All of us have the image of the perfect home in mind – so vivid that we can almost visualize it down to the smallest detail. Sometimes, we manage to bring this vision to life, but most of the time we have to make do with something quite different. Soon, virtual reality apps will allow every potential homeowner to design their perfect home and have it built according to their wishes.
Actually, the first steps are already being made. Architects already have powerful VR tools to design a house taking into account the most detailed factors, including how natural light goes into each room. Customers are able to get a full walk-through even before the ground is broken to dig the foundations.
The Virtual Model of a Home – Better and Cheaper than Scale Models
Using virtual reality apps to showcase a proposed house design is not just more convenient for customers, but also more cost-effective. A high-end home designing and building company revealed in a feature article for The Washington Post that creating a VR model can be up to 10 times cheaper than building an actual scale model of the project, with furniture and decorations, as the customers demand.
Looking at and walking through the digital model using virtual reality apps, prospective buyers can get a feel of the layout, change the position of the fireplace, add or remove doors and windows. This ability to alter the plan before the house is already in the building phase will certainly cut down construction costs and speed up the completion of the project.
Every Little Thing, in Its Place
HTC VIVE is one of the leading companies in promoting the use of virtual reality in every possible industry. Together with Immersion, the VR headset producer created TrueScale – a virtual reality app which allows people to decorate their home with a wide variety of items, including the annual Christmas tree.
This does not mean that interior decorators will be left without a job to do. On the contrary, virtual reality apps will give them new and powerful apps to create the clients’ vision and present it in the most realistic possible manner.
Putting Everything into Context
Immersive visualization is the only way in which architects, interior designers, and customers can really check whether the design fits the intention and the need. The drawing of a dining room, even an AutoCAD model, cannot give the client the sense of elegance and style they wish to achieve. The same can be said about a business meeting room for high-level assemblies of shareholders. Only walking through the room makes the customer get the actual feel of the context of the furnishings, decorations, and color scheme.
No Awkward Corners and Bad-Fitting Furniture
Virtual reality is the final frontier of customization, both for house layouts and for interior design. There will be no space, wall, or angle to make people wonder why it is there at all. Putting up makeshift curtains and trying several places until you find the right position for the wardrobe will be a thing of the past. Everyone will design a home that makes sense, architecturally speaking, to the style of furniture and decorations they want to have.
And where no furniture can be found in a retail store, either custom-made or 3D-printed pieces will be available to fit the appointed place perfectly.
After all, new technologies are all about making our lives easier, safer, and more pleasant. Being able to create our own perfect homes is a natural step forward. And it will become a worldwide reality sooner than we can expect, thanks to virtual reality apps and design tools.
