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Architecture

“Architects Are Bad at Business:” Here’s Why and What We Can Do About It

By Zarkon Group,07/08/2023

Evelyn Lee is the Head of Workplace Strategy and Innovation at Slack Technologies, founder of Practice of Architecture, and co-host of the podcast, Practice Disrupted. She will serve as the 101st President of the AIA in 2025.

Every architecture and design firm is a business first. It’s easy to forget while celebrating our design awards and the stories of our contributions to the communities where we live, work and play. But to pursue the work that brings us so much joy, it is, first and foremost, essential to have a profitable and agile business that continues to adapt to the changing nature of the economy.

Architects aren’t necessarily known for being good at business or even enjoying having conversations on business operations. We would rather spend our time talking about the projects, the impact of the design, the materials that went into them, and the changes made within the project delivery process to make it so successful.

But the phrase, “Architects are bad at business,” has become a crutch, if not an excuse, to continue to be bad at business and avoid the conversation altogether.

So why are we this way?

OrfiSera by YERCE ARCHITECTURE

Architects are often more focused on the creative aspects of their work rather than business ones.

The problem with focusing only on creativity often means losing focus on things like project management. This means we spend so much time focused on only one aspect of the business, but businesses are systems, and every aspect of the system needs attention to be successful.

Architects are not trained in business practices.

Anyone who went through an accredited degree program could tell you that the one-hour seminar on professional practice taught students more about avoiding lawsuits while practicing than it did about running a business effectively. And even if it was the class was more broadly focused, there’s too much to learn in a single class to be effective.

What’s more, the ongoing education of individuals, once in practice, is often more focused on project work and does not extend beyond that.

Architects are often reluctant to change.

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, it is more important than ever for businesses to be agile. Agility is the ability to adapt quickly to change, and it is essential for businesses that want to stay ahead of the competition (especially the growing competition coming from outside the profession). However, architects, no matter how innovative we are with our projects, are otherwise stuck in our ways and resistant to change.

Good business operations require continuous improvement, and it not only takes a change mindset but a commitment of resources, both time and money, to examine what is and isn’t working.

OrfiSera by YERCE ARCHITECTURE

Architects are not good at selling their services.

How often have you heard an architect say, “The work speaks for itself.” Sure, there was a time when architects were discouraged from advertising their services (from the late 1800s to the early 1960s), but even with advertising being off the table, there are many different ways to sell services that most architects are not using.

Architects don’t like to ask for help.

While it’s easy for us to be good at what we are good at, it’s often harder for us to realize what we are not good at and, more importantly, to not stand in the way of letting other experts do their thing. I don’t know how often I’ve heard an architect say about a business operations consultant, “They just don’t understand what we do and how we do it.”

In many ways, we make ourselves out to be so unique that we get it in our heads that no one else can understand what it is we do and how we do it. We then put it on ourselves to do everything, and in essence, nothing more gets accomplished.

OrfiSera by YERCE ARCHITECTURE

So what can better business operations do for our architecture and design firms? There are many benefits, including:

Better communication and collaboration: Well-designed business operations can improve communication and collaboration within an architecture or design firm. This can lead to faster decision-making, better problem-solving and more efficient use of resources.
Streamlined processes: By streamlining processes, firms can reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to complete tasks. This can lead to increased efficiency and productivity.
Automated tasks: By automating tasks, firms can free up their staff to focus on more strategic and creative work. This can lead to increased efficiency and profitability.
Better use of technology: By using technology effectively, firms can improve their efficiency and productivity. This can include using project management software, cloud-based collaboration tools, and other technology solutions.
A focus on continuous improvement: By focusing on continuous improvement, firms can identify and implement changes that will make their business more efficient. This can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage.

In addition to the benefits above, better business operations can also help architecture and design firms to:

Attract and retain top talent
Increase customer satisfaction
Improve profitability
Expand into new markets

OrfiSera by YERCE ARCHITECTURE

Design thinking has taken hold in many different areas, and architects often share their desire to own the space. I think there’s an opportunity to raise our value there, but to showcase what we can do, we first have to start with what we can do within our firms.

Stay tuned for our upcoming articles offering specific guidance and steps to design and implement better business operations.

In the meantime, we encourage you to download Practice of Architect’s Agile Practice Resource. This free living resource is designed to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to bring more agility to your practice.

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work through Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.

Reference

josé pedro lima converts butcher shop into skylit real estate space in portugal

Architecture

josé pedro lima turns butcher shop into skylit space in portugal

By Zarkon Group,06/08/2023

josé pedro lima gives new life to old butcher shop in portugal

Architect José Pedro Lima has recently converted the old Central Butcher Shop in Portugal‘s downtown Coimbra into a minimalist real estate space punctuated by neat white walls, wooden tones, and generous daylight. In addition to preserving the original butcher shop’s marble flooring, Lima took advantage of the interior compartments, making slight surgical alterations that fit into the new program photographed by Ivo Tavares. While the main room of the new retail space retained practically the previous configuration, the former meat cutting area has been transformed into a meeting room, and a small kitchen replaces the old refrigeration chamber.

all images © Ivo Tavares Studio

restoring skylights amid a white and minimal backdrop

The Central Butcher Shop conversion by José Pedro Lima (see more here) also included the restoration of existing skylights, which were previously blocked off, and the coating of all walls in a white shade to minimize the use of artificial lighting, restoring natural illumination to the interior spaces. The different lighting configurations correspond to additional uses of the spaces — the meeting room and kitchen. Thanks to a transition in flooring and baseboards, as well as the centrality conferred by the conference table, the meeting room is perceived as a distinct space; here, the incidence of the corresponding skylight accentuates the desired solemn character of this space. ‘In summary, the aim was to retain and interpret the existing qualities of the butcher shop while also understanding the needs of the new program, with particular emphasis on proper natural lighting of the spaces,’ concludes the architect.

restoring the existing skylights

natural illumination flooding the converted space

chair/furniture by SPSS Design Studio

Reference

Gable end of a Phoenix house clad in black timber by SinHei Kwok

Architecture

Wood and asphalt wrap Phoenix apartment building by SinHei Kwok

By Zarkon Group,05/08/2023

Black wood and asphalt shingles clad the exterior of the Polker housing block by architect and developer SinHei Kwok, who took cues from historic “pyramid cottages” while conceiving the project.

The historic Garfield neighbourhood – which has been undergoing revitalisation – is located near downtown Phoenix and is known for its modest, 20th-century homes designed in various styles. Of particular note are the district’s “pyramid cottages”, so named for their distinctive hipped roofs.

SinHei Kwok – whose multidisciplinary studio is based in Phoenix and Hong Kong – purchased a standard lot in the Garfield district and embarked on creating a multi-family development that respects its milieu.

“Inspired by the 100-year-old pyramid cottages within the historic neighbourhood, the building’s massing takes cues from the surrounding context,” said Kwok, who served as the architect and developer.

Pitched roof house clad in black wood and asphalt shingles — Asphalt shingles cover the exterior

One of the project’s main goals was to offer an alternative to the sprawl that characterises the Phoenix metropolitan area, which the architect described as an “unsustainable phenomenon”

“Phoenix has been infamous for urban sprawl with single-family housing developments since the 1950s,” the architect said.

“This project served as a prototype of urban infill development to help build a sustainable, walkable city.”

Pitched roof house with extruded upper level and white gable end — It contains six housing units

For the rectangular property – which measures 140 feet by 50 feet (43 by 15 metres) – the architect conceived a long, two-storey building that contains six rental units. The building’s pitched roof is meant to reference the historic pyramid cottages.

Slightly different facade treatments were used around the building.

Pitched roof house clad in asphalt shingles with extruded upper level and white gable end — Stucco covers one elevation

On the north- and south-facing elevations, the roof and exterior walls are wrapped in variegated asphalt shingles. The east wall is clad in black wood, while the western facade is covered in vanilla stucco and features a horizontal window.

“Inspired by Chinese landscape paintings, the horizontal shape of the window facing west captures the constantly changing skyline of downtown while limiting heat gain from the summer sun,” said Kwok.

The entire building totals 4,250 square feet (395 square metres). Within the units, one finds fluid layouts and a restrained material palette.

Interior elements include concrete flooring, concrete-block walls and a steel staircase. For the bathroom shower, Kwok used exterior-grade, aluminium-composite panels to eliminate grout joints and “provide a clean, modern look”.

House with a pitched roof clad in asphalt shingles by SinHei Kwok — Different materials were applied to different facades

All of the apartments have two levels, with the public area located on the ground floor. The upper level – traditionally used as an attic in the historic cottages – holds either a single loft-style room or two bedrooms and a bathroom.

In addition to a small parking lot with permeable paving, the site offers pockets of private and shared outdoor space.

Room with a sloped roof and lounge chair — The home has concrete block interior walls

All units have covered patios accessed by sliding glass doors, enabling a connection between inside and out.

Along the eastern elevation, which faces a street, Kwok carved out an outdoor space that serves as a reinterpretation of the iconic front porches found in the historic neighbourhood. The flooring is a 30-foot-wide (nine-metre) concrete slab that cantilevers over the ground.

Double-height space with a sloping roof and steel staircase — The studio added a steel staircase

“Our approach kept the same front-porch concept, encouraging dwellers to meet and interact with their neighbors,” said Kwok.

“During nighttime, it becomes a floating porch, with LED lights that light up below the slab.”

This is the second project by SinHei Kwok in Phoenix’s historic Garfield neighbourhood. For a compact site there, the architect and developer created a pair of apartment buildings that have M-shaped roofs and asphalt-shingle cladding.

The photography is by Roehner + Ryan.

Project credits:

Design architect, developer and owner: Sin Hei Kwok
Associate architect: Yin Pang
Structural engineer: Struktur Studio
MEP/FP engineer: Otterbein Engineering
Contractor: Beckett Construction

Reference

Architecture

Factory Reset: These Architects are Giving the Industrial Typology a Much-Needed Update

By Zarkon Group,04/08/2023

Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.

Designing industrial buildings, particularly factories, is usually a process that is dominated by the complicated functional and logistical requirements that limit architects creatively, overpowered by the technical specifications of the machinery and the production lines that occupy the entirety of the building space and leave little space for the form to develop beyond the functional limitations.

That being said, one would ask, What comes first? Form or Function?

The Oatmeal Factory in Ningwu, Shanxi province by JSPA Design.

This question has been the topic of hot debate among architects throughout history, with contrasting perspectives among the modernists and postmodernists, among others. During the late 19th and the 20th century, particularly within the field of industrial design, architects believed that “form follows function,” as expressed by architect Louis Sullivan, which indicated that the function of the building is what generates its form and guides its design process. For Frank Lloyd Wright, that design principle has been misunderstood, because, “Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”

When studying the design of the Ningwu Oatmeal Factory in Shanxi, China, which was both the Jury Winner and won the Popular Choice vote during Architizer’s 11th Annual A+Awards, one could argue that JSPA Design was inspired by Wright’s principle. This is especially evident in the way they eloquently strike the balance between both, breeding what could be described as a spiritual union between form and function. The design shows a high level of attention to the factory’s user experience, the selection of materials and the relationship with the site. In short, JSPA Design conceived of a home for production processes that is more than just a factory; the Ningwu Oatmeal Factory is a building that produces a lot more than just oatmeal.

The main entrance to the factory emphasized by the use of brick walls.

The Beijing-based French design studio produced a design that strokes the right balance between the complicated functional requirements and the humanization of the work environment, juggling the different design components while also introducing an interesting user experience that invited the public into the building while redeeming the integrity of the factory’s different operations.

From the outside, the surrounding context was challenging to work with, with the factory being located within dry and arid industrial landscapes punctured with coal mines on their outskirts. In response to this context, the design team chose to orient the building inwards, introducing a variety of horizontal and vertical boundary-demarcating elements that fostered a crisp and clean indoor environment, experientially detaching the building from the outside while enhancing the user experience and orchestrating an interesting walkthrough across the complex’s different sections. Meanwhile, visitors are spatially separated from staff for safety and logistical reasons.

An overview of the factory’s industrial context.

From an environmental perspective, the building’s relationship with the outdoors is further regulated through a network of patios and gardens that invite sunlight to enter the factory’s various spaces. These design provisions enrich the quality of the indoor environment, allowing floods of northern light to illuminate the central production space through a sequence of skylights.

A cross section through the main production space showing the skylights and the production machinery.

By using grey bricks as the main construction material, the designers establish a more materialistic connection with the surrounding context. By harnessing local construction methods to erect a series of brick walls that became the prominent design feature, the material amplifies the building’s relationship with the site and the surrounding landscapes.

Similar to the flow of production lines that transform raw oat into flour products, a variety of brick walls organize the circulation flows through the factory, starting at the entrance and leading each user group to their designated section, while also organizing entry and exit to the building, the delivery of materials and the loading of products. For the visitors, the ground floor serves as an opaque passage, with the brick walls concealing the technical spaces from the public that are lead instead to the first floor where the public spaces are located, including a café, a shop and a garden.

Brick walls guide the different users groups through the factory.

At the factory’s entrance, the public are greeted with a seating area and kids pools, mediating the relationship between the inside and the outside and softening the edge that separates the functional from the social sections of the factory. Brick makes a gradual and smooth appearance at the entrance, first appearing on the benches, before moving to the fences, and then extending vertically and becoming a series of walls that soon become the factory.

The seating area in front of the main entrance that acts as part of the public spaces of the factory.

The bricks walls that organize movement through the landscape aligned with the factory walls.

Despite how the brick walls have acted as boundary demarcating elements that organized the factory’s spaces, circulation and relation with the site, this project is an excellent example of architecture that blurs the line between form and function, with each fundamentally playing a role in shaping the other, without one necessarily needing to precede the other.

One of the interior gardens of the factory that regulate the relationship with the outside, demarcated by the brick walls .

The design team strategically chose key places to expose and conceal the factory’s different spaces, as well as varied sites where the factory is either connected or disconnected from the outside. Other binaries include rhythmic alternations between soft and hard, experiential and technical; and outward-reaching and inward-turning (click here to see plans, sections and more details from the A+Award-winning project). The sum of these complex calculations is proof that factory design need not be entirely automated. It shows that there is always a space for humans to intervene and be present within industrial sites.

Reference

Architecture

Liquid City: A Radical New Masterplan in Rotterdam Embraces the River for Resilience

By Zarkon Group,03/08/2023

Popular with hip foodies and craft beer lovers, Fenix Food Factory’s generous outdoor seating area overlooks Rijnhaven. An old industrial harbor, over decades, it has seen shipping disappear under the boot of urban development.

After docklands moved west towards, and now into, the North Sea, a new district has sprung up in this corner of Rotterdam, extending the city center. Shops, residential blocks, floating structures housing offices and hospitality have replaced redundant warehouses and cranes.

The stunning Hotel New York overlooks all of this new development. The iconic building dates to the late-19th century, when it housed Holland America’s headquarters. The ocean liner route to Hoboken, New Jersey, carried close to 500,000 passengers from mainland Europe in its first twenty-five years of operation, and some will be immortalized when the FENIX Museum of Migration opens in 2024.

At the closed end of the quay, early signs of Rijnhavenpark are materializing — if you know what to look for. A large section of the harbor is cordoned off with buoys, and machinery has arrived to start the mammoth task of filling in one-third of the basin to create a huge public park, partly built on dry land, part floating on water, connected by walkways. The scheme is just one of several remarkable undertakings by the municipality of Rotterdam, transforming how the city interacts with its riverfront.

Rijnhaven, Rotterdam by Ossip van Duivenbode/Rotterdam Partners

Artist’s impression of Rijnhavenpark by City Projects/Rotterdam Partners

A delta town, the surrounding region of the Netherlands is home to the huge Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta, and has seen vast amounts spent on flood defences as a result. Known as Delta Works, modern protective infrastructure first broke ground in 1954 and construction only finished around 1997. Rotterdam’s Maeslantkering was one of the final pieces in a jigsaw of sluices, locks and dams. An enormous floodgate that took six years to build, it remains one of the planet’s largest moving structures.

A new masterplan comprising a series of large scale City Projects for central Rotterdam, many of which actively embrace the river itself, serves as a clear reminder of how vulnerable a city is when large parts lie below sea level — however, it also serves as a source of inspiration for design ingenuity. This scheme includes planting flora at different tidal levels, meaning that green spaces change with the time of day and actively supporting aquatic life, mammals and birds in the process.

In total, eight sites have been approved, but the initial series could be the start of something far bigger — a vast ‘central park’ running down both river banks. This vision was creatively displayed on the inside of a disused shipping barge during June’s Rotterdam Architecture Month for the Liquid City exhibition. Should that ever materialize, the network of green waterfronts would line downtown and a good chunk of the former docklands that made up Europe’s largest port.

Interconnected green spaces are shown on the banks of the Meuse at Rotterdam Architecture Month by Martin Guttridge-Hewitt

“Four and a half years ago the decision was made that we need more green, and a lot more. Not just around the Meuse, but everywhere. Of course you can’t do it everywhere. So we were told there would be eight locations in the city centre, and to go away, do some homework quickly as possible, and present a study, with numbers for what it might cost,” explains Emiel Arends, urban planning specialist on City Projects who also works as part of Rotterdam’s climate adaptation programme, WeerWoord [Weatherwise]. “We only had four months to prepare, pitched it, they said OK, here’s €350 million ($387 million), go make it happen as soon as possible.”

In addition to riverside sites, City Projects also include the elevated Hofbogenpark, a narrow 1 mile (2 kilometer) micro-intervention on a former railway viaduct, and Hofplein, where urban greening will transform an already-busy square. Arends’ colleague, Pieter de Greef, senior planner and a key architect of the river-as-park masterplan, says the biggest challenge is Nelson Mendelapark. In partnership with US waterfront specialist SWA/Balsley, work has begun on an area the size of ten soccer fields at Maashaven harbour. Once complete, this will comprise hills, trees, lawns, an event space, and various tidal features, including a pathway designed to help people understand the river’s natural flow and ecosystem.

City Projects Rotterdam Nelson Mandelapark

Artists impression of Nelson Mandelapark by SWA/Balsley

“If you want square meters, Tidal Park Feyenoord is bigger. But that’s all about biodiversity, greening rivers, giving nature new places in the city… it’s not for picnics and other activities,” says de Greef of the largest approved City Projects development. “Mandelapark is much more mixed. There’s a lot of social housing around there, which is good but they do not have many balconies or public spaces. The streets are narrow, filled with asphalt and stones. This project gives 16,000 households a large green space within 10 minutes walk.”

Unsurprisingly, considering the neighborhood’s urgent needs, de Greef says the most significant achievement with Nelson Mandelapark has been keeping all available land public. Other schemes in City Projects have integrated private interests to help finance. For example, at Rijnhavenpark three large residential blocks will deliver 4,500 homes, bringing in revenue to realise the vision. Elsewhere, water companies support schemes where green-blue infrastructure can ease pressure on overloaded drainage systems.

“Each part of the City Projects has a slightly different focus,” says Arends. “So within the inner city, on the north side, a little bit further away from the river, it’s about water storage and heat reduction. Tidal Park Feyenoord is all about biodiversity, but you can walk there as well. There are actions specific to each of the parks. It’s an insane programme. I’ve never seen this before, in any city.”

Hero Image: Rotterdam’s Maeslantkering flood defences by Guido Pijper / Rotterdam Partners

Reference

dynamic curtain of concrete walls of varying heights engulfs japanese home by GOSIZE in tranquility

Architecture

GOSIZE wraps japan home in concrete walls of varying height

By Zarkon Group,02/08/2023

gosize melds external and internal spaces at ashiya s house

Amid an upscale residential neighborhood in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, the Ashiya S House stands as a three-story block of concrete infused with a dynamic sequence of spaces. The home, conceived by Go Fujita of studio GOSIZE, fuses traditional Japanese perspectives with modern aesthetics, resulting in a space that blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior, motion and stillness, and yin and yang.

Situated in close proximity to neighboring apartment buildings and a busy road, the architects placed emphasis on blocking sightlines and noise, prioritizing privacy and tranquility for residents. The spatial solution devised a series of outer walls surrounding the building, each varying in height and strategically positioned to create an open space that fosters intimacy while inviting natural light and views inside.

height-changing walls envelop the building | all images courtesy of Go Fujita / GOSIZE

fusion of traditional japanese design with modern aesthetics

Approaching the entrance, residents are guided along a semi-external path formed by gaps between overlapping exterior walls, marking a transition from public to private. Stepping inside, rough yet delicate tatami-finished walls adorned with contemporary art fuse traditional and modern elements, creating a serene ambiance that sets the tone for the rest of the Ashiya S House.

Ascending the stairs, guided by subtle indirect lighting, unveils a living area that exudes a sense of openness. The double-height windows allow sunlight to stream in, softly reflecting off the tin wallpaper and diffusing into every corner of the living space. The team at GOSIZE has carved these expansive openings into the thick walls to also serve as screens, framing the ever-changing views of the outside world, effectively merging the indoor and outdoor experiences.

a walled courtyard and porch marking a transition from exterior to exterior

GOSIZE’s design concept fuses traditional Japanese perspectives with modern aesthetics

the living space is infused with light and openness despite the home’s location in a bustling area

Reference

Architecture

Material researchers create biodegradable concrete casting using sawdust

By Zarkon Group,01/08/2023

A research team at the University of Michigan has created biodegradable formwork out of sawdust in an attempt to mitigate wood waste in the process of laying concrete.

The wood-based material is a result of the BioMatters project by the Digital Architecture Research and Technologies (DART) Lab at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Led by DART director Mania Aghaei Meibodi along with researchers Muhammad Dayyem Khan and Tharanesh Varadharajan, the team sought to create a material to reuse industrial sawdust in order to lessen the waste created by formwork used in concrete construction.

The team mixed sawdust with biopolymers and additives to create its material, which can be moulded or 3D-printed into various shapes. In order to demonstrate its capabilities, the team used the material to create concrete formwork.

Two people hold a 3D-printed sawdust column — The material can be 3D-printed in order to create structural columns

The team 3D-printed a 1.8-metre structural column, pouring concrete into its centre incrementally. After the concrete was dry, the sawdust formwork was peeled off to reveal the column.

The sawdust material was then saved and recycled by adding water in order to recreate the viscosity level required for 3D printing. Using this process, the team successfully reused the same material over 25 times to create additional columns.

Concrete poured into a a column of sawdust casting — The material is created using a mixture of sawdust and biopolymers

According to the team, 15 billion trees are cut down worldwide per year, which results in three million pounds of sawdust dumped into landfills in the United States.

The sawdust may often be burned as an alternative, which can cause environmental pollution.

A column made of sawdust and bio polymers — It can be recycled by adding water

“It’s like a precious material for me because you’re cutting down a tree,” said researcher Muhammad Dayyem Khan. “I think every particle of that tree should be reused if you’re cutting it down.”

According to DART Lab, formwork contributes to up to 40 per cent of concrete construction expenses and is usually constructed from wood. After its use on construction sites, the formwork is often discarded.

The team also plans to experiment with making larger structures with the material.

“For example, some structures can be printed in a big warehouse and then you just turn them back up,” said Khan. “Just rotate them 90 degrees and you’ve got a bigger structure.”

A concrete column getting sprayed with water — The material is used to mitigate waste produced by the concrete industry

While the BioMatters team initially experimented with the material for formwork, it suggested that the potential reaches beyond just concrete construction.

“It can be anything,” said Khan. “It can be small, decorative items. It can be furniture. It can be your walls, doors, windows.”

The material can also be sanded and stained similar to wood in order to create a smoother finish. The team has yet to explore what woods perform best for the material.

For more projects that utilize sawdust, Designer Oh Geon also used it to create a blocky stool while Mater Design utilised the material for a re-released version of the Conscious Chair.

Photography courtesy of DART Lab.

Reference

Architecture

How to Create a Compelling Architectural Rendering Using Customizable Materials and Assets

By Zarkon Group,31/07/2023

Translating the architectural masterpiece in your head into a tangible visualization for clients and colleagues can feel like an impossible task if you don’t have the right tools in your arsenal. Fortunately, cutting-edge real-time rendering software like Enscape can help architects and designers bring their projects to life with breathtaking clarity — and improve the speed and efficiency of your workflow.

Exploring 3D models in real time allows you to quickly evaluate every facet of a design. At the ideation stage, it’s easy to identify mistakes, experiment with different solutions and make instant alterations. Furthermore, with new levels of customization now possible, you can transform your concepts into immersive worlds for clients, imparting a compelling, human perspective to each project. Most importantly, your design intent is crystal clear from the outset.

Here are five steps to creating stunning architectural visualizations with adjustable assets and real-time rendering software.

1. Perfect your perspective.

Like a photographer, it’s important to consider the composition of your renderings. There are a number of general rules you can follow to make your framing more powerful — though these are yours to break.

The rule of thirds is an age-old principle. Dividing the frame into a three-by-three grid, this composition ensures the most important features fall along the lines or at their intersections. Alternatively, you could consider using one-, two-, or three-point perspectives anchored around crucial moments in the frame. If your scene is laden with multiple strong elements, it may be more impactful to hone in on one single focal point instead and tell that story succinctly.

If you’re an Enscape user, you have the ability to create handy presets for each view once you’ve settled on your composition. Every camera angle requires its own unique settings. In Enscape, you can link the preset to the view, so the visual settings will automatically change when you navigate through the different perspectives.

2. Plan your lighting setup.

Negotiating the balance between light and dark is key if you want to produce a realistic rendering. Think about what time of day your scene is set and examine the conditions in the real world. What position would the sun or moon be in? Depending on the orientation of any windows, where would shadows be cast and how dark would they be? Are there any surfaces light might reflect off? In Enscape, it’s possible to customize the time of day for each view to set the right mood for the scene.

For artificial lighting, consider the angle of the light, its strength and how intense shadows would be according to each particular lighting system. Extremely dark areas can lose detail and material quality, so ensure the frame’s main focal points are adequately lit.

Enscape 3.5, the software’s newest iteration, features updates to their global illumination algorithm, including a host of changes to make the light quality in your renderings more lifelike. These include more accurate shading in mirror reflections and more realistic indirect lighting in interior scenes.

3. Customize your project materials.

Blurry and pixelated 3D textures result in lackluster visualizations. Material clarity can elevate your architectural renderings to the next level. Enscape’s Material Library offers an array of high-quality, versatile textures you can apply across interior and exterior surfaces. It’s easy to experiment with different materials and instantly swap them in and out until you arrive at the right finish. You can also import materials from other sites to expand your library.

Textures with visual repetitions can be jarring and disrupt the illusion of realism. However, bump maps and reflections are automatically applied to materials from the Enscape Material Library to impart even more depth to your renderings. If these settings don’t align with the aesthetic you’re trying to achieve, you can use the Enscape Material Editor to customize displacement maps.

As well as the exterior and interior textures of your project, don’t neglect the other scene elements that will bring your image to life. Pay special attention to typically overlooked surfaces such as the asphalt of an adjacent road or the ripples of a lake in the background to ensure the entire composition feels palpable.

4. Utilize realistic assets.

Illustrating your renderings with the fixtures of everyday life, be it furniture, decorations, trees, vehicles and even people, can enforce your world-building and strengthen your design. Enscape’s recently released adjustable asset series offers options for you to modify assets to your liking. There are over 1,000 new 3D adjustable assets, encompassing texture alterations and variants of an item’s geometry, plus almost an infinite number of color options to choose from.

What’s more, the Enscape 3.5 update offers 93 new unique people assets to help demonstrate the functionality of your project and add a more emotive dimension to your scenes. In instances where architects and designers need specific assets, you can import your own models into the Custom Asset Library too. Check out this in-depth tutorial on harnessing Enscape’s asset library within Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, Archicad and Vectorworks.

5. Fine-tune in post-production.

When you’ve finished crafting your scenes, there may be post-production tweaks you want to make to add the finishing touches to your renderings. In Enscape, you can easily export your images and continue work in any photo editing software. You can even export different types of rendering elements so you can quickly modify a specific object or material. For example, you can export object ID, material ID and channel depth for more targeted editing.

Enscape 3.5 also benefits from improvements to the alpha channel functionality (the alpha channel is a layer that represents an image’s degree of transparency). The alpha channel export feature allows you to take renderings with a transparent background out of Enscape and edit them externally. The recent update now enables users to export semi-transparent materials too, such as windows and glass surfaces, speeding up post-processing.

Supercharge your design communication and try Enscape’s real-time rendering software for yourself with a free 14-day trial. The Enscape plug-in is compatible with popular modeling software, including SketchUp, Revit, Rhinoceros, Archicad and Vectorworks.

Reference

Architecture

Architectural Drawings: Mexico’s Open-Air Architecture in Plan

By Zarkon Group,30/07/2023

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work through Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.

Mexican architecture is as varied and inspiring as the country itself. From expansive deserts to lush rain forests and towering mountains, local landscapes have shaped architects’ varied approaches to building across Mexico’s temperate to tropical zones. In these climates, a range of open-air architecture is being built that reimagines how to connect people with their surroundings. From small pavilions to large complexes, these structures take inspiration from the places they are built for.

Taking a deeper dive into Mexican architecture through drawings, the following open-air projects are found nationwide. Images of each completed project are juxtaposed with plan drawings to show how the buildings are organized to encourage movement between spaces. While the projects are programmatically and spatially diverse, they each explore views and Mexican culture and how to design for local climates. Made for the changing conditions and shifting light throughout the day, these projects and drawings embody what it means to build in Mexico today.

Telcel Theater

By Ensamble Studio, Mexico City, Mexico

Ensamble’s design for the Telcel Theater was buried underground with a large metallic structure lifted from ground level. This creates a dramatic open-air volume that rises above and below the ground. The structure above appears as a stone of air, supported by the space that comes from a sequence of excavated terraces. Below, the excavated spaces are given to the public and open to the sky, protected by the symbolic metal structure.

As the design team notes, the project confronts the elemental natures with which it is built: the deep density of the negative space, of vertical character; and the horizontal tension of the air contained and supported by the Dovela metal structure. The plan drawing shows the outline of this canopy as it rises above the open excavated lobbies below. Once inside the earth, the Theater appears as the end of a sequence of spaces.

Community Center San Bernabé

By Picharchitects/Pich-Aguilera, Monterrey, Mexico

Designed for the community center of San Bernabé, this project offers a building-street which aimed to transmit civic values inherent to the urban structure of the neighborhood. This building-street was conceived as a framework for the relationship and the expression of individuals and the community, so that it will be getting stronger as the citizens start to discover it and living freely in it.

As seen in the open-air plan drawing, this street built within acts like the backbone of the built bodies that house the functional program of the community center and responds to an urban vision as a whole. The project also includes an allocation for renewable energy production, integrated into the architecture from the system of “solar beams” that make up the shade structure.

Mar Adentro

By Taller Aragonés / Miguel Ángel Aragonés, San José del Cabo, Mexico

Mar Adentro was inspired by the “enormous drive of water under a scorching sun.” This piece of land, located in the middle of a coastline dotted with “All Inclusives,” and the team wanted to challenge what would have been a box similar to other structures in place. The central idea was to take the horizon and bring it into the foreground. Mar Adentro is a kind of Medina that opens out onto the sea.

Describing the project, the team notes that, “the water is an event that borders the entire project; all of the volumes open up toward the sea and turn their backs on the city.” Each floating volume contains interiors that form, in turn, independent spaces. All rooms were prefabricated for construction ahead of time in a factory. The important thing is the versatility of this structure, one that can be entirely factory-made then raised on site in a straightforward manner.

Ecumenical Chapel

By Bunker Arquitectura, Cuernavaca, Mexico

This private chapel was made for a plot of land recently bought on the backside of a weekend house in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The clients wanted an Ecumenical chapel, a non-religious and universal space, to meditate. The chapel is buried underground and a spiraling ramp that surrounds it brings visitors inside. This ramp is flanked with a vegetated wall that functions as a vertical garden.

Outside, a water pond forms the rooftop of the chapel. At its center there is an oculus, a glass covered opening in the metallic plate, that lets sunlight filter through the water, generating light and shadow patterns on the inside. The space is contained by a lattice wall formed by separated glass beams that lets the air flow through its inside. The oculus and simple support structure that connects to the landscape is seen in plan.

Centinela Chapel

By Estudio ALA, Arandas, Mexico

This chapel project was reimagined inside a tequila factory, located in the northeast of the state of Jalisco. The region is known to be one of the most religious areas in the country. This spiritual and social space is a reinterpretation of the mixed use spaces that exist in older haciendas and houses of the region, where people used to have a chapel or oratory in their own houses, adjacent to the terraces and open covered spaces, where social and family events were commonly held.

The team notes that the chapel sits on a cantilevered platform, overviewing the lake, the gardens, the factory and the agave fields. The plan drawing shows how the building is oriented in a way that its closed walls face the southern and western sun, keeping privacy from the patio. A terracotta tile pathway leads visitors from the factory towards the chapel, allowing them to admire the scenery, and enjoy the walk around the lake and gardens, leading them finally into the complex.

Jojutla Central Gardens

By Estudio MMX, Jojutla de Juárez, Morelos, Mexico

After devastating earthquakes in Mexico, this project was designed to rebuild an identity that uses public spaces as its media. At the heart of the design was a close interaction with the inhabitants of Jojutla. The core idea came from the trees. These unique elements survived the earthquakes without damage, therefore, the Civic Centre of Jojutla became the “Central Gardens of Jojutla” evoking the concept of resiliency by means of the vegetation.

As seen in plan, there are arcades that coexist next to the gardens. These structures reinterpret the region’s traditional architecture. They serve as frames for the civic and leisure events required by the city. The selected materials were artisanal ochre brick, basaltic grey stone for pavements, and an extensive array of local flora species. The result was the generation of a civic square with a new identity.

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work through Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.

Reference

Architecture

a reconfigurable apartment is built in bjarke ingels’ ecuador tower

By Zarkon Group,29/07/2023

an adaptable dwelling in quito, ecuador

Ecuador-based JAG Studio photographs a timber intervention dubbed ‘501’ within Quito’s pixelated IQON tower, a residential project completed recently by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). This interior space is designed by a team led by Juan Alberto Andrade with the aim of maximizing utility and creating adaptable spaces that allow for the fluid integration of different activities. The core concept behind the ‘501’ apartment is to prioritize the flexibility of useful space by introducing volumes that are both inhabitable and reconfigurable.

The architects have recognized that modern housing should be versatile, diverse, and capable of accommodating transformations over time. Embracing this concept, JAG Studio has designed a space that is neutral and configurable, offering a canvas for inhabitants to tailor the environment according to their needs.

Juan Alberto Andrade transforms a bjarke ingels apartment

At the heart of the ‘501’ apartment in Bjarke Ingels’ Ecuador tower, Juan Alberto Andrade incorporates two containing pieces that allow for various activities within one harmonious place. These ‘Stations’ and ‘Substations’ provide distinct zones that cater to different functions. The Stations are identified as ‘a: room’ and ‘b: music studio,’ each serving as dedicated spaces for specific purposes. On the other hand, the Substations — labeled as a1, a2, a3, a4; b1, b2 — offer the flexibility to include diverse uses. This arrangement allows for a seamless transition from spaces designed for permanence and privacy to those that cater to professional activities.

integrated furniture solutions

The Ecuador-based architects integrate thoughtfully-crafted furniture solutions into the design of the ‘501’ apartment to make the most of the available space. The Stations include a pull-out bed system, offering an efficient way to optimize sleeping arrangements while freeing up floor area during the day. Additionally, a unit featuring a working table, seats, and multiple storage and shelving equipment crafted from laminated boards, green-tinted boards, and four-milimeter metal sheets brings practicality and elegance to the living space.

The beauty of the ‘501’ apartment lies in its adaptability to change and the range of possibilities it presents. By creating a space that can be reconfigured and tailored to the inhabitants’ needs, JAG Studio has successfully bridged the gap between contemporary dynamics and habitability in the bustling city of Quito, Ecuador.

the compact dwelling can be freed up with built-in, collapsable furniture
two ‘stations’ can each be transformed for different uses a keyboard is hidden away in the ‘music studio’ station

Reference

Architecture

Architects are often more focused on the creative aspects of their work rather than business ones.

Architects are not trained in business practices.

Architects are often reluctant to change.

Architects are not good at selling their services.

Architects don’t like to ask for help.

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1. Perfect your perspective.

2. Plan your lighting setup.

3. Customize your project materials.

4. Utilize realistic assets.

5. Fine-tune in post-production.

Telcel Theater

By Ensamble Studio, Mexico City, Mexico

Community Center San Bernabé

By Picharchitects/Pich-Aguilera, Monterrey, Mexico

Mar Adentro

By Taller Aragonés / Miguel Ángel Aragonés, San José del Cabo, Mexico

Ecumenical Chapel

By Bunker Arquitectura, Cuernavaca, Mexico

Centinela Chapel

By Estudio ALA, Arandas, Mexico

Jojutla Central Gardens

By Estudio MMX, Jojutla de Juárez, Morelos, Mexico

an adaptable dwelling in quito, ecuador

Juan Alberto Andrade transforms a bjarke ingels apartment

integrated furniture solutions

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