A Renaissance of Architectural Endoscopy?

Abstract

Experience regarding endoscopy had already been acquired in the sixties and seventies at several faculties of architecture. The rare implementation in the field of architecture may be traced back to the rather mediocre picture quality in transmission due to the peripheral equipment. This problem was coped with by means of the CCD-camera technology developed in the eighties, as nowadays video cameras being considerably less light-sensitive and less sensitive to sudden light-fluctuations are available. As far as students are concerned their acceptance of endoscopy within the framework of their architectural studies largely depends on a comprehensible application thereof meaning nothing more than that no unnecessary barriers are to crop up during implementation in design work. Practically always scale models are made which normally only have to be adapted insignificantly for endoscopic viewing purposes. Following a brief introduction the students are made familiar with the basics and thus are capable of endoscoping by themselves. Complicated models require certain considerations concerning siting and lighting. Further work steps could comprise e.g. the editing of video-material or the reviewing by means of image processing-software. Endoscopy has been in use at the Department for Spatial Simulation at the Vienna University of Technology ever since 1989. The infrastructure required therefore has continuously been expanded and advanced and presently enables both shots in various video formats and the taking of digitalized still pictures or simple digital sequences, resp. Implementation is not performed isolated, but is principally regarded in connection with other spatial simulation techniques, as e.g. full-scale simulation, holography and stereoscopy.