The project turned out to
be more than just an exercise on interface. "We approached it as
if it was a traditional architectural project," said Hani Rashid and Lise
Anne Couture founders of Asymptote in a
recent talk at MOMA. The
NYSE is full of intensity, jargons, and actions, which must be represented
in the virtual exchange in order to be easily understood by the users.
The design of the virtual space "had to be a reflection of the intensity
and the architectural language of today's NYSE", said Rashid. The
fully interactive 3-D Trading Floor (3DTF) consolidates several data streams.
In the walls of the virtual world there are stock prices, news, indexes,
and live video from major television networks, which are constantly flowing
in real time. In the floor of the 3DTF the trade booths are arranged as
they are in the real layout so it is easy for users to understand.
A fully interactive 3D graph sits in the virtual floor, the graph allows
for instant replay of graph-events that occur in the stock market. The
3-DTF is depicted on nine 25-inch PixelVision flat-panel which allows users
to access many
type of information on the
fly, something impossible to do in real space or with current databases.
Interactive graphs and virtual
booths inside the 3D Trading Floor.
"The idea was to create a
visual environment through which traders can navigate, analyze, and act
upon at-a-glance. Trade actions are very dynamic" said Rashid and Couture.
What happens on the trade floor, gets immediately broadcast through the
media, information on which the market reacts, and then quickly translated
into orders on the floor." In the real trade floor, it is impossible
to see and analyze the complex dynamic of these interrelated events. However,
in the 3D virtual representation it is possible to manipulate, even to
do instant replays for quick analysis of the activities that occur on the
exchange. "It is incredible to see how engaged operators get
in the 3DTF when the market has drastic changes during they day," expressed
the architects.
Experimental work and installations
of Asymptote Architects has been exhibited in architectural circles around
the world.
The NYSE initially had contracted
a group of engineers from Silicon Valley to design the whole project. But
they had difficulties in the design of the data navigation. This led the
client to Asymptote.
Rashid said, "When the clients
saw that all their data could be assembled in a navigable world, they said:
"Why didn't we hire an architect before?" The 3DTF project led to a second
commission. The NYSE needed a place where to locate this virtual environment.
They named the space "Advanced Trading Floor Operation Center." It is a
high-tech workplace or a "theater of operations" for virtual trading.
Asymptote also designed the physical space. Today the "theater of
operations" that
houses 3DTF has became so
popular that it is also used to broadcast live updates from the NYSE by
several major TV channels in the US. The Operations Center is powered by
6 Silicon Graphics Onyx2 graphics visualization supercomputers, 43 PixelVision
high-resolution, a number of flat-panel monitors and highly innovative
applications.
The "Advanced Trading Floor
Operation Center."
But the story does not seem
to end there. Asymptote was just contracted for another high-profile cyber-real
project: The" Guggenheim Virtual Museum" for the prestigious Guggenheim
Foundation in New York. The Guggenheim is spending $ 1 million dollar
in the first phase of the virtual project, and is the most ambitious endevour
of this kind by an American museum. The “Virtual Museum,” similar
to the NYSE project, is expected to have both a digital and real presence.
The GVM will have initially a physical presence on a 43-by-24-foot video
wall at the entrance of the Guggenheim SoHo’s branch. The site is
expected to also be part of the trans-continental expansion of the Guggenheim
to locations in Venice and Berlin.
In the end the Asymtote principals
have high hopes for the future role of architecture in cyberspace. They
think that current trends in Internet commerce are dull, and current technology
does not interact as humans interact with real buildings. "For example
the website of Barnes & Noble is just a glorified magazine page," Rashid
said. But that site could be re-designed to contain many of the features
and richness of the real bookstore, the lounging around, the browsing through
book
sections, the chances of
socializing. "This can only be achieved with architecture," points
out Rashid.
PROJECT DATA
3-D TRADING FLOOR,
NYSE, NEW YORK, NY
Client: New York
Stock Exchange.
Architect: Asymptote
Architecture, New York, NY. Hani Rashid, Lise Anne Couture (principals-in-charge)
Animation Code: RT-SET
Operating System and
Hardware: Silicon Graphics
Information Display Solution:
PixelVision
ADVANCED TRADING FLOOR
OPERATION CENTER,
NYSE, NEW YORK, NY
Client: New York
Stock Exchange.
Architect: Asymptote
Architecture, New York, NY. Hani Rashid, Lise Anne Couture (principals-in-charge)
Lighting Consultants:
LObservatoire International
Structural Engineer:
HLW International
Mechanical Engineer:
Jaros Baum & Bolles Consulting Engineers
Consultants: Milgo/Bufkin
(fabricator)
Construction Manager:
Morse Diesel International, Inc. |