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What I love seeing from 3D visualisation is the trust and understanding in spatial information.  The evaporation of anxiety.  The disappearance of the blank stare. Ultimately, this leads to a reduction in effort and friction. Developing this trust and continuous shared understanding requires good to

Too often I hear that our clients are frustrated working in technical 2D space. Top of their fields, they are thought leaders and visionaries creating the future of projects and cities. Yet still, every day, they receive and communicate information in the language of technical drawing symbology. Whe

I was at the Gallery of Modern Art today with my wife and daughter. I found this image rather telling. I didn’t record the artist sadly as we were zipping through. But I think it captures nicely some of the reality of viaducts and flyovers. Sometimes we see these structures dreamed as elegant

Can you trust the information in front of you?  Do you ask yourself this? When plans, drawings and documents are not trusted – time, money and credibility can be lost.  Double checking and triple handling often occurs. Meetings repeat. Tensions may rise. Things can go very wrong. When the wrong plan

Happy New Year!  The Christmas and holiday season is always a great time to connect with loved ones – family, kids and friends, in our public spaces and outstanding landscapes.  For me, it was a reinvigorating interlude of connecting with family in the sun and surf, and the concept of connection has

The strongest influence on project and precinct outcomes comes from the early concept.  If you want the most influence on outcomes, you need to be at the front of the project at the right time. To maintain control in this arena, you will need the right toolset, skills and process. Conceptualisation

A week after Hurricane Sandy, thousands of Americans are picking up the pieces as they’re in search of resources and information on how to move forward. But how do people know where to find these basic necessities amidst the chaos? President Barack Obama has deployed 2000 people with the sole purpos

“Some think we are in the business of moving trains, but they forget that it is all about the people on the trains.” This insightful statement from the engineering manager of Australia’s largest passenger transport project under construction got me thinking. There’s no denying it – it’s the user exp

“Optioneering” in a 3D visualisation platform is a game-changer for project communication and collaboration. It makes it possible to instantly contrast differences between possible scenarios with the click of a button. Stand at the window, on the bridge, fly to the train line, sit in the

We received a call from a Brisbane City Councillor. She wanted to talk to us about a Development Assessment (DA) we worked for back in 2007.  It has acquired a status, apparently, as one of the fastest DAs in town.  Why is that? It was expected to take 24 months for the non-compliant application, wi

As the engineering design manager for the Regional Rail Link project said “some think we are about moving trains, but forget that it is all about the people that are on them”. User-experience based design validation is getting easier, more efficient and more multi-purpose across the urban tran

What were we/they thinking? Some 100 years ago the city vision setters of the 20th century were so wrong? The post-industrial modernist Utopian city was, in reality, the anti-city. Was it a reaction against the Victorian (1837-1901) urban squalor? Was it some belligerent technological over-confidenc

In a meeting recently with a powerful CEO of what is possibly Australia’s most productive region, with $800bn pa in Gross Regional Product, I was blown away with his passion.  This is a smart man with a big heart and lots of positive energy, doing great work. But he is as frustrated as hell. W

Do you know good urban space design when you see it? And, if so, do you actually have the right to judge whether a street or space is good? Are you qualified to make this call? Well, to start with, you are human. Humans have been making decisions about space and urban design as far as we go back. Go

I bumped into a development client this week in Melbourne. He is from a large national land developer and is a state manager in Queensland, but was at the International Urban Design conference, which is admirable. “Just checking to see if there is some more I should know” he said. About a year ago,

“Collaboration is the new black”.  That’s what I hear the thought leaders saying – politicians, design managers, directors, mayors and CEOs. ‘Co-creation’ is also in the mix, and for good reason. We need to work together.  It’s hard enough to see how all the pieces fit together on our own, then we h

In contrast to popular opinion, developing the local and city vision, facilitating the implementation of a design, and ensuring it aligns to the bigger vision of the precinct are the responsibility of the urban planner. They are not there to tick boxes, and make things slow and difficult. In reality

Project and precinct planning is not a solo exercise. Whether you’re designing a building or intersection, you have to consider the contextual space, and how it will affect the experience of that space. Yet, designers and planners often focus overly on meeting a single project’s needs. This has beco

A tram overpass in Adelaide had been stalled for a year. Why? Because the community couldn’t visualise the impact of the new overpass on their environment, and therefore wouldn’t support the project. 3d renders, endless expensive photoshopped drawings, handsome architectural sketches and engineering

Imagine you had the task of managing one of the most prestigious and respected events in the ANZAC calendar: The Gallipoli commemorations. Once a year all eyes are on Gallipoli as thousands of people from all over the world, including the Australian prime minister, gather to remember. Definitive Eve