Hybrid Home Office

Abstract

In current times, AR and VR technologies facilitate the workplace and livelihoods of many people. Can these technologies be further enhanced to work together to improve a workat- home situation. Cross Reality (XR) is a fusion of cyber-information and physical constructions interactively linked through a sensory interface. Users operate in a hybrid form of reality by bringing digital content into the physical world and bringing physical behaviour and materiality into the digital world. An ideal home office synergizing the physical world with the digital world allows users to stay at home while being able to communicate with team workers, collaborate with partners, and share ideas in a joint meeting while being in different locations. The home office is an alternative for people who live further away from the city, while the XR technology allows them to gap the distance. The software of teleportation using depth-sensing technology provided by Empathic Computing Lab (ECL) explored the remote collaboration from an architectural perspective. How does this teleportation technology fit into architecture and create possibilities of different types of collaboration in terms of space-oriented rather than user-oriented? Within the home office setting, the Cross Reality working space challenges ordinary office activity to meet the demand for long-distance communication, interactive working behaviour, and real-time collaboration experience. The usage and capabilities of the home office varies according to different types of job occupations. These flexibilities of different architectural elements were tested by changing their geometries and colours to provide a more tangible interface.