Project in Progress: Instilling Confidence with Virtual Reality

1890s Second Empire House Transformation

Before the Walls Go Up

Construction on Chadé and Adam's home won't wrap until Fall 2027 — but they've already walked every floor. Using 3D rendering software and VR goggles, we invited them inside their future house months before a single wall went up. They were able to experience the design in a way that traditional drawings simply can’t replicate.

Why drawings aren’t enough

Floor plans, building sections, and elevations are essential tools, but they ask a lot of the reader. Not everyone speaks the language of architectural drawings, and even those who do can struggle with trying to fully understand the spatial experience of a home from a 2D perspective. Virtual reality (VR) changes that entirely. Paired with a 3D model, VR lets clients look around, move through spaces, experience the materiality, and engage with the design as if it already exists.

There’s also a hidden benefit for the design itself. Elements that might be simplified or obscured in traditional 2D drawings become highly visible in a virtual environment. That magnification produces better work: more precise, more intentional, held accountable from every angle.

Meeting clients where they are

For clients already comfortable with gaming, the transition is almost instant. Platforms like Twinmotion use intuitive controls, such as standard WASD keyboard navigation, making it easy and even fun to explore the space. Watching clients actively engage with and explore a home they’ve been imagining for months is always a rewarding moment for the team. As the project evolves and decisions are refined, the model can be updated, allowing clients to experience progress in real time.

“Not everything needed to be photo realistic,” says project architect Erin Carlo. “Spaces where selections still need to be made were left vague in terms of materiality. But it was very fun to breathe life into the more fleshed-out spaces.”

Watching someone move through a home they’ve been imagining for months - pausing in a future kitchen, looking out a window that doesn’t exist yet, is one of the best parts of this work.

Virtual Reality tour of 1890 Second Empire Kitchen in Jamaica Plain project in progress.

Virtual Reality renderings tour of 1890 Second Empire expansion in a Jamaica Plain project in progress.

The result: confidence, not surprises

Ultimately, this process is about alignment. When clients can see and feel their decisions at full scale, they move forward with clarity and confidence. Fewer surprises, Less backpedaling. More excitement.

The project at a glance

This project is a substantial reimaging of an 1890 Colonial. Not a renovation so much as a complete transformation with thoughtful interior details. The scope spans a new third-floor with a primary suite, an expansion over the kitchen to create a dedicated office, a reworked garage with an in-law suite above, and full basement excavation to unlock livable family space below grade.

Woven throughout the larger structural moves is a carefully layered interior: new windows, custom cabinetry, custom drapery, and a carefully considered lighting plan for the three bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms, kitchen, office, bar, gym in the main house and full in-law suite above the garage. Every decision in every space is calibrated to feel cohesive and deeply personal.

1890 Second Empire new third floor Virtual Reality renderings tour for a Jamaica Plain project in progress.

HANDS-ON MATERIAL PALETTE

We offer clients a chance to see and touch materials for their project.