BW Sessions: Floored

Appropriately situated within Manhattan’s iconic fashion district, digital interior designer Floored actually aims to 'floor' its customers with both the artistic beauty of its stylish space and the jaw-droppig prowess of its technology. In an office of 50, comprised mainly of designers, architects and software engineers, project teams converge to provide stunning, robust 3D visualization experiences that often, well, 'floor' prospective clients.

“Rendering companies are artists,” explains Floored's Heimata Rutgers. “Our service is a design, a visualization and a marketing tool that converts raw information into stunning 3D and video visualizations.”

Architectural rendering within the built environment space isn’t novel, of course. Hand-drawn depictions of structure and space pre-date the Pyramids. But today, as technology advances even beyond imagination, new capabilities emerge almost daily, forcing creative visualization methods to adapt constantly. “There’s so much cool stuff happening in the 3D ecosystem right now that we really feel that the moment for 3D applications has arrived,” said CEO Dave Eisenberg at a recent TechCrunch 'Disrupt' forum.

And customers love 3D. “People really want to be on the floor, and walk the space to experience it, so this is a great way to fill that void," says Colleen Wenke of Taconic Investment Partners, a Floored client also based in New York City.

How Does it Work?

Through a strategic partnership with Matterport, Floored utilizes a state-of-the-art camera system that captures 3D scans of building environments. From there, the Floored team will build visual overlay that further renders a captured space to the desired need. As Architectural Digest describes it, “Imagine snapping a picture of a color, and with a tap on the screen, repainting your office digitally. With another tap, [moving] a wall to change a layout. It sure beats sweating over plans and swatches.”

In addition to its visualizations, Floored boasts a widely-accessible, highly-interactive platform for clients. The web-based application allows anyone with an internet connection to open the model and fly through. “No more plug-ins,” says a smiling Rutgers. “Just place a link in an email and send it your customers or tenants.” Not limited to desktop computers, models can be conveniently viewed on any tablet, iPad or smartphone.

With its eyes fixed on the quality of the end product, Floored can remain competitive on time and price because its changes are limited to editing 3D visualizations, not the actual design documents. “It’s a great communication tool, and we want everyone involved,” says Rutgers.

You would be a good candidate for Floored if you…