A Dual-view Information Navigator

ACADIA 2007 Differences in the preferred modes of representation of architects and their clients create challenges to their collaboration in the design process. Traditional twodimensional drawings such as plans, sections and elevations form the backbone of architectural representation, anchoring text labels to record relevant non-graphical information. Nominally geometric “slices” through the proposed building volume, these drawings employ abstractions and conventions unique to professional practice. In contrast, non-architects think about building confi guration largely through experiential or photographic perspective. This challenge increases over the life of the project. Simple drawings, such as those used in schematic design, are easily understood by all parties. However, as the building design develops the architects encode more and more design detail through the drawing conventions of construction documents, inadvertently making this detail less and less accessible to non-architects. We present DVIN, a prototype system that uses coordinated plan and perspective views for navigation of building information models, linking the information to an individual’s spatial navigation skills rather than their document navigation skills. This web-based application was developed using Java and VRML. The prototype makes it easier for naive users to locate and query building information, whether they are a client, a facility manager, or possibly an emergency responder. DVIN