Virtual Reality (VR)

147: ‘The Era of Spatial Computing’, with John Manoochehri

A conversation with John Manoochehri.

About this Episode:

John Manoochehri joins the podcast to talk about how the intersection of design, architecture and engineering, game engines, and new hardware are changing the landscape and potential impact of spatial computing and digital environments for the authors and creators of these environments in the AEC industry. We address it from a cataloging, usage and licensing perspective, and talk about how creative industries are leading the way in exploring the potential of this medium. We also talk about how this tech is opening up new possibilities in fields like entertainment, productivity, and mental health, and how it also challenges our understanding of what good design means as it pushes beyond the experience of physical environments. And finally we chat about the intersection of digital and physical design and how a feedback loop could lead to shifts in the design of physical spaces based on people’s experiences in digital environments.

About John Manoochehri:

John Manoochehri is an architect and environmental scientist based in Stockholm and San Francisco.

He has a diploma in architecture from the graduate school of architecture in Stockholm, at KKH, and has taught technical courses and design studios at Master’s level at the Stockholm undergraduate architecture and planning schools, at KTH.

His sustainable design company Resource Vision has been on design teams with BIG, White, Strategisk Arkiekter, and other major Scandinavian offices, working on some of the largest projects in Swedish history, including Kiruna city move. He has written an architectural design method handbook with Kjellander + Sjöberg Architects, and contributed technical advice to modular housing fabricators. He founded the Resource Talks podcast to investigate sustainable architecture and modern environmental science and policy.

He started an architectural design technology company, Last Meter®, with the support of the Swedish Real Estate Federation, to enable the integration of service-based consumption into the spatial and financial models of modern real estate, to facilitate the adoption of circular consumption models at scale.

The Futureperfect Talks podcast, sponsored by Epic Games, is an exploration in the rapid evolution of spatial technology for design, construction, visualization and optimization of the built environment.

Treasury was founded in 2022, by him together Zaha Hadid Architects, and Spaceform, a visualization platform backed by BIG, Thomas Heatherwick Studio, UNStudio and more, asa registry and discovery system for the world’s most valuable spatial assets - architectural design, film scenes and sets, real estate, world monuments, experiential art, nature scans, and other spatial content.
Treasury protects and distributes the work of spatial creators - architects, real estate owners, artists, engineers, and reality capture professionals - in the era of spatial computing and generative AI.

Previously, he worked at the United Nations Environment Program in Geneva, where he wrote UNEP’s policy framework on sustainable urban consumption, ‘Consumption Opportunities’. He wrote the World Wide Fund for Nature’s global handbook on sustainable cities, ‘Urban Solutions’, integrating the UN Sustainable Development Goals framework with the WWF Urban Solutions model.

He has a degree from the University of Oxford and lives in Stockholm and San Francisco.