Another form of digital representation is interactivity. Interactive 3d models provide users with a great sense of space and material usage, and they also allow users to control where they want to look and go. Interactive models can take many shapes. This form of media is significantly underused given its great level of effectiveness. The .pdf file below belongs to a colleague of mine. It is a studio project of his for a new condominium tower in Eugene.

click here to download the interactive .pdf file

As you can see, the .pdf has embedded within it a means for rotating, panning, and zooming throughout the building. The interaction that takes place gives the user a certain power over the building. This technology has only recently been developed in such an accessible form. The ability to manipulate an imaginary space with limited knowledge of modeling programs and only a mouse is promising. Perhaps in the future, this technology will provide a basis for architectural critique and design. In the future, maybe it will be technology like this that will allow clients to more actively participate in the design process. This type of technology is also important in terms of how we experience a space. Interactive fantasy worlds like this one have gradually started to affect our concept of spatial awareness, and with the development of ever more realistic modeling techniques, soon maybe the two realms will start to merge. Architect Yu-Tung Liu comments on the subject: “If our cyberspace and networked space experience can ultimately influence our spatial concepts in the physical world, following the massy Egyptian space, geometric Greek space, mystic Gothic space, dynamic Baroque space, modernism space, there will be a brand new spatial theory, so called digitalism.”