“The future is immersive.”
Digitisation is impacting more and more areas of life. With 3D streaming, the real world can now be experienced virtually. With his digital media agency, Neutral, architect Christian Grou works in the engine room of this new world: from the design of virtual realities and digital architectures to the production of animated films, the boundaries of human-machine interactions are being rediscovered.
This interview was originally conducted in German by Michael Stratmann and Kay Bartelt and posted on the FSS blog on 10 March 2022.
How do you decide which technologies to use in your projects?
Christian Grou: It depends on the target group, the topic and the specific task. Do you want to express messages in a quick and targeted two-dimensional manner? Or do you want to create an encompassing three-dimensional experience?
The possibilities are limitless, from a mobile experience on a small two-dimensional screen to a full-on virtual reality (VR) experience. Our task is to find the right solution together with the customer.
Like the Lipstick Bar that you designed for Copenhagen Airport?
Christian Grou: That’s right. We implemented an immersive shopping concept with augmented-reality elements in the travel retail sector for the German duty-free provider Gebr. Heinemann. The Lipstick Bar is designed as an interactive shopping experience for tech-savvy millennial shoppers. It was first launched at Copenhagen Airport in 2018 and since then has been installed at five other locations.
What exactly is the idea of an immersive experience?
Christian Grou: The term immersion describes a dive into or an intensive engagement with a virtual experience and has several facets from a technical point of view. On the one hand, the less engaging perceptions on a two-dimensional screen. On the other hand, it can also be an immersive three-dimensional VR experience that appeals to all senses.
Users already have a particular affinity to typography, design, graphics, or the elegance of movements. Applications are usually also designed so that many elements can be explored intuitively. We especially see in children that they deal with it quite naturally.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Christian Grou: We are the first generation of trained architects who have never worked at a drawing board. We grew up in a digital world, surrounded by computers and 3D applications. In the same way that buildings are planned and built as architectural concepts, information can also be displayed in a certain structure. We look for the choreography of elements and find a temporal presentation of abstract, three-dimensional concepts.
Your website says: “Our approach morphs analytical thinking and aesthetic excellence in technical expertise to create transformative solutions.” What do you mean by that?
Christian Grou: As architects, we started working with 3D spaces. Gradually, the models of computer-generated graphics became interactive real-time applications. What used to be a linear virtual reality has developed into a new product world of virtual showrooms.
These complex 3D worlds require high-performance hardware, which has shifted into the cloud. This means that now we can stream all the refinements of the visual solutions. The technology has been available to the masses for about a year, and it can transform the VR landscape just as much as Netflix impacted the market of movies and TV shows.
Could you elaborate on what these transformative solutions look like?
Christian Grou: If you want to acquire a piece of property, for example, you can walk through virtual rooms of the building and thus view everything without having to be there. We provide interactive tools for large development teams, which can be used online and directly on site.
The web application enables sales teams to record business transactions via the CRM system by integrating Salesforce. These solutions also offer an API that we can use to connect to a wide variety of platforms.
How does this work in real life?
Christian Grou: Let’s take the following example: A real estate developer has several hundreds of apartments to sell. The showrooms in Dubai, Singapore, or Tokyo can be physically visited on-site and viewed online from anywhere.
A client in Hong Kong is viewing the apartment on the 20th floor. At the same time, a family in Dubai is looking at the same apartment from the showroom on site. The family in Hong Kong is notified of the other viewing, which prompts them to reserve the apartment. The family in Dubai is informed of this reservation and thereupon confirms the apartment next door.
Do you mean that you can address more customers in a virtual world simultaneously?
Christian Grou: That’s right. When we started with real estate marketing suites, they had to be internationally available, so we equipped them with multiple languages. Nowadays, the showrooms’ personalisation is not limited to just colours, content or materials. Via dynamic elements, they can adapt to geographical, linguistic and cultural differences.
When the pandemic began in spring 2020, on-site was no longer an option. As a result, we could see that the app was used very widely. Potential customers can enjoy their property viewing three-dimensionally without leaving their home, which they usually would have seen on large touch screens in the showrooms. From the real estate developer’s point of view, the time it takes to sell a property has halved since then, a massive ROI.
That sounds like a distant future by German standards. What’s the situation over here?
Christian Grou: In Germany, the market is slower, and people are more hesitant when adopting digital solutions. But when you compare the sales figures, especially the sales timelines, one realises the power of these apps as distribution channels.
What do you think is the reason for this success?
Christian Grou: You make better sense of these new spaces through our three-dimensional interactive models and augmented or virtual realities. In addition, these virtual spaces feature interactive options for contacting, expressing interest or reserving apartments or offices.
Immersive applications create a synergy. 3D streaming runs on standard browsers and can be accessed anytime from anywhere. It enables you to move through the information space and grasp it quicker and better than a static 2D website.
Where do you see the most substantial growth areas for this technology?
Christian Grou: In our view, the most promising growth area in VR is training — using real scale environments. Because these virtual showrooms don’t just make us the designers of such three-dimensional spaces, but also their builders and operators, in the long run, that’s a paradigm shift and will give rise to new professions. My vision is to establish new disciplines, such as media architects.
Does Germany offer enough well-trained staff, or will they be recruited internationally?
Christian Grou: In our case, employees are spread around the globe. Even before the pandemic, we have pursued a dual strategy that combines the core team of permanent employees with many freelancers to achieve flexibility. We have become much more efficient in our projects ever since.
In general, I would say that talent knows no borders. What counts is the performance. Either you get things done and make them available to the team, or you don’t. As the saying goes: “There is no place to hide.”
Many thanks for this interview!
