New Products
Arcbazar + ProjectVR
A fusion of the world-acclaimed Arcbazar and Online Simple Self-Assessment through VR-Cloud®.
The ultimate solution to assist in project designs. 

Price  Quotation needed.
(Bid cost and service cost)
Scheduled Release 2016
Support/Service
  Business Partnership between Arcbazar and FORUM 8
FORUM 8 is pleased to announce our recent business partnership with the world-acclaimed crowdsourcing architecture website, Arcbazar. 

Arcbazar was founded by Imdat As in 2010, who has received Master of Architecture at MIT and Ph.D at Harvard Graduate School of Design. He and Arcbazar was selected to be one of the 100 Top Brilliant Companies in Entrepreneur Magazine 2014.
Through this partnership, we will assist in the popularization of Arcbazar in the Asian market, while providing our Online Simple Self-Assesment Service and VR solutions - now named Project VR - to enhance Arcbazar's usability and effectiveness.

■Fig. 1
Left: Yuji Ito, CEO of FORUM 8
Right: Imdat As, CEO of Arcbazar
  Arcbazar - Conneting and Contracting with Architecture Designers around the Globe
Through Arcbazar, a client would post his / her requirements, timelines, and award money online and allow designers in the world to compete for the project. After a set amount of time when the project receives several proposal submissions, the client would rank the projects and select the top 3 designs who will be evenly awarded with the award money the client specifies. Completed projects remain on the website and can be viewed freely after the competition as well. 
 
Currently, there have been a total of more than 5,000 projects registered, and a total of more than 15000 designers registered. The projects span across several areas such as rennovation, gardening, interior design, home design, and commercial or public building designs. In addition to the client's choices, designers can also receive review scores via public voting that affects their standing in the community. Arcbazar is an excellent marketplace that brilliantly combines the power of crowdsourcing and social networking. 

From the client's point of view, Arcbazar allows more freedom in submitting smaller-scale requests that are not accepted by architects or large design studios across the globe. As a result, Arcbazar helps young designers build experience and confidence, while allowing clients to firmly build up the value of their properties.
Click to enlarge
■Fig. 2 Multiple proposals from all over the globe are available in Arcbazar's project page.
  ProjectVR - Sustainability Evaluation of Project Made Easy through 3D Visualization
ProjectVR is a add-on project to integrate FORUM 8 technologies into the existing Arcbazar system to enhance its usability and to promote information symmetry, such as providing sustainability evaluation to assist in the client's decision making.
ProjectVR consists of two main functions: one is to help clients draft projects or plan events through an online virtual reality support service , while the other is to serve as a platform to bridge the gaps between designers and clients through data visualization.
To fulfill these objectives, we have integrated our Online Simple  Self-Assessment Support website, launched on April 2015, and our VR-Cloud® technologies to allow 3D VR simulation over the cloud, and efficiently suppot consensus building between different stakeholders. 

Click to enlarge
■Fig. 3 Services Provided by ProjectVR (Conceptual Art)

Online Simple Self-Assessment Support
This website was born from the a request by the NPO Workshop for Sustainable Community, a project funded by the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency in Japan in 2014. The website utilizes VR simulations and provides design software free of charge to help businesses who are interested in performing environmental assessment and environmental NPOs who seek to streamline their evaluation process. This is especially powerful for SMEs that are not subject to environmental abatements but wish to strengthen its CSR initiatives or to prove to the locals of its safety. 

Click to enlarge
■Fig. 4  The Simple Self-Assessment web site
used for assisting in environmentla checks.

3D VR Simulation and VR-Cloud®
VR-Cloud® is a FORUM 8 solution that allows 3D and VR simulation over cloud servers to help communication and establish concensus between different parties. Cloud computing technologies disregard the hardware power of a client's machinery and allow easy access to complicated 3D data even those thin clients that lack 3D rendering capabilities. The product is an embodiment of the concept "Design, Review, Share" for public project competitions that integrates building information modelling and network technologies. To date, it has been successfully deployed as a assistance tool on the Forum 8-sponsored 3D VR Simulation Contest, the IAI-sponsored Build Live Japan, and the Virtual Design Design World Cup student competition.
  Arcbazar +ProjectVR The Fusion of Two Ingenius Services and Its Future Workflow
From the point on, Project VR will make effective use of Arcbazar as a platform to further popularize it.
Precisely, FORUM  8 will continue to use Project VR to assist in competitive projects, and Arcbazar users are also given the option to register with and access the Simple Self-Assessement website and 3D VR Simulation Services. ProjectVR and Arcbazar creates excellent synergy by enhancing project understanding and results in better valuation of projects. Figure 4 is a conceptual workflow how the new combined system will work.

Arcbazar Support Service
FORUM 8 will both recruit for clients and act as a sponsor to assist Arcbazar's hosting of competitions through the newly established Arcbazar Support Service.

ONBOARDING
Clients would draft a project plan and publish it on Arcbazar, with specifications and requirements such as: purpose of project, current situation, number of rooms, undesired design themes, submission deadline, award money, etc. 
Project VR will provide 3D model generation by converting from real-world photographs and also provide modeling of the surrounding environments.

COMPETITION
All questions and clarifications from the designers are posted onto the Public Wall (a discussion board) on Arcbazar. Clients would answer accordingly and also provide any updates to the situation. 
The Self-Assessments, the uploading of 3D VR data, or the 3D modelling services willl be implemented in this phase. 
With this, a client could provide better and more accurate design concerns through a prior analysis with the Self-Assessment service, as well as evaluate the proposals with the same methods. 

EVALUATION
Client or sponsor would decide the top 3 winning bids, and the award money would be distributed accordingly. 
As previously mentioned, the Self-Assessment and VR data should serve as excellent judgemental refrences in the final decision making. 
Arcbazar also allow Public Vote of submitted projects that is independent of the client's final decision. The endorsed projects, even if not won, would result in ranking points for the designers, which is tallied and arranged into a leaderboard for future project references. 

POST-COMPETITION
After the competition, the project is stored in the site and available for public viewing. The purpose of which is to serve as a reference and assist  (both new or old) clients in future project plans and the selection of designers. To designers, this is where their designed projects can be stored and should benefit them in their future career progression. 
All past projects are stored in a service called Arcfolio. We plan to convert a portion of these projects into 3D data and introducing more vivid and interactive viewing of projects through VR-Cloud®.
  Upcoming Plans and Future
Arcbazar is planning to host the a design competition for the President Obama's Virtual Memorial. FORUM 8 plans to provide full assistance for this project through ProjectVR.
In the Japanese domestic market, we will also provide the necessary assistance for design projects and competitions. For those who are interested please consider having a look at Arcbazar's website and contact FORUM 8.

Click to enlarge
■Figure 5 Service flow

■URL
・Arcbazar:http://www.arcbazar.com/ 
 Japanese Site: http://jp.arcbazar.com/
・Online Simple Self-Assessment Site : https://assessment.forum8.co.jp
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