American luxury home builder Toll Brothers has launched a virtual reality app that lets home buyers view all 360 degrees of their kitchen in high-definition and choose from thousands of configurations.
The app, called Kitchen 360, provides buyers with a tour of the kitchen through a connected tablet or HTC Vive VR. While on the tour, buyers can look at different configurations, swapping out appliances, changing colours and prefered models — all changes take effect in real time.
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Toll Brothers has partnered with Marxent, an augmented and virtual reality solutions company, specializing in commerce. The company has developed apps for Lowe’s and American Woodmark.
“Until now, the personalization process of buying a new home posed a challenge for home buyers to visualize their combination of selected materials using small material samples,” said Mark Bailey, President of Toll Brothers Colorado Division.
“The Kitchen 360 experience enhances a home buyer’s ability to visualize their space with a level of quality that has never been available before. Using this VR technology in combination with the look and feel of those material samples, the buyer has a more complete idea of their vision. They get the chance to actually step inside the space they’ve created, and preview how that space will work for their everyday lives.”
Customization will be limited to Toll Brothers Englewood Design Studio, where representatives will help plan out configurations in real-time. There are 420 configurations at launch.
The app is similar to IKEA’s new AR app launching on iOS 11, which allows customers to fit furniture into their home, using defined parameters. The difference here is the customer is buying the entire kitchen.
