Creating a model for rendering does have its own set of rules. To get you up and rendering as quickly as possible, here are SketchUp's top five tips for prepping your SketchUp model for rendering.

Woods Bagot have unveiled the winning scheme to redevelop Adelaide’s Central Market Arcade. The mixed use redevelopment will connect the arcade to the market and serve as a cornerstone of the broader market district. The city intends to transform the market precinct into one of Australia’s most recognized lifestyle destinations, and the proposal aims to capture the spirit of the market in the arcade redevelopment.

The House Challenge 2019 has released the results of this year’s competition that gathered entries from all over the world. With a theme focusing on the Desert House, applicants designed new and original concepts for temporary housing in this harsh environment.

Architecture and design studio Payette designed an underpass lighting project for Lynn, Massachusetts. Lynn is one of 26 Gateway Cities in Massachusetts, urban centers that anchor regional economies and are facing social and economic challenges. The project brightens and activates with dynamic, colorful and programmable LED lighting installations.

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From playful indoor pools to tranquil exterior fountains to soaring waterfalls and grand lakes of enormous proportions, architecture throughout the centuries has engaged with water in endlessly innovative ways. Sometimes serving aesthetic purposes, but just as often acting as centers of activity or promoting sustainability, water features can take countless different forms and serve multiple different purposes. Below, we synthesize a series of water features espoused by innovative contemporary architectural projects, ranging from single-family residential homes to vast commercial complexes.

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Goldman Sachs has released a report on the effects of climate change on cities across the world. The study explored the major changes that will transform the planet and highlighted several metropolises that will be at risk of flooding.

Kjellander Sjöberg, one of the leading architectural practices in Scandinavia, in collaboration with GHB Landskabsarkitekter, Mogens A. Morgen, Realise and Tyréns, was selected to design a strategic development plan for Faaborg. The coastal town in southern Denmark is facing many challenges like a high risk of flooding and an important decrease in its population.

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The Los Angeles Department of City Planning has unveiled details on the restoration of the Streamline Moderne Firestone Building. First opened in 1938, the project operated until its closing in 2016. Built by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, it was used as a retail outlet for the company’s tires and related automotive products, and the garage remained one of the flagship stores of the company’s operations in Los Angeles.

The Hengyang authorities selected RMJM Shanghai to design the Xiangjiang Gate in the province of Hunan in China. Winner of the design competition, the proposal of the architectural bureau integrates “the history and culture of the place with the new master plan for the new city”.

Hacker Architects have unveiled new images showcasing plans to build the largest mass timber office building in North America. Working in collaboration Quezada Architecture for Brookfield Properties, the project is designed to be part of a 28-acre Pier 70 waterfront development at a historic shipyard property in San Francisco. The mass timber building is designed as a gateway structure with views of downtown, the bay, and nearby hills.

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Videos

December 22nd, 2019 saw the public opening of the 8th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB) in Shenzhen, China. As the world’s most visited architecture exhibition, the Biennale forms an influential moment for the dissemination of architectural knowledge, and the generation of dialogue and feedback loops between designers and citizens. Titled “Urban Interactions”, the Biennale's 2019 edition sets its sights on the multifaceted question of how technological advancements will impact the relationships cities share with people, technology, nature, and each other.

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Chiza Architecture Bureau founded by Chingiz Agharzayev and Zaki Jabiyev, in Azerbaijan has developed a conceptual proposal for a multifunctional building in Baku, located in close proximity to the Heydar Aliyev Center and Baku Congress Hall.

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It's very common for architects to use more than one program when developing a project. While one software can help us with the conceptual design and image of the project, other programs may work better for the development of technical documents, such as drawings, sections, and details. On the other hand, other software products can help us make a three-dimensional model, and yet others allow us to create renderings. There are also programs used for the postproduction of images, videos, or even to diagram panels and portfolios. The list is long and as a result our computer processors may suffer.

Although with BIM (Building Information Model) programs, this pilgrimage between programs tends to decrease when covering the entire design process, understanding the extensive list of file extensions is not as simple as it seems. In addition, it's not uncommon to find incompatibilities between versions and file types when, for example, the project must be opened on complementary equipment. Next, we review the file extensions most used by architects, focusing mainly on BIM programs.

The world’s greenest football stadium, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects will be built in Gloucestershire, England after planning permissions were finally granted by the local council.

Architectural practice Tzannes has released new details of further additions to the Irving Street Brewery in Sydney, Australia. The project first integrated plant equipment for a development wide tri-generation plant with the historic Carlton and United Brewery building on the fringe of the Sydney CBD. The tri-generation plant uses natural gas to produce electricity and thermal energy within an elegant mesh screen.

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Designing well, creating beautiful buildings as well as boosting revenue and making your firm profitable rank highly among the goals of architects around the world today. What are the most effective tools architects need to achieve those goals? At a recent Technology and Architecture panel, successful architects discussed answers to that very question. When you watch this panel discussion, recorded live at the prestigious Pritzker Military Museum and Library, you will hear inspiring approaches to design, coordination and project management - rooted in BIM and enabled by the design flexibility found in ARCHICAD.

Architectural thinking has a rich tradition of being bound to writing. Be it the vāstu śāstra, the Seven Lamps by Ruskin, or the writings of Thoreau—writing and craft have not only gone hand in hand but are synonymous. Imagination is the moment of architecture and it finds expression in writing as much, if not more, as it does in drawing. Unfortunately, the power of the pen, especially when it comes to architecture-design, remains largely underrated.

Videos

The interview Per Kirkeby: "We Build Upon Ruins" published on Louisiana Channel not only showcases the colorful canvases of the Danish painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and writer, but also his own reflections on the importance of surroundings that "give us so much baggage." It's this very idea that Kirkeby brings to his brick sculpture displays, where something simple and sometimes useful puts aside inaccessible conceptualism to pay homage to the surroundings rather than the sculptures themselves.