Pop-Up Reality Shop: Functional Aesthetics of Haptic-Digital Space

Abstract

Pop-Up Reality Shop is a research project that is supported by Datacom Group Ltd in the development of new concepts for hybrid retail shops. The thesis is situated in Auckland’s first and leading innovation hub for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies; the ‘AR/VR Garage’ and is embedded in the research at the Lab for Digital Spatial Operations (arc/sec) at the University of Auckland. A team of four Architectural Post Graduate students, Anita Chin, Linus Goh, Ricky Tung and Bevin Liang had embarked on a one year project to investigate the merging of physical properties with digital information to form a new responsive Architecture. The team utilizes AR/VR headset tools to actively link touchable physical matter with digital materiality and to create unique user experiences in haptic digital space. The application of these devices allows us to simultaneously reinvent and reimagine the future of interactive space, going beyond our traditional understanding of both architecture and technology, towards a collaborative and experimental mode of practice. The advent of augmented, virtual and mixed reality technologies calls for new methodologies for designing spaces. This thesis is a highly experimental and investigative project which addresses the functional identity of such spaces, delving into ways this new practice can expand our understanding of physical space as opposed to simulating physical experience.