Commercial · Audio Visual
Lifesize Plans: a home you can walk through before it's built.
Lifesize Plans Ireland project architectural plans at 1:1 scale, so people can walk through their future home before a block is laid. As the AV integration partner, THINK designed and installed the immersive projection system that makes it possible.
at a glance
- Client
- Lifesize Plans Ireland
- Location
- Dublin
- Projection
- 12 Panasonic PT-RZ990
- Result
- One image, 1:1 scale
the work
On site.
the brief
Lifesize Plans began with a married couple, John and Emma. Building an extension at home, John, a professional from the built environment, found the Australian company Lifesize Plans. With no equivalent here, they set up the Irish franchise in Dublin. The idea: project floor plans and elevations at 1:1 scale so people can walk through their new home before it's built, and be happy with the design before construction starts. A world-first full-scale projection and augmented-reality hybrid. To deliver it, they needed a technology partner who could turn that vision into a high-quality, immersive projection. They chose THINK.
the challenge
Nothing like this had been built before. The image had to be huge, vivid and dimensionally true, because the whole point is that a doorway or a worktop is exactly the size it will be on site. The showroom has a six-metre-high ceiling, so the projectors had to be suspended from concrete beams, out of easy reach, which meant the system had to run for long stretches with little to no maintenance. And with no two homes the same size, the projection had to be quick to resize and reconfigure for every client.
what THINK did
Twelve projectors, one full-scale image.
THINK designed and installed the immersive projection system behind the showroom. Twelve Panasonic PT-RZ990 1-Chip DLP projectors, each up to 10,000 lumens, are edge-blended through three Datapath video processors into one continuous image, projecting life-size plans taken straight from the architect's drawings across the floor and walls. The PT-RZ990's filterless, sealed design gives long, maintenance-free operation, which matters when the projectors sit high on the ceiling and objects are constantly moved across the floor below. A design consultant runs the whole session and can resize and reconfigure the projection for each client's home.
the result
Clients now walk through their home at full size before construction starts, trying layouts, changing their minds and settling the design while it's still cheap to change. On average each walkthrough surfaces 12 to 14 design changes and saves clients between €25,000 and €37,000. Decisions that cost a fraction on the wall of what they would cost on site.
in their words
“We test drive cars before we buy them, and a home is a much bigger investment. By projecting architectural plans on a life-size scale, we can create an immersive experience where people can walk through their homes before they build them. To make this a reality we needed the best visual quality.”
Emma O'Donoghue
Director, Lifesize Plans
Plan your project with THINK.
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