Metodología bottom-up y realidad aumentada para proyectos de diseño colaborativo e interdisciplinarios

The bottom-up methodology applied to design refers to the emergent nature of the process, in that the designer, starting from a stimulus, generates a chain reaction using available elements and resources, without prior planning or organization; but rather, starting from a need or problem, follows a series of phases in which components are grouped; in that the result arises from the exploration and integration of various parts that add up from smallest to largest, under the seed effect. The present work focused on explaining the application of the bottom-up methodology through augmented reality in collaborative and interdisciplinary design projects. The participants were 16 students from the schools of Architecture and Habitat Sciences and Art and Design of the University of Monterrey, in Mexico, who studied the common core subject, Experimental Study, in the degrees of Architecture, Interior Design, Industrial Design, Energy and Sustainable Innovation, Graphic Design, Arts, Fashion and Textile Design, and Digital Animation. The project was carried out in January - May 2023, through several augmented reality sessions, in which participants grouped in interdisciplinary teams, using HoloLens 2 equipment, entered a modeling room previously designed in Rhinoceros 7.0 software, connected through a QR code of the Fologram plugin. In real-time, students were coupling, rotating, and transforming a certain number of volumes (holograms) to obtain a design object, which would then be associated with a specific function of the seat or reclining bench; then, participants responded to an open instrument of 5 items, which allowed to identify the positive aspects and weaknesses in the process and draw conclusions for feedback. The results demonstrated the usefulness of augmented reality for collaborative design, as it allows synchronization for teamwork since the holograms were shared and displayed in the same virtual position, and instantly organized by voice commands, according to the decisions made by the students. In addition, the immersive dynamics of the design allow innovation and creative exploration of solutions, based on the free grouping of components, a very particular characteristic of the bottom-up methodology. Among the aspects to be improved are the time of technological appropriation and the use of the devices, since the students must be initiated in the use of augmented reality for pedagogical purposes for design, which can take time. However, after the experience, it can be affirmed that augmented reality is an effective tool for creative processes with bottom-up methodologies, as it allows synchronized teamwork, exploration for the management of shapes in terms of rotating, scaling, coupling, mixing, and transforming, adding or subtracting figures following the formal intuition of the generated system. And thus, collaboratively achieve a virtual object to which a use or function is assigned, and this can be tested through renderings and photomontages.