1. ArchDaily
  2. Architectural Visualization

Architectural Visualization: The Latest Architecture and News

The Different Uses of Renderings in Architecture

With increasingly better renderings becoming ubiquitous, students and architects alike feel the pressure of mastering an additional set of skills to get their ideas across. To what extent do renderings make or break a portfolio or a project? How important are they in the design process, and do renderings inform of a particular set of skills besides the software ones? This article explores different perspectives on the role of renderings within the profession.

The Different Uses of Renderings in Architecture - Image 1 of 4The Different Uses of Renderings in Architecture - Image 2 of 4The Different Uses of Renderings in Architecture - Image 3 of 4The Different Uses of Renderings in Architecture - Image 4 of 4The Different Uses of Renderings in Architecture - More Images+ 3

Alessio Grancini on How VR Can Be Used in Architecture Offices

The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina are joined by Alessio Grancini, Prototype Engineer at Magic Leap and former Head of XR at Morphosis to discuss how VR can be used in architecture offices. The three cover basic terminology, software, workflows, costs, learning curves, using VR in the design process and for client presentations, the pros and cons of different headsets, controls, different types of rendering, the social implications of VR, and how he transitioned from architecture to the technology space. Enjoy!

Introducing New Real-Time Architectural Visualization Technologies for Remote Collaboration

 | Sponsored Content

This year, real-time became really important. For architects and arch-viz artists, the ability to explore and design interactively is nothing short of game-changing, drastically shortening project life cycles and making it easier to present and discuss ideas with co-workers and clients. With remote collaboration becoming a normal part of day-to-day life, real-time views of projects have become invaluable.

Add Personality and Ambience to Architectural Renderings with Lumion 11

 | Sponsored Content

When it comes to architectural rendering software, Lumion makes the process of rendering an integral part of the architect's craft; it emboldens design and rendering workflows and inspires creativity. With the release of Lumion 11, realizing your design vision has never been easier. Using the new orthographic view feature, you can reduce the effort needed to create visually interesting plan and section views with your own unique twist. With animated phasing, you can show how the parts of your building connect and interact, choreographing a dialogue with the viewer.

Meet the Winners of ArchDaily's 2020 Architectural Visualization Awards

After 3 weeks of voting, the results are finally in. The ArchDaily Architectural Visualization Awards has just selected the winners of its first edition. Out of 750 visualizations submitted from all over the world, 6 winning images were chosen, two for each of the following categories: Exterior, Interior, and Conceptual.

Gathering more than 10 000 votes, This awards has come to an end. Presented by IPEVO, Cove.tool, and Concepts, the contest aimed to find the most talented individuals, who inspire us and help us visualize the future of our cities and buildings.

ArchDaily's 2020 Architectural Visualization Awards: Last Days to Vote

Architectural visualizations have recently reached unthinkable levels, being a great source of inspiration and a fundamental part of the design process in architecture. This is why we are proud to announce the first edition of the ArchDaily Architecture Visualization Awards, where we will award the best of the year.

For us, visualizations have become a powerful tool that has helped us to think without limits about the design of our future cities, buildings, and structures. This is why we are proud to launch thanks to IPEVO, Cove.tool and Concepts the 1st edition of the Architectural Visualization Awards: to find the best talent from around the world and discover who is setting trends with their work and aesthetics, helping us to visualize the future of architecture.



Add Photorealism to Renders Using Quixel Megascans in Twinmotion

 | Sponsored Content

Architectural visualizations are only as good as the scene they’re placed into. No matter how fantastic your building model, if it's placed in an environment constructed of low-quality, low-poly assets, it’s not going to shine. That’s one of the reasons architects and designers have long turned to Quixel Megascans to give context to their archviz scenes.

ArchDaily’s 2020 Architectural Visualization Awards are now Open for Submissions

*Open submissions are closed for this edition.

Architectural visualizations have recently reached unthinkable levels, being a great source of inspiration and a fundamental part of the design process in architecture. This is why we are proud to announce the first edition of the ArchDaily Architecture Visualization Awards, where we will award the best of the year.

"Have You Ever Seen a Render With a Dent in a Car?": Juanito Olivarria on His Process Creating Renderings

The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions. A wide array of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina are joined by Architectural Renderer & Partner of Luxigon's Los Angeles office, Juanito Olivarria to discuss his process of creating renderings, collaborating with architects, beauty, video gaming, taking risks, ugly trees, rendering styles, and much more!

A Free Tool to Create Textures for Architectural Images

All too often, architects and designers spend hours searching for textures and materials to represent their visions. This struggle takes many forms: from scrolling through Google, Pinterest, and databases in search of the perfect texture, to manually creating one over the course of several hours, or even days. In either case, the result is frequently painful, and rarely perfect. A database organized, reliable, free and easy to use is not always a simple thing to find.

Architextures began in 2014 as a library of high-quality image files, with textures submitted by users or created by the platform itself. Over time, the platform’s creator Ryan Canning noticed that, in his professional work as an architect, the array of static image files available online did not meet the specific textures he was looking for in his design projects. Frustrated with the endless process of searching, editing and overlaying textures in Photoshop, Ryan reinvented Architextures in 2019 as an interactive tool where designers like himself could create specified, high-quality textures in seconds. And importantly, being free to use for personal and educational use, with professional accounts available for a small fee to support the tool’s development.

A Free Tool to Create Textures for Architectural Images - Image 1 of 4A Free Tool to Create Textures for Architectural Images - Image 2 of 4A Free Tool to Create Textures for Architectural Images - Image 3 of 4A Free Tool to Create Textures for Architectural Images - Image 4 of 4A Free Tool to Create Textures for Architectural Images - More Images+ 9

Real-Time Archviz Enhances Kohn Pedersen Fox’s Design Processes

 | Sponsored Content

International architectural practice Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) is constantly striving to improve efficiencies and enable greater creative exploration through the application of the latest technologies. With nine offices worldwide and projects based anywhere from Europe to the US and China, the company takes a global approach to its design process by fostering collaboration; it’s not uncommon for a single project to involve team members based in London, New York, and Singapore, for example, who come together virtually in what Cobus Bothma, Director of Applied Research, calls their “tenth office”.

Real-Time Ray-Tracing is Changing Architectural Visualization

 | Sponsored Content

Architectural visualization company Brick Visual has been loading its most complex scenes into Chaos Group’s real-time 3D ray-traced engine, Project Lavina, since the private beta first launched. With the first public beta now available, Attila Cselovszki, CDO at Brick Visual, shares how adding Project Lavina to the architectural visualization (arch-viz) pipeline has revolutionized the way they work.

Real-Time Ray-Tracing is Changing Architectural Visualization - Image 1 of 4Real-Time Ray-Tracing is Changing Architectural Visualization - Image 2 of 4Real-Time Ray-Tracing is Changing Architectural Visualization - Image 3 of 4Real-Time Ray-Tracing is Changing Architectural Visualization - Image 4 of 4Real-Time Ray-Tracing is Changing Architectural Visualization - More Images+ 4

Visualizations as an Architectural Storytelling Tool

When we hear the term visualization, it’s likely that we picture a flashy render full of lights, people, dazzling finishes, and a sense of energy about the place that we are viewing. Aside from rendering a three-dimensional space, architects also need to develop their skills in the representation of intangible ideas that help drive the narrative behind their arguments. Instead of creating one-off concepts that are presented in a traditionally linear sequence, designers need to craft a story, structure their designs like a thesis, and consider how our presentations have the power to reveal the priorities of a project.