Hasta La Ideas

Interview: renderings are now as convincing as reality and are changing the way people perceive architecture, according to architectural visualisation artist Peter Guthrie. “It allows for greater conversation about the built environment,” he says in this interview. “Most people are familiar with computer images but would find it harder to interpret a line drawing.” (+ slideshow).

London-based Guthrie is widely regarded as the leading exponent of hyper-realistic imagery, and has produced image sets for projects including a Suffolk house by Ström Architects and Claesson Koivisto Rune’s prefabricated home.

“I try to make atmospheric, memorable images without using too many post-production tricks,” Guthrie says. “Other visualisers perhaps take their inspiration from film and video games, but that isn’t an aesthetic I’m drawn to.”

When asked whether we’ve reached the point where renderings are indistinguishable from photographs, he replied: “I think we have… The 2013 Ikea catalogue has a surprising number of visualisations in it and most people are none the wiser.”

Guthrie believes that people are now so used to computer imagery thanks to movies and computer games that they can “read” architectural renderings more readily than line drawings or sketches. “It makes un-built architecture more immediate and allows for greater conversation about the built environment,” he says.

He adds: “Most people these days are incredibly familiar with computer generated images (although they are usually in the form of feature films or computer games) but would find it harder to interpret a line drawing or watercolour of a proposed building.”

Boundaries are now becoming so blurred that skilled visualisers are now being employed to make it appear that unbuilt projects were actually realised, he said. “I’ve even had architects in the past ask me to render unbuilt house designs from their archives,” he says.

Here is a full transcript of the interview:

Ross Bryant: How did you get into visualisations?

Peter Guthrie: I studied architecture in Edinburgh and worked for Richard Murphy Architects for about five years after completing my degree. During that time I became more and more interested in both photography and visualisation and eventually decided to make the switch.

Ross Bryant: Are there other visualisers that have inspired or informed your work?

Peter Guthrie: Within visualisation I’m inspired by people like Alex Roman and Bertrand Benoit for their pioneering techniques. You need to have a healthy interest in all the technical geeky things in 3D visualisation and it’s important to stay up to date. Most of my inspiration for making images of architecture though comes from architectural photography.

Ross Bryant: How would you describe your visualisation style? Does it differ from other styles?

Peter Guthrie: I hope it is seen as being closer to architectural photography, that’s what I am aiming for anyway. Other visualisers perhaps take their inspiration from film and video games, which still results in captivating beautiful images but it isn’t an aesthetic I’m drawn to. I still try to make atmospheric, memorable images but without using too many post-production tricks.

Ross Bryant: What software do you use?

Peter Guthrie: SketchUp because it’s so quick, easy and so suited to the changeable nature of architectural design. Making the model myself builds familiarity with the project and I think that is a very important part in the whole process of coming up with good compositions, a bit like a photographer walking round a building to get an idea for what he wants to shoot.

3ds Max is the main base for a whole raft of plugins such as V-Ray. The raw rendered images are then treated much like a raw file would be in digital photography – imported into Lightroom to work on colours, exposure, dodging and burning as well as graduated filters etc.

This post production process is probably very different to the vast majority of people working in 3D visualisation and I think this reflects the fact that I have a background in architecture and photography – it’s just a workflow I feel comfortable with.

Ross Bryant: Why go to so much trouble with the images? Where’s the value?

Peter Guthrie: Because I enjoy it. For me personally, I just like making good images that I’m proud of and that I can look back at in a couple of years’ time and still enjoy. For some clients, like for example Ström Architects whose Suffolk House project you featured on Dezeen back in August, there is a lot of value in making images of as yet un-built designs to help them establish their practices.

There are projects I have worked on which never actually got built in the end, so the renders then become even more important as a record of the design. I’ve even had architects in the past ask me to render unbuilt house designs from their archives. It’s true that on some of my older projects I could have got away with a lot less and my client probably would still have been perfectly happy, but often I use a project as an excuse to learn a new skill or develop a new technique.

Ross Bryant: How long does each image take you?

Peter Guthrie: Typically maybe a month for five or six images of a house. The museum project I worked on with Thomas Phifer & Partners in New York lasted three months but we ended up with 24 images in total.

Ross Bryant: Are high-end visualisations lucrative?

Peter Guthrie: They can be, there are a lot of visualisation studios around these days and there seems to be a lot of work for freelancers. It can be tricky finding the balance between interesting work and work that pays well.

Ross Bryant: Do you think that we’ve reached the point where visualisations are indistinguishable from real photos?

Peter Guthrie: I think we have, but certain types of shot are more successful than others. You can get away with a lot if the overall image has a photographic quality, if the composition and lighting are convincing. The 2013 Ikea catalogue has a surprising number of visualisations in it and most people are none the wiser.

Ross Bryant: Can renderings look better than the finished building?

Peter Guthrie: Photographs of a completed building often look better than the building does in real life. Whether or not renderings do is part of the same argument isn’t it?

Ross Bryant: Architect and visualiser Henry Goss introduces real world imperfections into his architectural visualisations. What’s your view on this?

Peter Guthrie: I’ve always been interested in materiality in architecture so it is important for me to spend time working on making materials look realistic. Taking materials to the next level is about introducing the variety of texture and lack of uniformity that you see in real life situations. You can take the realism of individual materials to a very high level without resorting to making things deliberately worn and dirty as you often see in video games. I’m yet to meet an architect who wants their new design to look weathered before it has even been built!

Adding small details can also add greatly to the realism of an image. It sounds crazy I know, but I like to model double glazing accurately so that you get the subtle double reflections that you see in real life.

Ross Bryant: Do photorealistic visualisations and the way they are published on the internet change the way people perceive architecture?

Peter Guthrie: I’m sure it does, at least in that it makes un-built architecture more immediate and allows for greater conversation about the built environment. Most people these days are incredibly familiar with computer generated images (although they are usually in the form of feature films or computer games) but would find it harder to interpret a line drawing or watercolour of a proposed building.

Ross Bryant: Do you think that the big architectural firms will begin to use photorealistic renderings to illustrate major proposals?

Peter Guthrie: They already have that capability, but good designers will know what is appropriate to the current stage of the design they are showing. It really depends how fixed the designs are, and how much time they want to invest in renders. Sometimes architects are deliberately hesitant about showing too much detail as it can make planners or clients question how much scope there is for making changes.

Ross Bryant: Where is architectural visualisation heading next?

Peter Guthrie: Actually I’m not even that comfortable with the title architectural visualiser as architectural visualisation is too often seen as a service industry where the most valuable aspect is how quickly images can be produced. I think as the industry matures we are starting to see more distinct styles develop. Companies and individuals have the confidence to lead the artistic direction of an image, and clients are employing them because they can offer something different. Thankfully these days potential clients are more aware of the type of work I do.

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from photos” says leading visual artist appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese studio Tato Architects references the ad-hoc extensions of neighbouring buildings with the steel, concrete and wooden volumes that make up this house in Osaka, Japan (+ slideshow).

Located on the hillside of Mount Ikoma, House in Ishikiri is a three-storey family home and was designed by Tato Architects as a composition of three separate blocks.

From the rear, the house comprises a glazed ground-floor storey with a gabled upper floor floating above, while the street facade reveals an extra storey and garage tucked underneath.

“We observed favourably the mosaic pattern of old and rebuilt houses telling each history of over 80 years,” said architect Yo Shimada, explaining how he approached the design as a collection of connected elements.

“We proceeded with the design by making the places step by step, searching for an appropriate way of building the house that adapts to surrounding environments,”  he added.

A steel-plated box forms part of the lower ground floor, and contains a storage space and small toilet. A steel framework extends across it, creating space for the adjacent garage.

A split-level living and dining room occupies a double-height space on the middle floor and features sliding doors that open the space out to a wooden roof terrace.

A children’s bedroom is also situated on this floor. Positioned on top of the steel box, it comes with a row of windows around its base.

A staircase cantilevered from the dining room’s concrete wall leads up to a master bedroom and balcony on the top floor.

The kitchen is positioned at the opposite end of the house, overlooking a rear garden. A guest room above can be accessed by climbing a wooden ladder that extends up through a hole in the ceiling.

Tato Architects has completed a number of houses in Japan with complicated interiors, including one where wooden furniture forms sections of staircases and one with its upper floors contained inside sheds that sit on the roof.

Photography is by Shinkenchiku-sha.

Here’s a description from the architects:

House in Ishikiri

In between ‘before’ and ‘after’.

Dark concrete walls and a black house form volume above it, a translucent lean-to roof, a white high flat roof and a silver box under it. Those totally different and inconsistent materials and colours are combined to form this house.

The site is in a residential area developed around 1930, sloping to the west on a hillside of Mt. Ikoma, which overlooks the urban area of Osaka Plain. We observed favourably the mosaic pattern of old and rebuilt houses telling each history of over eighty years.

It was not easy to find out the way for making the house coordinated to the surroundings as the site is 3.5m up from the road so that the house would look larger than the actual size. We proceeded with the design by making places step by step searching an appropriate way of building the house that adapt to surrounding environments.

First, we made concrete walls with rough texture by using formwork made by small split lauan to match with old masonry walls and concrete-block walls in surrounding environments, and covered those with a black house form structure following the roof form of houses in the neighbourhood. After that, living space is made in the way as renovating interior space. The space for facilities to support the daily life such as a kitchen and a bathroom is made in between the concrete walls and the cliff-retaining wall behind the house, covered with a translucent lean-to roof and wooden windows and doors.

On the road side, a thin, modern flat-roof, which represents a new life style and cars covers the box made of steel plates commonly used for temporary enclosure at construction sites in Japan, pretending the atmosphere of ongoing construction sites.

These resulted in making places that are related to both ‘before’ and ‘after’. Living places are provided in space where different time-axes meet as ‘concrete walls’ and ‘a black house-type,’ ‘concrete walls’ and ‘a retaining wall,’ and ‘a white flat-roof’ and ‘boxes of steel plates.’

Rethinking the whole residential are from the way that this house exists would suggests us to rediscover potentials and richness of all elements and space among those with different histories in the area.

Project name: House in Ishikiri
Location of site: Osaka, Japan
Site area: 233.32m2
Building area: 61.37m2
Total floor area: 99.38m2
Type of Construction: Steel
Program: house
Project by: Tato Architects
Principal designer:Yo Shimada
Design period: March 2010 – April 2012
Construction period: July 2012 – January 2013

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Tato Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

“I really got some crossed looks when I brought this Indonesian mask back from a trip overseas,” says Andrew Galuppi (at right). “I took up most of the overhead bins!”

Looking to ward off the evil eye with a wedding Hamsa from North Africa, amass an instant collection of Japanese liquor bottles, or add a Moroccan Beni Ouran rug to your living room? These exotic treasures and many more are just a click away thanks to interior designer Andrew Galuppi and architect Ahmad Sardar-Afkhami. The pair have teamed up with flash sale site One Kings Lane for “Camera Mundi” an online tag sale that begins today.

The collection of homegoods, priced from $20 to $3,000, includes rugs, furniture, statuary, and other objects collected by Galuppi and Sardar-Afkhami during their travels around the world. “Every handcrafted item is infused with someone’s story—they probably were taught their skill by a long-lost relative and spent hours on each piece, and without the help of a machine,” says Galuppi, who travels to India every winter. “This is part of the world I like supporting, because each piece carries with it an energy and a real story that gets transferred to your home.” We asked the globe-trotting designers to tell us more about “Camera Mundi,” the objects in the sale, and where their worldly, contemporary aesthetic will take them next.

How did you come to work with One King’s Lane?
Ahmad Sardar-Afkhani: One of my close friends, Nate Berkus, was doing a sale with another friend, Ethan Trask, who works at One Kings Lane. We began talking and he proposed I create a sale mostly with the rugs and textiles I have been collecting.

Andrew Galuppi: Ahmad didn’t want to do the sale all alone—it’s more fun with a friend—so he knew my apartment was stuffed to the rafters with bits and bobs and he thought the mixture of our two collections would create one great big exciting assortment…kinda like a crazy bazaar!

Tell us about the significance of the title, “Camera Mundi”?
Sardar-Afkhani: In Latin, it means “room of the world,” where objects from different historical and cultural backgrounds can be displayed next to each other. I’m all for this type of juxtaposition, where new meaning and beauty is derived from assemblages of objects that would otherwise have little in common.

Galuppi: In addition to what Ahmad has explained…I think that a lot of people have really well curated homes these days, and including an object from some far away place will add texture and personality to a space to make it really feel finished and unique. That’s where “camera mundi” comes into place: bringing the globe home.
continued…

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This gas compressor station in southern Denmark by Scandinavian firm C.F. Møller comprises Corten steel-clad boxes atop a pair of artificial hills (+ slideshow).

C.F. Møller was commissioned by Danish energy company Energinet to create the facility as part of a wider government scheme to upgrade the visual appearance of the country’s power grid, and the firm has already completed an electricity station with modular panels folding around its exterior.

Corten steel panels create a textured surface around the upper walls of the structures, and were chosen because they are easy to maintain and fit in well with the natural surroundings.

“The plating is juxtaposed to create a varied and vibrant pattern of light and shadow,” said architect Julian Weyer. “The combination of materials aims to make the buildings appear rugged and elegant at the same time.”

The bases of both buildings are tucked down into the centre of two artificial hills, which are covered with grass.

The new technical plant is the first of its kind in Denmark, suppling gas to pipelines as far away as Germany and Sweden.

The interior of the plant is divided up into a linear sequence of rooms, accommodating storage areas, fire-extinguishing spaces, workshops, and boiler rooms. Additional buildings on-site accommodate an emergency generator in case of power failure.

Photography is by Julian Weyer.

Here’s a description from the architects:

Gas Kompressor Station, Egtved

Natural gas plant consisting of compressor station and service buildings.

A technical site is normally swaddled in greenery to prevent it from becoming an eyesore in the natural environment. The new Energinet.dk compressor station at Egtved is Denmark’s first installation of its kind, and here the opposite is true.

C.F. Møller has designed the plant, consisting of four compressor units and service buildings, as an architectural feature in the open landscape. The form of the buildings was also specially chosen in order to achieve optimum safety conditions at the plant.

The new technical plant, supplying the central intersection of the gas pipelines connection north-south from Germany and east-west to Sweden, has a landscape-like expression emerging from the landscape as a grassy embankment.

The remainder of the building appears almost to hover over the mound and is clad with rust-coloured Corten steel plating. The plating is juxtaposed to create a varied and vibrant pattern of light and shadow. The combination of materials aims to make the buildings appear rugged and elegant at the same time.

The grass and iron-clad plant houses service buildings, including an emergency generator and storage rooms, and beyond the buildings lies the compression plant itself atop an open plane. The buildings are designed to provide visual, aural and safety screening from the compression units.

“We began by asking ourselves a question: Can we push the boundaries for how we see a technical plant? Can we create a gas plant in dialogue with the landscape and yet focus on the energy supply infrastructure, on which we all depend?” says Julian Weyer, architect and partner.

The simple and striking design of the service buildings and substation also provides the opportunity for great flexibility in relation to the functional adaptation of the design in the coming phases.

Background

Natural gas supplies from the North Sea are dwindling. To ensure a regular and safe energy supply in the future, Denmark has to be able to receive gas from continental Europe.

Energinet.dk has therefore constructed 94 kilometres of “gas motorway” from Egtved to Germany. This extension of the fossil gas system may well be a decisive step on the road to a green energy system, which is projected by 2050 to use only renewable energy.

Client: Energinet.dk
Address: Egtved, Denmark
Engineering: Niras A/S
Architect: C. F. Møller Architects
Landscape: C. F. Møller Architects
Size: 4.600 m² new-built and 20.000 m2 compressor station
Year: 2010-2013

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by C.F. Møller appeared first on Dezeen.

A raw concrete interior is contained behind the white limestone facade of this townhouse in Lisbon by ARX Portugal (+ slideshow).

Slotted in amongst a row of traditional Lisbon townhouses, the five-storey residence was designed by local studio ARX Portugal with the same tall and narrow proportions as its neighbours.

The facade of the building is an arrangement of white limestone blocks, broken up by a grid of protruding piers and narrow windows.

“Just as most of Lisbon’s old buildings, it is a flat elevation whose expressiveness comes from its rhythmic nature and the light-and-shade effects produced with the backing-up of its surfaces,” said the architects.

Contrastingly, the rear facade is made up entirely of windows, fronted by steel balconies that overlook a secluded garden.

Walls, ceilings and staircases inside the house are bare concrete. “The precision of the design as well as the inclusion of two doors in most rooms endows the five small floors with a sense of a generous space and gives its dwellers a strong feeling of fluidity and freedom,” added the architects.

The main street-level entrance to the house leads onto the storey above the garden, which primarily encompasses a garage and living room.

The dining room and kitchen are located on the floor below and open out to the paved terrace and lawn.

The first and second floors accommodate bedrooms and bathrooms, while an office occupies the uppermost floor.

There’s also a small roof patio, featuring a small bench and a solitary tree.

ARX Portugal has used bare concrete in the construction of several residences in Portugal. Others include a top-heavy house with a glazed lower storey and a house with gaping chasms that drop down to basement courtyards.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

House in Lisbon

The concept for this house emerges from a reflection on the identity of Lisbon architecture, a recurring type of 6-metre-wide and 15-meter-long deep house, ending in a small garden in the back. It is a 5-storey building with two radically different elevations: one “public” in white lioz limestone (the most used in Lisbon) and the one in the back, in glass, connected by an interior world in exposed concrete, punctuated by birch wood elements.

The elevation obviously follows on the Lisbon tradition, stressed further by the windows’ rhythmic structure, opened in a span system created by horizontal strips and vertical bars – characteristic of the city architecture.

Just as most of Lisbon’s old buildings, it is a flat elevation whose expressiveness comes from its rhythmic nature and the light-and-shade effects produced with the backing-up of its surfaces. This apparatus brings the elevation a sense of time, expressed by the change in the shadows throughout the day: from a more subtle morning light – with no direct sunlight – to the strong contrasting afternoon shadows.

Besides a straightforward concern in aligning the elevation with the surrounding lines, the design stresses an obvious contrast between the block-type bottom, and the more dematerialised crest.

If on the one hand the ground floor responds defensively to the narrowness of the street, combined with the fact that neighbours park their cars in front of doors and windows, on the other hand the top comes out much lighter and dematerialised: it is a space at once interior and exterior – a top patio allowing the transition between the lower building, to the south, and the higher one, to the north. Nevertheless, despite its intimate nature, the space allows a view over the surrounding landscape and to the far-off Christ the King statue to the south, along the street line.

On the back elevation we have explored the extreme transparency which extends the interior onto the exterior and opens up the view to the garden – where a splendid Linden tree takes centre stage – leading the eyes from the top floors over Lisbon’s hills, the Tagus river, and the South Bank. Radically opened to the exterior, the generous morning light that floods in directly is balanced by the grey concrete making up all the surfaces.

Inside, the precision of the design, as well as the inclusion of two doors in most rooms, endows the five small floors with a sense of a generous space, and give its dwellers a strong feeling of fluidity and freedom.

The constructive research for this project provides an example in which the whole structure shapes the space and becomes architecture in itself: the whole concrete structure, built with only 3 planes – two gables and a transversal plan – is set forth and designed to define the essential house space.

At once a natural and staged space, of both contemplation and living experience, the garden is expressed as an archeological site, where all layers of time, since the house was built, are present. Here, one can still see the ancient techniques that have raised thick stone walls (often recovered from other buildings), later brick overlays, mortar or paint, as well as the stones from the demolished house that have become pavement.

Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Project: 2010-2011
Construction: 2012-2013
Gross construction surface: 436 m2

Architecture: ARX Portugal, Arquitectos Lda. (José Mateus, Nuno Mateus)
Work Team: Isabel Gorjão Henriques, Miguel Torres, Joana Pedro, Sofia Raposo, Rodrigo Gorjão Henriques, Paulo Rocha
Structures: SAFRE, Projectos e Estudos de Engenharia Lda.
Electrical, telecommunications and security planning: Energia Técnica – Gabinete de Engenharia, Lda
Contractor: Manuel Mateus Frazão

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by ARX Portugal appeared first on Dezeen.