Iconic Architects’ Designs Now in AR
In July, Morpholio Board announced we have joined forces with Theia Interactive, one of the world’s top AR visualization companies, to collaborate with Knoll as well as many of the world’s best furniture companies to finally bring these masterpieces in to AR with Morpholio Board. “At Theia, we are storytellers. When Apple put AR into every pocket, it gave us an opportunity to tell new kinds of stories to an entirely new audience,” says Bill Fishkin, President of Theia. “We hope to harness this powerful tech in order to bring designers a simply magical experience.”
Morpholio’s collaboration with Knoll — a longtime leader in delivering modern design and one of the most important trendsetters in the industry — ventured to see how far they could push this technology. “Knoll’s collection is not only beautiful; the attention to detail made the furniture a perfect argument for why AR needed to go further using Apples new USDZ 3D file format,” says Anna Kenoff, Morpholio Co-Founder. Now, looking at Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Barcelona chair in AR, you can feel the soft tufts of the leather in contrast to the sharp polish of the chrome. The collection also includes architects such as Eero Saarinen, Warren Platner, Marcel Breuer, relative new comers like David Adjay and design influencers such as Florence Knoll, Richard Schultz, and Harry Bertoia.
“Knoll has always pioneered showcasing our classic and contemporary furniture designs to the trade and the public in new ways,” says David Bright, Knoll Senior Vice President of Communications. “Without question AR has become an exciting way to experience Knoll design for the way we work and live.”
The goal for Morpholio was to work with Theia to take on two major hurdles for AR in the design industry.
The first is detail. Consumers and interior designers do not rely on cartoonish shapes to make critical decisions about color, space, scale and texture. They need to see detailed finishes, patterns and even stitching to understand how something might really work in an environment. Thanks to Apple’s ARKit, USDZ 3D file format, the upcoming “People Occlusion” in iOS13 and Theia’s mastery, Morpholio’s already popular Board App now has AR with detail so real you just might trip over it.
The second challenge for Morpholio was to answer the question “Why do we need AR?”
The intent for Morpholio was to make AR part of a larger and more meaningful process. “This isn’t about hitting the buy button on a single piece of furniture,” says Mark Collins, Morpholio Co-Founder. “This is powerful visualization technology that needed to be plugged into the entire interior design workflow, helping homeowners and designers alike to imagine and curate spaces holistically.”
For each AR product, Board now allows users to add it to their mood board alongside other models, fixtures and furnishings. The result is a vision for an entire room or project that can be brought to life. Taking it a step further, with a single button, Board automatically translates your AR selections into cut sheets and furniture lists to share with your contractor, designer or collaborators.
“By bringing these pieces into AR, we’ve changed the way people can interact with and consider the furniture that will surround them when creating their ideal home or office. The result is a first in the space and truly redefines how we understand what good AR can do for the design industry,” says Fishkin of Theia.
These smart design tools are truly rethinking how designers, and now shoppers, can experience furniture, and make better decisions. Whether you are working on your own home or creating a new kind of interactive presentation — powerful tools are literally in your pocket already! Taking advantage of Apple’s technology, the Morpholio/Theia team, together with Knoll, have just taken design and augmented reality to new levels. Morpholio’s team is also working with Porcelanosa, Dyson, Hansgrohe, Phase, Davis and many others to deliver more immersive experiences for designers.
Currently Board AR is available for iPad and will be coming to iPhone soon. You can download Morpholio Board in the App Store here.
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