Tangible Mixed Realty: Interactive Augmented Visualisation of Digital Simulation in Physical Working Models

The implications of architectural design decisions are in many cases hard to predict and envisage. As architectural tasks grow more complex and the design of architecture shifts away from the design of end products towards the steering of dynamic processes, new ways of coping with complexity in the design and planning process are needed. Taking this as its starting point, as well as the need for architects to use familiar, established design tools, the CDP research group is working on new ways of supporting the design decisionmaking process with objective information so that designers are better able to manage these complexities. The focus of the group lies on directly coupling interactive simulations and analyses with established design tools. This paper discusses a central problem in this context: how to present complex calculation results directly within a physical 3D-model. The approach described, as evidenced by the realized prototype, shows clearly that directly coupling real and digital information using interactive augmented visualization presents immense possibilities for managing the complexity of planning processes.