Using Virtual Reality & Product Design to Help Elucidate a Football Locker Room Experience

Kansas State University’s Athletic department was looking to make way for their new Vanier Family Football Complex, a facility that’s twice the size of its predecessor, with a new locker room, weight room, video room, and a new academic center for student-athletes. They reached out to the general contractor to help manage the project complete end to end experience. I was working with the general contractor in their (VDC virtual design in construction) department as a product designer. The projects VDC services enable a new level of transparency in the building industry which allowed us to collaborate more effectively with all project team members to conduct more accurate constructibility analyses, improve estimating, maintain greater schedule and cost control while continually improving safety, quality and efficiency. This was the third and final expansion to their football stadium. We had already been the University’s partner for the entire stadium. In the past projects, we noticed that some of the crew members that focused on the enclosure systems (exterior walls) often didn’t fully understand in what sequence they were to supposed apply the different components to complete the walls. This often led to extremely costly mistakes that would need to be taken out. I worked with one of the team’s brilliant engineers to fully understand this process. We used a demonstration video of a virtual mockup to communicate design details of the stadium’s future Enclosure Systems while incorporating means & methods to project team. This was also supplemented by a We used a Virtual Mockups to communicate design details of the stadium’s future Enclosure Systems while incorporating means & methods to project team, which was then supplemented with a physical mockup.

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The subcontractors mentioned that they absolutely loved having the video and physical mockup to reference and successfully avoided making mistakes putting up the enclosure systems Since the football team was going to be spending a lot of time in the locker room, the athletic directors wanted to put extra focus on making sure it was exactly how they envisioned. The internal team wanted to really help depict want the experience would feel like. We concluded the best way to communicate this experience would be through virtual reality. We were already using all the architectural documentation to build 3D models to help coordinate the construction. We utilized the 3D models to accurately demonstrate exactly how the locker room who look and feel like using all the correct room sizes and materials. We paired this with an Oculus rift to bring it to life in virtual reality

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The client loved being able to feel like they were completely immersed in the locker room and making sure it looked like exactly what they had in mind.

All of the methods of providing design documentation through diagrams and instructional videos provided an opportunity for improvement in design and installation and identify potential deficiencies early. This reduced the installment period of the exterior enclosure by increasing communication, efficiency, collaboration and lowered cost by shorter schedules by increased planning. Most importantly it provided the customer a feeling of delight.