AUSTIN, TX
– Zebra Imaging’s holographic display technology played a pivotal role in winning Britto Charette the contract to renovate the lobby of The Majestic Tower in Bal Harbour, Florida.
Zebra Imaging's holographic displays enabled the leading interior design firm to immerse the luxury oceanfront condominium’s owners in the dimensions of the proposal, as it jumped off the screen right before their eyes.
“When you are presenting to people who aren’t architects or designers, you need a bridge,” said David Charette, principal of Britto Charette. “We’ve found that many people have difficulty understanding how a space will look in 3D, but with a hologram, they get a complete picture.”
Working from as-built drawings of the site, Britto Charette used SketchUp, Trimble Navigation's architectural sketching software, to construct a 3D model of the lobby. Zebra Imaging's holographic printer then broke the 3D data down into subsets corresponding to “hogels” (think: three-dimensional pixels) and “imaged” these hogels onto a photopolymer film. When illuminated with direct light, the flat photopolymer film recreates a field of light in which the 3D model appears in space.
As a result, Britto Charette was able to more effectively communicate the overall scope of the project and the spatial relationships within its design at a glance, without having to ask the client to master complex 3D software or wear cumbersome virtual reality headsets or goggles to navigate the lobby.
“When trying to communicate a project, designers used to share perspective drawings created by hand. Later, computer renderings were used,” said Charette. “But people who were 'spatially challenged' still had trouble understanding the final layout. The hologram allowed us to show the board and building owners a clear picture of our design.”
Charette cited the wow factor of a holographic print as the key component to the success of the pitch, and said that Britto Charette plans to create holograms for future projects to give its designs a competitive edge.
“The clients loved the 'Star Wars' aspect of the technology,” he said. “They were excited to see what was possible. In the end, that was extremely cost-effective for us, because it helped us compete with others who were bidding on the project, while showing the clients our ideas in a way that was completely new to them. It worked.”
