Virtual virtuosos - Home front: tips and trends from the world of residential design - virtual architectural tours - Brief Article

Residential Architect, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Meghan Drueding

Architects Gustavo Bonevardi and John Bennett don't believe in specializing. Their firm, PROUN Space Studio in New York City, produces everything from built houses to corporate identities to museum exhibits. Last fall, they helped design the Tribute in Light, the much-talked-about towers of light memorializing the World Trade Center.

This year marked the unveiling of a $100,000 virtual architectural tour video they made promoting Aqua, a high-end residential community under construction in Miami Beach. Developer Dacra commissioned the video, giving PROUN creative free rein. High-profile architects involved in Aqua include master planner Duany Plater-Zyberk in Miami, New Yorkers Hariri & Hariri and Alexander Gorlin, and eight others; Bonevardi and Bennett met with many of them and visited the site several times.

The result is a playful, not-quite-lifelike video that conveys a feeling of security and optimism. "What's interesting to us is the fundamental character of a project," says Bonevardi. "We were trying to create a mood, rather than be absolutely photo-realistic." At different points a beach ball bounces through the virtual pool area, brightly colored renderings of the community's Modernist homes drop like rain across the screen, and perfect clouds float speedily across a blue sky. An upbeat music track by British electronica master William Orbit plays throughout the four-minute segment.

Bonevardi thinks virtual architectural tours will only grow in popularity. "It gets cheaper and simpler to do all the time," he says. "It's a terrific tool."