I’m pleased to announce that my 360 degree, virtual reality tour of Goldsmith Street has just been published in Dezeen. Dezeen is the world’s most popular and influential architecture, interiors and design magazine. Since its launch in 2006, it has won numerous awards for publishing and journalism, and now has more than three million unique visitors each month. You can read the feature and view the Goldsmith Street tour here.
The Goldsmith Street social housing project won the 2019 ‘RIBA Stirling Prize‘. Each year, this prize is presented to “the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year.” The RIBA Stirling Prize is considered to be the UK’s most prestigious architectural award.
Goldsmith Street was the vision and creation of architects Mikhail Riches and Cathy Hawley in London. I had the pleasure of working closely with David Mikhail and with the construction company R G Carter, to produce this industry leading virtual reality tour. Goldsmith Street was commissioned by Norwich City Council, and as of 2019, it was the largest Passivhaus scheme in the UK.
Whilst at first appearance, the Goldsmith Street project may appear rather humble in comparison to previous RIBA Stirling Prize ‘starchitect’ winners, it is in fact quite visionary, and it sets new standards for environmentally friendly social housing. The innovative design seeks to re-introduce green spaces and traditional rows of streets in an area of Norwich which is otherwise dominated by rather dated, 20th century blocks of flats.
The 360 virtual tour is an extremely high resolution 24k – not just 4k or 8k like most mainstream virtual tour suppliers. It’s shot with fully manual camera techniques using a high megapixel Canon DSLR, a fisheye lens and a special 360 degree panoramic head. This shooting technique produces the highest quality, 265 megapixel images that far surpass the 20 to 30 megapixel automated cameras most virtual tour providers use. Whilst we can shoot those lower specification tours, we felt that an award-winning project demanded the best photography to support it. This high level of quality allows clients to globally showcase their past and current projects in the best possible way.
This 360 degree virtual tour incorporates all types of media from traditional stills photographs, to moving video, interactive hotspots, information panels written by David Mikhail, and even real location audio recordings. The custom made user interface is unique, and was developed by my industry leading team of specialist web developers. This type of flagship 360 tour can not only be used to showcase and promote projects online, but can also be viewed in a VR headset. You can download my free ‘Rod Edwards VR’ portfolio app here.
This is the second time I’ve pioneered 360 imagery and virtual tours to Dezeen. Back in 2016, I introduced 360 technology to them when they commissioned me to shoot the Tate Modern Switch House extension by world leading architects Herzon & De Meuron. You can read the Tate Modern Switch House Dezeen feature and view the 360 virtual tour here.
The Dezeen feature and 360 virtual tour has been very well received and shared internationally by several different architectureal and design publications – including Passivhaus Trust. It’s also a great promotional tool for a flagship housing project that has influenced architects in the UK and beyond.
