construction  industry,  where
tradition is king.  But civil engineers are getting the taste for more
flexible and communicative analytical  tools.  In engineering, virtual
worlds technology is virtually a fait accompli.

        What about the builders themselves, who in size if not numbers
dominate  the construction  business?  So  far,  with the exception of
Bechtel  Corporation, none has come out  strongly in  favor of virtual
worlds as an asset  for  innovation.  The reason   isn't hard to  see.
Most builders are  pressed just to  deliver product on time  and under
budget.  Working with  a new suite of  technology, some of it still in
development, isn't  their  cup of tea.    This is regrettable, because
although virtual  worlds technology will undergo constant improvements
in capability and  knowledge about its use,  there are  elements of it
that are ready for practical applications today, even for builders.

        For now, the  case is strongest for the  use of virtual worlds
as a way of  sharing ideas and  concepts.  Virtual worlds generated by
the current   crop of computers  and peripherals  -- add-on machinery,
like projectors and sound  generators --  are  less than perfect.   No
one, least of all a virtual worlds developer, would  like to spend too
much time in a building designed exclusively in  a virtual world.  But
the conveyance of  ideas is a  less than perfect science, possibly  an
art,  and  there is  leeway   for the   use  of imperfect  tools  that
nonetheless exceed others in what they can communicate.

        Various  experiments  with virtual  worlds  for  architectural
purposes and marketing are taking place around the globe, notably here
in The Netherlands.  (Unlike expensive-to-develop hardware, good ideas
have  never been the monopoly  of big nations.)   In many cases, these
experiments are being conducted in laboratories; in other case, in the
market.  In my home, Seattle, small  but thriving architectural design
businesses are creating with PCs  lifelike "walk-throughs" of proposed
construction,  for developers,  real-estate  salespersons,  and  their
clients.   Their success is a measure  of  the power of virtual worlds
technology even at its less able "low end."   These ad hoc efforts are
complemented by the systematic exploration of of more complete virtual
worlds as architectural  tools ,  at  the CALIBRE Institute  of  which
Geert Smeltzer   is director and   at similar institutions  in Europe,
North America, Australia,  and Asia.  Gradually connections  are being
made between the practitioners   and the scholars, so  that laboratory
work can help to refine and improve field work.

        This Fifth World Congress of the Council on Tall Buildings and
Urban Habitat is about  one year too soon  to  see the fruits  of this
convergence, but by 1996 (if not sooner) the use of virtual worlds for
envisioning and experiencing future tall buildings  will be a regular,
if still infrequent, occurrence.  The point is not  to to automate the
design process but  rather to work within  it with tools that automate
representation  and sharing  of design  ideas.   If  the tools  become
easier   to use, more time  and   effort can be   spent  on the ideas.
Professionals   projecting  their ideas  into  the synthesized virtual
world can express themselves more fully.  Equally important, they will
be able  to bring their  clients and collaborators "into" their ideas.
Relationships among the  various parties to  a new tall building  will
(one hopes)  improve  accordingly.    These new abilities   are  worth
something and within the  next year more than one  builder is going to
discover this.

        So far this paper has mainly talked in the abstract about what
can and will  be.  What needs to  happen now, concretely, to make this
future real?

        First, the technology needs to be improved.  No one will argue
otherwise.  The  graphic and acoustic    images should feature  higher
resolution.  Presentation  technologies,  at least  in a collaborative
setting, should  be other than   inexpensive and low-quality headsets.
(Worldesign, my firm,  favors  projection technology that  can produce
shared  immersive experiences, like    the "Holodeck" in  the  popular
television  series, Star    Trek:  The Next   Generation.)   Expensive
workstations  are  indispensable  for   some purposes,   but  for most
purposes more powerful PCs, when they become available this year, will
prove a better buy (for  professionals  and clients alike).   Finally,
today's   anomalous  worldbuilding software  must give  way  to a more
standardized,  reliable, and easily learned  suite of tools.  It's all
in the works.

        Technology,  however,    comprises more   than   hardware  and
software.  Knowledge, skills, and organizational settings conducive to
the use  of virtual worlds    technology today are in scarce   supply.
Again, the  best way to accelerate the  attainment of favorable social
conditions is to work with what is now available, using it to its full
advantage, learning  in  preparation   for  the  next   generation  of
technology.   The Japanese do  this  perhaps better than anyone  else,
although   in Japan a  protracted   period of  caution and  collective
deliberation  may precede the decision   to  employ a new  technology.
Certainly in the case of virtual worlds, the Japanese (including large
builders like Shimizu) have described the most extreme applications of
virtual  worlds technology, though they have  yet to implement many of
these visions.

        Time will  tell.   By 1996, the  technology of  virtual worlds
will be sufficiently  advanced,   in  both technical capability    and
knowledge, to find application  around the world.  Without  doubt many
of those  attending this Council  meeting will have   a chance to work
with this technology before  the end of the  decade; more,  before the
end of their careers.

        At  Worldesign   we     have given   much  thought    to   the
characteristics of tools we would like  to put at  the disposal of the
building industry.  In   1992,  we prepared  for  the  Japan  Research
Institute, a division of  the Sumitomo holding  company, a white paper
on an hypothetical  "Virtual Design Environment."* Although the "VDE,"
proposed to   be used in   the MITI-sponsored  "Friendly Environments"
program,    was never built, it    fired our imagination regarding the
direction in which our technology might go.  Not surprisingly, many if
not  most of us in  the virtual worlds business  have  a background in
spatial design, art, or engineering:  each of us foresees advances  in
our prior  discipline  through the use  of  virtual worlds technology.
Those like me, who come out of  architecture and urban design, want to
see the  tools applied in these fields.   (We are  continuing our work
with JRI for a new consortium of Japanese construction firms.)

        Worldesign's  VDE    was  conceived  as a    shared  immersive
environment  in which an entire region,  a city, a neighborhood, or an
individual   building could be   experienced  through sight and sound.
Using manipulative devices not unlike   the felt-tip pens and  pencils
architects favor, the "inhabitants"  of the computer-generated virtual
world could explore and modify  both large-scale and local designs and
plans.  Inhabitants would not have to wear awkward, isolating headsets
or other  encumbrances:   high-powered  projectors and  surround-sound
would produce convincing visual  and acoustic images, giving substance
to the imagined world.  Clients would not only be tolerated in the VDE
but encouraged  to   enter, to gain  a  clearer   understanding of the
architect's or builder's visions.   (JRI's intended clientele were the
planners, corporations, and civic organizations  of Kansai, intent  on
remaking their region in world-class terms.)

        Virtual world models  could be bicycled  among VDEs or, in the
near-future,  telecommunicated from   one   VDE to  another.   A  more
intriguing possibility: the  sharing  of virtual worlds   continuously
over an expanded telecommunications  network,  so that inhabitants  in
each of the VDEs could "meet" in  the virtual building-to-be.  This is
not far-fetched.  For years the U.S.  military has been running global
war games with participants at bases around the world connected by the
transcontinental SIMNET.  Military personnel in SIMNET simulators have
the  experience  of piloting vehicles  against each  other on a common
battlefield even though they might be physically separated by hundreds
or even thousands of miles.  The first nonmilitary, scientific meeting
on distributed virtual worlds was  held in Tokyo,  early in 1994.  And
at the Mecklermedia VR'94  Expo in New York City,  in December 1994, a
panel of  experts      including  researchers  from    MCI,    British
Telecommunications,  and  European    telecommunications     equipment
suppliers convened for a three-hour discussion of "televirtuality," as
it is called.  There is a good deal of  activity in Europe surrounding
televirtuality; North America and Asia are only slightly behind.  VDEs
of the future will feature televirtuality as a matter of course.

        When  virtual worlds can be   shared and commonly  experienced
across  telecommunications networks,  VDEs  will  come into  their own
within the     global building industry.  By that     time we may have
accumulated enough practical experience with stand-alone VDEs to fully
exploit   the  power    of  this   powerfully   syncretic   technology
incorporating many design and construction traditions.

DESIGN ISSUES IN VIRTUAL WORLDBUILDING

        One of  the  most interesting  aspects of the  VDE and related
technologies  of "virtualization," in an ideal  form, is their ability
to maintain and depict  various  relationships not only among  objects
but also between objects  and the virtual world  -- expressing all the
real-world  "fuzziness"  with   which  architects   and builders  must
contend.  In this  regard it has more in  common with  GIS (geographic
information  systems) than   CAD  (although  current   GIS are  fairly
incapable of incorporating uncertainty).

        CAD has  a different function, to  portray  with precision the
intended relationships among objects in an engineered environment.  It
usually  focuses on   the forces  acting  among objects,  rather  than
external forces working  on the objects.   Both CAD and virtual worlds
technology will   belong  in the building   industry's future toolkit.
Whereas CAD's    properties are  well-known  if  still  underutilized,
however, virtual worlds  technology is novel.  Appropriate methods for
its application remain unknown.

        From  other design  fields, like architecture  and information
science (including librarianship), it  is possible to piece together a
theory of design and virtual worlds.   With few working systems in the
field, little of this theory can yet be confirmed.  This theory can be
suggestive, however,  and is a  good starting point for more elaborate
experiments and applications in coming months and years.

        A  virtual world  exists simultaneously in  the  minds of  the
system users   and in the constantly updated    memory of the computer
driving  the presentation  of a  synthetic  virtual environment.   The
closer the system-generated virtual world  resembles the virtual world
in the minds of its beholders, the "better" it is said to be.  This is
a highly subjective  opinion, of course.  One  can evaluate a  virtual
world for its     verisimilitude (how closely it    photorealistically
portrays  an image from the  real world), its   dynamics (how well the
objects portrayed interact among  themselves and with the participants
in the  virtual world), or  its abstractions (how clearly  the virtual
world explains complex  relationships), for instance.  These three and
other  criteria   can interact synergetically.    A  system- generated
virtual  world can feel   very "real" even though  its  imagery may be
primitive.  Conversely, a   virtual   world that is   finely   crafted
visually and  acoustically can  still  fall flat as  a communicator of
vital information.

        To build   a  virtual  world, one  begins  with  CAD  modeling
software.   Multidimensional   (usually  3D) objects  are  created for
insertion into the virtual   world.  Then "worldbuilding"  software is
used   to position these objects   in  the virtual  world, assign them
roles,  and direct relations   among these objects.   Current software
leaders,  like  Sense8  Inc.'s  WorldToolKit (WTK),  Autodesk  Corp.'s
Cyberspace  Developers Kit (CDK),  Paradigm Technology Inc.'s software
suite, and Division  Ltd.'s DVise still  require their users,  who now
number   in the thousands  around  the world,  to possess considerable
programming skills.  Also, many of these products, though commercially
available, are  still under  development   and lack certain  essential
features, especially a good  API (applications  development interface)
for changing how virtual worlds perform.

        The goal of virtual worlds software  developers is to ease the
burden of building virtual worlds.  To this end, many universities and
companies  in  Europe  and North  America  are creating  worldbuilding
software  with increasingly   automatic   functions.   Much  of   this
software, still in the laboratory, should wend its way into commercial
markets  beginning this   year and  become  more prominent  as   a new
interface technology in 1996 and beyond.

        A key problem  the software developers  are trying to solve is
how to enable quick integration of objects into the virtual world with
behaviors that are appropriate.     One solution has been  to   assign
attributes to  objects, so that an object  portraying  a building, for
example, also contains within it, or can access, information about the
building's structural integrity  or some other  feature.  In a complex
virtual world, having each object "know" the attributes of every other
object, so  that they dance  well together,  is a daunting programming
mission and imposes high overhead on the computers driving the virtual
world.  Perhaps a better solution, still being worked out, is to imbue
the virtual world with instructions for the objects a la field theory.
(My  firm,   Worldesign  Inc.,  is  working  on a    solution  we call
WorldSpace(R).)  In one way   or another, virtual worlds  will  become
more   complete compositions   once  worldbuilding  is  no  longer the
exclusive domain of the skilled programmer.

        The  worldbuilder can exercise  several options when how he or
she frames  the virtual world,    depending on the  application.   For
example,  the virtual world   can  have  more than  three  dimensions.
Additional dimensions (for example,   abstract relationships among   a
class  of  objects  such  as  building elements)   can be accommodated
visually  using invented imagery  (such    as fields and  flows),   or
acoustically using sound points and fields.

        A question related to that of dimensional complexity is how to
provide for user orientation  and navigation within the virtual world.
On a construction  site, gravity   in  the physical  world  constrains
movement   in two dimensions  across  the earth's surface.  Cranes and
elevators permit movement  in tightly constrained  vertical space.  In
either case, parties monitoring the site  or managing activities there
are limited by physics to slow motion through  the site.  In a virtual
world, the participants can have the experience of flying over, under,
and through a site, experiencing the  built and unbuilt infrastructure
and   buildings intended for  the  site.    Individuals and groups  in
virtual   worlds  can get  disoriented   and  lost in  virtual worlds,
however.    This is  a  novel   possibility  and how much  freedom  to
transgress  physical limits the participants   should be granted is an
open question.  (Today's  commonly-seen  animated computer-  generated
"walk-through's" and "fly-through's" do   not permit users  to deviate
>from   a preordained path.  They are  not a good  guide  to how virtual
worlds  should   work.)  As more becomes    known  about how planners,
architects,  and builders perceive    and "work" a construction  site,
virtual worlds can be crafted to enhance  these processes.  Eventually
the rules on which the virtual worlds are based can be encapsulated in
software products.

        _Wayfinding,_      as    practiced by    architects, landscape
architects,  and  environmental designers,   may  contribute a partial
solution to the orientation  and navigation conundrum.  Architects and
environmental designers   rely  on wayfinding  principles   to provide
inhabitants    of their   buildings   and   places    with directional
instructions.   Originally  confined to the    design and location  of
signage, wayfinding  increasingly is being  incorporated in the design
of the   built environment.  The idea is   that inhabitants should not
have  to  resort to  stitched-on signs and  labels  to find  their way
through and among buildings and places.   The logic of the building or
place   should  be self-evident  --  or rather,  not  apparent  to the
inhabitant  at  all, except that  the building  or place is  easier to
understand and navigate.     Wayfinding in virtual  worlds employs   a
different   set of directional   aids (for the hearing-impaired, sound
cues may  substitute for Braille strips),  but the principles  are the
same.   Young as wayfinding practice   is, however, it is unsurprising
that even less  is known about its  uses in virtual  worlds.  The same
can be said of _orienteering,_  which expands wayfinding from the site
to the region.

        _Sense-making_ is another rich methodological vein that can be
mined for  ideas on imputing  meaning to virtual worlds.  Sense-making
is  a  system devised by  Ohio  State University professor  Dr. Brenda
Dervin   for discovering both what things   mean  and where things are
meaningless -- plain confusing -- in an  individual's mental models of
the   physical   and social   worlds.     After years   of refinement,
sense-making today    is   regularly used by     librarians  and other
custodians of information to assay their patrons' informational needs.
Virtual worlds   may  be as meaningful or   meaningless  as the "real"
worlds in which we  are allegedly more comfortable.  Sense-making will
enable designers  of virtual   worlds to  recast them  in   their most
effective  form, according to  what participants take  away from pilot
tests.  In the case of the  building industry, how much virtual worlds
really improve  the work of, say,  a construction specifier, by making
parts and  processes easier to assemble in  his or her mind's eye, can
be determined using sense-making methods.

        The psychology of  design  --  understanding the  thinking  of
architects   and engineers, for  example   --  might  be expected   to
contribute meaningfully to the crafting of virtual worlds to serve the
design professions.  Research findings   in this area  are  equivocal,
however, and  too   often couched  in the   language  of the cognitive
scientist rather than  the environmental designer.  For  now, although
growing  numbers of psychologists  are   interested in the effects  of
immersion  in  a virtual world,  most  commercial designers of virtual
worlds  are     not scientists.   They rely    on  their instincts and
subjective experience for guidance.  For  now, given the few  critical
applications  of virtual worlds   technology in the building industry,
this  situation is tolerable.  But  applying the lessons of psychology
may  become   more common  as   worldbuilding becomes systematized and
professionalized.

        Other  lessons for the  builders  of  virtual  worlds  may  be
learned   from the   theatre,   film, and  videogames   (entertainment
technologies ranging from   the sublime to the ridiculous);   military
experiments with global virtual  war games  played by participants  at
150 sites around the  world; and the  phenomena associated with  using
online computer services.

        This  plethora of knowledge unfortunately  is diverse and as a
science   it is   inchoate.  What   appears  to   be consistent  among
successful virtual experiences, however, is that their builders are as
concerned for the dynamic  relationships among objects in  the virtual
experience as for the objects  themselves.  Leading landscape designer
Lawrence Halprin  has said it best:  _"Design not with  forms but with
forces."_  Forms (objects) may "live" in a virtual  world; it is their
collective life, rather than the  objects that share it, that requires
attention.  For   building-industry  applications  of virtual  worlds,
worldbuilders are well-advised to  concentrate on the ways that things
which make  up the built  environment work together (natural forces on
infrastructure, girders with  I-beams,  ROI as a function  of interest
rates, and  so  forth, depending  on  the user  domain), how  industry
professionals  work with these things,  and how together they generate
new factors  that must  be incorporated in   the virtual worlds  being
portrayed.   Forces,  not   forms,  are the   real  stuff of   virtual
experience.  Fortunately,  even in its current still-developing state,
virtual  worlds technology is capable  of expressing forces as well as
forms.  Still  without a unified theory,  the design of virtual worlds
is a craft on the verge of becoming a profession.

PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE

        Creating the built environment, including tall buildings, is a
collaborative  enterprise.   Many  professionals   contribute  to  the
effort: among  them,   investors,  architects,   engineers,  builders,
financiers,  regulators --  and each has  a need  to communicate ideas
with the others and with the ultimate collaborator, the Client.  Their
profound collective need for better communications within the building
industry is beginning   to drive the  development of  relevant virtual
worlds applications.  It would be a mistake to  overstate the scale of
development, however, since the sensational press treatment of "VR" in
the early 1990s has made investors (including governments) notoriously
skittish about funding  anything to do with  virtual worlds It takes a
great deal  of  demand   to  generate  a little capital   for  virtual
worlds-related new-product development.

        Consequently, progress toward the VDE and other virtual worlds
innovations is slow, slower than it can and should be for the building
industry.  Lists   of prospective  applications   are easy  to   make,
difficult to implement, but  the following industry  activities (among
others) can immediately benefit  from the more accurate  communication
of ideas that virtual worlds systems encourage and enable:

        * Location characterization and siting
        * Planning and environmental reviews
        * Financial planning and management
        * Architectural and landscape design
        * Analysis and planning of infrastructure
        * Communication of designs and elements
          (among architects, engineers, builders,
          regulators, and clients)
        * Construction-products specification
        * Management at the construction site
        * Facilities maintenance of completed
          buildings and campuses

        For each of these activities virtual worlds can be an enabling
technology, whether  developed  for a  specific   function or  for the
sharing   of    ideas across   professional  boundaries.   The Bechtel
Corporation,   a  leading  construction   company,   has  organized  a
consortium of firms and university laboratories  to design and build a
prototype turnkey virtual worlds system.  The  primary purpose of this
system  is training operators of   complex construction machinery, but
inevitably it will be used for many of the activities listed above.

        Some applications   may come from   cognate fields, like AM/FM
(automatic mapping/facilities  management,   primarily  as  applied by
electric and other utilities).   Worldesign Inc. is working with Puget
Power,  an  AM/FM technology leader,  and  with Puget Power's software
subsidiary, Tellus, to create  "virtualizing" software compatible with
Tellus's   existing  utility   management  products.   The  Worldesign
software    takes   data  outputs   from Tellus's  expert-system-based
analytical tools (usually presented as schematic 2D maps) and converts
it into 3D on-screen or immersive virtual worlds.   This makes it much
easier for non-technicians, like  the real-estate developers who  must
be consulted in  the  location of  transformers and  street lights, to
"see" for themselves the planned installations  as they will appear to
home buyers and industrial renters.

        It does  not take much to  convert this "add-on" software to a
self- standing product  suitable to  interactive visualization of  the
built environment.  Digitized GIS and CAD data supplied by real-estate
developers  and garnered from existing   data libraries can easily  be
assembled   into a  "virtual   neighborhood" that  can be  iteratively
redesigned   as the   project  progresses.   In   short,  Worldesign's
utility-oriented software, as configured for the building industry, is
a  basic component of  the VDE.   Obviously, with  time, the  VDE will
become a reality; but this  pace of development is unconscionably slow
for a building industry that prides itself on becoming streamlined and
up-to-date.   The  building  industry  cannot depend    on the utility
industry (or the theme parks or aircraft  manufacturers) to invent the
virtual worlds-based  tools  that the building   industry  needs.  The
longer the   building industry  waits to  invest  in  these tools, the
longer it will be before  they are available for application, testing,
and  refinement.  In  the  meantime, the  building industry could slip
even further behind  other industries in terms  of speed to completion
of projects and productivity.

        On the positive side, there are real  cost savings inherent to
digital media   generally,  including  the  production,  distribution,
storage, and  retrieval of images; in   these virtual worlds  also can
partake.  On one project in which Worldesign was involved (at an early
stage),   the eventual    costs   of   blueprints   alone  constituted
approximately 15  percent of the total cost  of the project  -- not to
mention the cost and legal exposure if a  blueprint or similar complex
graphic is  misinterpreted or misunderstood.    At least part of  this
expense, totaling for this project tens of  millions of dollars, might
have gone  to storage of imagery  in virtual worlds,  where is is more
accessible and compelling.

        The best  argument for using virtual  worlds as a  design tool
within   the building  industry is   that  it permits   the early  and
continuous involvement of the client in  a design process that, in the
past, has been  almost   arcane  and certainly inaccessible    to  the
layperson.   Without exception,  individuals  who  have experienced an
architectural  construction in a virtual  world, be it prehistoric and
no longer standing, a contemporary development, or  a structure out of
science fiction, appear to retain  a clearer, more positive picture of
the  building or site than with  more conventional presentation media.
(Accurate   3D  sound, which  is     totally absent from  conventional
presentation media,  makes a large contribution to  this effect.)  The
evidence   for  this  claim  is  still   largely anecdotal   but it is
persuasive for those who regularly poll participants in virtual worlds
demonstrations and experiments.  The point   is, if the client is   an
early   member   of the  design  team,    there  will  likely be fewer
change-orders and  cancellations of projects at their near-conclusion,
when changes  are most  expensive.  The  client  can "buy in" via  the
medium of the  virtual world and become a  de facto or honorary member
of the building team.  The client becomes an advocate.

        Tall  buildings  are  unique.     They are large,   expensive,
complex, and prominent.  Tall  buildings attract attention  and affect
everything around them, with consequences that are sure to be disputed
before a single shovel  of dirt is turned.   It is  no longer an  easy
matter to  initiate and carry  through a tall building project because
of the  finance needed, the  regulatory  approvals required,  and  the
sheer  difficulty of bringing   in a hugely intricate  construction on
time and under budget.  Initially  in a small  way,  and then in  ways
larger  with   time, virtual worlds   technology   will help  ease the
communicative burdens  associated with getting   these things done and
tall buildings erected and populated.

SUGGESTED REFERENCES

Arthur, Paul, and Passini, Romedi, 1992.
        WAYFINDING:  PEOPLE, SIGNS, AND ARCHITECTURE, 
        McGraw-Hill, New York City, 238 pp.

Begault, Durand, 1994.
        3-D SOUND FOR VIRTUAL WORLDS AND MULTIMEDIA, 
        Academic Press, San Diego, California,  230 pp.

Benedikt, Michael, 1991.
        "CYBERSPACE:  SOME PROPOSALS," in _Cyberspace:  First 
        Steps, _ Benedikt, M., ed. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
        pp. 119-224.

Holtzman, Steven, 1994.
        DIGITAL MANTRAS:  THE LANGUAGES OF ABSTRACT 
        AND VIRTUAL WORLDS, MIT Press, Cambridge, 
        Massachusetts, 320 pp.

Jacobson, Robert, 1994.
        "VIRTUAL WORLDS CAPTURE SPATIAL REALITY," _GIS 
        World, _ Vol. 7, No. 12, December, pp. 36-39.

Jacobson, Robert, 1994.
        "VIRTUAL WORLDS:  A NEW TYPE OF ARCHITECTURE,"
        _Virtual Reality World,_ May/June, pp. 46-52.  Also published as
        "CAD Off the Screen:  The Virtual World as a More Natural
        Design Environment for Architects," _ACS Kompendium 93,_
        Architektenkammer Hessen, Stuttgart, Hesse, pp. 43-50.

Novak, Marcos, 1991.
        "LIQUID ARCHITECTURES IN CYBERSPACE," in _Cyberspace:  
        First Steps,_ Benedikt, M., ed., MIT Press, Cambridge,  
        Massachusetts, pp. 225-254.

Novitski, B.J., 1994
        VIRTUAL REALITY FOR ARCHITECTS, _Architecture,_ October, 
        pp. 121-125.

Wexelblat, Alan, 1991.
        "GIVING MEANING TO PLACE:  SEMANTIC SPACES," in
        _Cyberspace:  First Steps,_ Benedikt, M., ed., MIT Press, 
        Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 255-271.

Worldesign Inc., 1993.
        DESIGNING VIRTUAL WORLDS, Worldesign Inc./Evans & Sutherland 
        Computer Company, Seattle, Washington.

TOPICAL JOURNALS AND NEWSLETTERS

_CyberEdge Journal_
        Mill Valley, California (bimonthly)

_Presence:  The Journal of Teleoperators and Virtual Environments_
        MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (quarterly)

_Real-Time Graphics_
        CGSD Corporation, Mountain View, California (bimonthly)

_Virtual Reality World_
        Mecklermedia Inc., Westport, Connecticut (bimonthly)

_VR News_
        Cydata Limited, London (10 issues annually)

ONLINE RESOURCE

On the USENET, an Internet function, the newsgroups
         _sci.virtual-worlds,_ _alt.architecture,_
        and _alt.architecture.alternative_
        
On the WELL, the _vr_ and _design_ conferences

On CompuServe, the _Cyber+_ forum

On America Online, the _Virtual Reality_ forum

On BIX, the _VR_ conference