From Data-Points to Spatial Experience

Singapore-lmmersive Data Corridor

Virtual Reality (VR) has created a new frontier in con-tent creation, narrative, and storytelling in a myriad ofdisciplines and businesses. Architecture, however, hasnot yet unlocked the full potentials of the technologyas its counterparts in media and game design. Hence, this project attempts at coupling computationaldesign with data-driven narrative and storytelling in VR. The experimental studio is a collaboration betweenthe Professorship of Computational Methodologies inLandscape Architecture and Urbanism at Aalto Universityand the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), including a field-trip to Singapore funded by the Finnish National Agency for Education.

The studio delves into various environmental phenomena in Singapore, namely water scarcity, food produc-tion, heritage, migration and biodiversity, and attemptsto visualize their temporal aspects as spatial narratives experienced in VR. The aim of the studio is to explorethe potentials of VR as a dynamic design medium and aiming to go beyond its current use as a mere tool for visual representation in architecture. By using VR westep outside of the realm of physically probable andare able to play with perception and experience moredirectly. Furthermore, using this medium it is possible to interact with site-specific data and complex phenomena on an intuitive level, bringing forth aspects of the datathat would otherwise remain undetected.

The speculative design explorations are grounded inthe Rail Corridor in Singapore, a former railway line thatstretches 24km from the North to the South of the island. Since 2015, the line has been planned to become the new green artery’ of the city, linking together a slew of green areas as well as Singapore’s inhabitants as a vast communal space. By using an extensive point cloud model as a base, the different immersive experiences consistof a series of spatial interventions along said corridor, the main vehicle to introduce new narratives within the territory’s intricacies.