Thousands of Irish home builders are using Virtual Reality to improve their house design and save time and money.
For many people who are building a new home, two dimensional plans of a building can be difficult to visualise.
Visualising the actual space that a room will consist of is extremely important for home builders, so that they can avoid post-build discoveries such as there being more or less room than they envisioned.
But for those embarking on the home building journey, Virtual Teic has a revolutionary solution to this lack of spatial awareness that many struggle with.
Virtual Teic builds 3D computer models of houses and other buildings for clients so they can see how their building will look before they start building or renovating or extending.
With the furnished model on the computer and the 3D experience of viewing with walls, windows and doors, it is much easier for people renovating or building to see what the finished product will look like.
There’s also the added option of being able to put on Virtual Reality goggles and walk through the computer model, and this has been a revelation for all of Virutal Teic’s clients to date.
The company is headed by Paul McMahon, who moved to Ireland from Scotland 20 years ago. His background is in graphic design – specifically web design – but also design for print.
“For the last number of years, I have been working with 3D software building architectural computer models for estate agents and architects,” Paul explained.
“For the last two years I have been building architectural 3D computer models for house builders, families building a home, architects and professional builders.”
Speaking about how he came up with the idea for the business, Paul said that he saw how the technology had advanced over the last few years, and how the price of computer hardware and software had come down in relation to more powerful computer processing.
“The opportunity to create online models and models that can use Virtual Reality for ordinary people to actually walk through has become available,” he said.
“I thought that this would be a better tool for clients to use Virtual Reality to see the building the way it looks before they start building thus saving them money, stress and time when they go to build. Easier to change something on the computer model than when the house is built!”