The exponential use and improvements in computer processing is determining dramatic shifts in our approach to architecture, design and planning. Riding the crest of the latest technology available a few years ago Glasgow City Council (GCC) conceived the creation of a 3D digital model for the City Centre and River Clyde Corridor; the project was awarded, following European procurement, to Digital Design Studio, Glasgow School of Art and implemented by Development and Regeneration Services (GCC). Together both organisations have utilised the very latest technology to reveal a virtual representation of Glasgow, one of the most detailed urban model of its kind in the world complete in every intricacy.
From inception in 2004 three years of work has seen the Urban Model phase one expand to its present scope of over 1,200 modelled buildings, terrain, roadway and bridges across the city centre and Clyde corridor. Of approx. 4,000 planning applications processes each year, around 540 are contained within the area of the model.
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Margherita Cavallo, Project Leader for Development and Regeneration Services, GCC outlined the key aims established by the council for the project: “Using cutting edge technology, we can map our developments in a way which has never been done before, and soon allowing the public to assess planning applications in a virtual form. It is often difficult to visualise developments simply from architects’ drawings – now we can bring them to life, allowing everyone to contribute to the planning process. But this is about more than the planning process. The model also brings with it the prospect of future innovations which could see it used as a marketing and tourism tool, with potential visitors and investors able to access Glasgow’s unique built heritage from any computer, anywhere in the world. What the City has delivered is a unique model and one which has huge potential for growth.”
The model is conceived for public use; not just GCC staff and professionals. By putting the model online and encouraging access in public libraries GCC is intending to extend access to the whole decision making process of the planning system. We wanted a tool which could enhance the understanding of the built environment and overcome the limitations of 2D drawings, currently used for the assessment of planning applications.
Also, the model will improve communication among planning officers, elected members, architects and everybody involved in regeneration and development and will extend access to the planning system to members of the public with its on-line version.
{sidebar id=318 align=right}If you’re a member of the public it may be difficult to be able to visualise and contextualise a 2d drawing into its streetscape. It’s a human barrier. A lot of people don’t really want to go into a council building and ask for a file, and the Model is quite empowering and breaks down the barriers to people of what’s happening in their city.
Margherita continues, “The project was a first of its kind and it was very difficult to find a comparative project which could act as a benchmark; what makes the model unique within the existing 3D model development business is the accuracy it’s been created against, the extent of the project area, the level of detail and the cutting edge technology. The potential range of applications of the model(s) is enormous: flooding analysis, security management, transport studies and tourism to mention a few and since the launch of the pilot in 2006 we have received much interest from a variety of different organisations whose business would benefit from its use.”
The functionality and performance of the on-line model is under constant development and in the forthcoming months 3D visuals of proposed planning applications will be added to the website with a view to encourage public comment.
The interesting thing with the urban model is that it becomes this little time capsule so you can go back in time to Glasgow as of November 2005, so assuming this model carries on for years to come we can keep coming back to the model and seeing how the city has evolved which I think is very exciting.”
Douglas Pritchard, Head of the modelling team at Digital Design Studio says, “The Glasgow Clyde Arc bridge is interesting as an archival document because it was scanned before one of the cables snapped, so the city has the potential of that data as an insurance record. We never thought of scanning the bridge for legal issues but it can be used in that way. A lot of organisations in the U.S use the laser scanning for just that. There is a hotel chain which has reportedly purchased 100 of these scanners and is in the process of scanning all of their hotels just to document them for insurance. The police use them quite extensively to calculate the blast radius of major buildings and to scan crime scenes in order to return to the virtual crime scene.“
The urban model comprises three distinct components, a massing model, a photorealistic model with textured facades drawn to 20cm and the online model, which carries both photorealistic and massing models.
The interface is really unique with a real time 3d view plus the map and hot spots. On the performance side however you really are restricted by the quality of your computer, we have to try the middle ground so everyone can access it.
The transfer of such huge amounts of data is however stretching technology to its limit, with powerful hardware required to run the model proficiently. As such prior iterations have been subject to teething troubles which the latest version seeks to address by subdividing the model into sixteen zones, thus tackling resolving access and navigation issues.
Glasgow City Council is in talks with the company which runs the On-line Model with a view to introducing a Mac friendly version of the software is to be introduced in late 2009 to address the lack of such facility at the moment.
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The model operates primarily as a tool for evaluation of tabled proposals prior to approval, this is to be facilitated by engaging with architects early in the design process. Independent 3d models constructed using off the shelf software such as 3ds Max, Sketchup and AutoCAD can be freely imported to the model to show how a proposal works in terms of mass, scale and height. As materials and elevations take shape it is hoped to populate the site with a fully rendered model.
Margherita reveals, “The various versions of the model are already being used for a variety of projects and studies. Among this, the new design for George House at George Square, where the six short-listed entries were dropped onto the city model for the assessment of the design proposals. We were able to navigate through each proposal, set precise views of each of them in context and see one against the other, by simply hitting a key.”
In order to focus on the architecture, secondary clutter and traffic has been removed but such data can be readily incorporated as Douglas explains: “We did model up all the banners and pedestals but we avoided the statues because they’re very difficult. You could probably spend half the time modelling statues so we focussed on the architecture. You can add and remove clutter you can run through various scenarios such as the redesign of George Square and the events that go with it. None of the renderings have people or cars, that’s on purpose. They can be added by putting in animated green screen people, just to give a sense of the urbanism. You’ve got a new building going in to what is basically a giant room of stone, so what does an all glass building look like next to the city chambers, what does a pink sandstone building look like?”
He further adds, “by introducing such a dynamic tool, a host of variables can be tweaked as desired to achieve intended effect. One of the strengths of this is the ability to change material, warmer materials on a grey day makes a huge difference as opposed to concrete or white render and we can render that out in advance.”
At the moment we ask for samples of material, but it’s one thing bringing a piece of stone and another to see the impact of the use of specific materials within the design of buildings and the surrounding townscape.
Douglas says, “Third party software packages can be plugged into the model where you can do very accurate light and heat studies of a building and because the urban model is so accurate in terms of building footprint, window placement and materials the city can then do a review of all council buildings in terms of say heat loss. As the model is universal you can then bring in different packages and do a variety of different things such as façade and wind studies. You can also look at right to light issues and key sightlines.”
The model is innovative in the use of 3D laser scanning. The block model is ideal for shadow studies. When a building goes to planning the urban design or review panel will look at it and then the whole building gets slotted into context, this breaks you away from the 2d approach which is completely abstract for the general population. The advantage of the 3d model is that the council controls the context.
At architectural presentations no-one ever enquires about the architectural context, so an architect gives a presentation with these amazing 3D fly throughs, but people don’t know if the surrounding context is accurate. When seeing these amazing renderings it’s always on a sunny day, it’s always under the best conditions, the perfect angle of front entry.
{sidebar id=289 align=right}When in reality people may not see the garbage handling units, the view from a council tower, the view from a street, the view from an alleyway. Adjustment can be made for winter time rendering, show grey skies and shadow impact. The importance of this situation is context looking at buildings a couple of buildings adjacent.
The background to all this is terrestrial laser scanning and this is where it’s uniqueness is displayed. The scanning process allows each building to be very quickly and accurately to be read down to sub-meter levels. The group was the first in Scotland to obtain a scanner and few other cities in the region are using them. People use the scanning for surveys and archaeology but not for urban revitalisation.
A scanner generates the information and avoids the use of 3rd party information. Using a a 360 degree sweep, thousands of dots, recording positions in space, are acquired. But the representation is not really a 3D model at this point. Through further processing a highly accurate representation is constructed in 3D, which can be manipulated to build the model. “Each scan takes about 15 minutes, and we did 2,013 scans off the city, so we’re taking scanners from street corner to street corner to street corner and stitching them all together. One scan will recognise another adjacent and all of a sudden you’ll have an entire city street or city block,” said Pritchard.
As he goes on to point out, “It’s a time of flight thing between the laser shooting out, hitting the surface and then bouncing back. It does that millions of times. The fascinating part is that 10-15 years ago unless you’d used GPS you’d get within a 100 spots on a cloud, with the scanner now we’re getting millions of spots. The council has requested an accuracy of 20cm which is extremely accurate, but the laser will by its nature generate an accuracy of 6mm. We go from the point cloud, to the wireframe and then the modellers will show examples of the shading and then we’ll texture. The care and accuracy employed on modelling a building like the GOMA is also applied to buildings that are less architecturally significant.”
The data is accurate to 6mm and if a building is falling apart or there are pieces missing the scanner will pick that up. The scan data will see street furniture because the scanner will not just pick out architectural detail and fenestration but it will show designs of the garbage bins, rubbish on the street and the position of lamp posts.
{sidebar id=320}Margherita adds, “the City has the ambition to expand the existing boundary of the project to include the modelling of the remaining of the city. However, as it will be financially challenging (demanding) to represent the whole of the city in photo-realistic detail and we hope to model the city in massing form in the future.” The priority for next year will be the modelling of key regeneration areas such as the Commonwealth Games site and the remainder of the city centre.
She thinks that, “the main issue the City is faced with now is the update of the model. Once the model goes out of date, which it has already, the environment will not have value attached to it. GCC is intending to pilot a licence scheme around Christmas; third parties will be able to licence the data associated to the model at convenient rate and the revenue so generated will be reinvested in the maintenance of the model and therefore guarantee its sustainability over time.”
Despite being a work in progress the Urban Model has already proven itself both to be a valuable tool and one that can add value over time. The potential afforded by accurately and systematically recording the world around us is only beginning to be grasped and opens the door to an endless multitude of possibility.
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Contributors:
Margherita Cavallo, Glasgow City Council – +44(0)141 287 8636
Douglas Pritchard – Digital Design Studio
Website: www.glasgow.gov.uk/urbanmodel
This article has been reproduced with the permission of Prospect Magazine and www.architecturescotland.co.uk and has been edited herein.
