He Walked Through His House Before It Was Built, at Full Size, in a Headset

2 months ago

You can read a floor plan and still not know how a room will feel. So an app developer building his first house built it at full size, and walked it before the walls went up.

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  1. 0:00He walked through his house before it was built, by turning the floor plan into full-scale VR
  2. 0:10He rebuilt the flat floor plan as a full-size house he could step inside.
  3. 0:23Standing in the rooms told him things a plan never could.
  4. 0:35You pull the flat plan up into walls, paint it, and export a file the headset opens.
  5. 0:53A finished-looking room still reads wrong until furniture gives your eyes scale.
  6. 1:16His homemade full-scale walk beat the architect’s professional 3-D tour.
  7. 1:27Walking a home at true scale, before it’s built, is possible today.
Show transcript

He walked through his house before it was built, by turning the floor plan into full-scale VR

A flat plan says a room is 13 × 15 ft, but not how it feels to stand in one. So he built a full-size 3-D copy and walked it in a headset.
home building 3-D VR walkthrough

You can read a floor plan and still not know how a room will feel. So an app developer building his first house built it at full size, and walked it before the walls went up.

He rebuilt the flat floor plan as a full-size house he could step inside.

Inside the full-size copy · standing at eye level, not looking at a drawing
Walked at real body scale, inside a headset that fills your view with a computer-made world.
Christian Selig · christianselig.com

He rebuilt the flat plan as a full-size, three-dimensional copy of the house. Then he stepped inside it in a Vision Pro, a headset that fills your view with a computer-made world, and walked through the house at real body scale.

Standing in the rooms told him things a plan never could.

A real room at human scale · the plan gave the numbers; standing in it gave the feel
He could feel whether a hallway was cramped, and changed real design decisions before a wall existed. Anyone building or buying off a plan could do the same.
Christian Selig · christianselig.com

Standing inside told him what a plan never could. He could feel whether a hallway was cramped. He changed real design decisions before anything was built. Anyone building or buying off a plan could do the same.

You pull the flat plan up into walls, paint it, and export a file the headset opens.

Flat floor plan
→
Pull the walls up, leave gaps for doors
→
Paint on materials, drop in real-size furniture
→
Save a 3-D file the headset opens
→
Walk it
Pull the walls up · bare grey shell
Paint on materials · wood, stone, glass
Christian Selig · christianselig.com

The method itself is simple. You take the flat floor plan and pull the walls up into three dimensions, leaving gaps for the doors. You paint on materials so it isn't blank grey: wood, stone, glass. Then you save it as a three-D file the headset can open, and step inside.

A finished-looking room still reads wrong until furniture gives your eyes scale.

Painting on materials adds depth. It does not fix scale.
A bare apartment feels huge, until your furniture moves in and shrinks it. Your eyes read the room against the bed, the desk, the couch.
A real-size couch model, placed at true dimensions · one familiar object to read the room against
Familiar objects, not fancier graphics, are what give a room its scale.

Here is the surprising part. Painting on materials adds depth, but it doesn't fix scale. A bare apartment feels huge, until your furniture moves in and shrinks it. So he dropped in real-size furniture: a bed, a desk, a couch. Now the bedroom reads as the right size, or the wrong one. Familiar objects, not fancier graphics, are what give a room its scale.

His homemade full-scale walk beat the architect’s professional 3-D tour.

his own build
Walked it himself, at full body scale
the full-size copy, stepped into and walked room to room
vs
the architect’s
A professional click-to-teleport 3-D tour
click to teleport around, then drag to look
“we already felt like we knew the place.”
his own words, after walking the full-size copy themselves

There is a coda. Once the plan was settled, his architect gave them a polished, professional three-D tour. But after walking the place themselves at full body scale, they already felt like they knew the house.

Walking a home at true scale, before it’s built, is possible today.

“One day there will hopefully be a house on this land.”
The land is still an empty patch of dirt. He has already walked through the house.
viewer app: code on GitHub no license a rough personal project needs a VR headset
Christian Selig · christianselig.com · github.com/christianselig/Prospector

The land is still an empty patch of dirt. He has already walked through the house. He put his viewer app's code on GitHub. It is a rough personal project, not a product. But walking a home at true scale, before it's built, is possible today.