Bringing augmented reality to life
By Helana DeRossett
Photo from Creative Commons
Architect Timothy Mansfield led students through the creative process on designing the 49ers Museum last Tuesday. The lecture, which was held at the SCAD Museum of Art, was one of the 2014 Lecture Series hosted by the School of Building Arts.
The 49ers Museum, located in San Francisco, California, was created to celebrate city’s football team, both past and present.
The museum’s theater was full of building arts students, including interior design and architecture majors. Mansfield focused on those aspects throughout the presentation, emphasizing the process of brainstorming, giving examples of blueprints and diagrams, and discussing the purpose of the 49ers Museum.
He also went on to explain the idea of augmented reality and how they planned on designing an area that would be educational and informative for visitors.
Mansfield discussed the opening process: how he and his team would brainstorm all day and ask important questions would affect the design and include in the layout. Some of these questions touched on the topic of football: “What does it mean to be a player?” “How will this affect the fans?” “How can we bring the kids in?”
One of the ways the designers wanted to immerse visitors in the experience would be through augmented reality — to have an immersive design. Mansfield described it as “bringing the visitor into the space on a human level.”
The team then brainstormed how to use the space. They took inspiration from other designers’ past work. “Always look at other’s work,” Mansfield said. He added that it was important to throw it all up onto a wall and to look at the big picture.
He went on to explain the set-up of the space, the artifacts they would use, memorabilia, lights, props, statues, all of the bells and whistles.
The goal of the museum is to engage “you in a kind of experience that is really unique, [something] that you’ve never experienced before,” Mansfield said. When talking about showcasing the memorabilia of the players, he explained how the designers wanted the visitors to feel as if they could reach out and touch it. “We want to create a sense of immediacy between you and the artifact,” he said.
Mansfield was thorough and covered all aspects of the museum process. After his talk, there was no Q&A. However, he gave students advice on working on projects: “ I think it’s very important to be passionate about your work,” he said. “Get to the big idea, and then hang on to it for the whole time, go for the ride.”
He went on to say, “What I’m seeing at SCAD is you guys are really getting a breath and depth of professional practice studies here that are going to help you.”
