With convincing photorealism now commonplace in architectural visualisations, by what criteria should we judge the best, asks Archiboo Web Awards founder Amanda Baillieu?
A few weeks back an image of an infinity pool with a 360-degree view of the London skyline popped up on my phone.
The image itself was crude but the idea was compelling – the rooftop pool is shown 200 metres above the city’s skyline – so along with thousands of others, I clicked the image to find out more.
Will the pool be built? I wouldn’t bet on it. Yet despite lacking a client, a location and any logical explanation of how you would get into the water, after a few hours of being released the image was circulating on every news channel from CNN to the Daily Mirror.
But these highly effective PR stunts is one reason why architectural visualisation often finds itself on the defensive.
Top, above: visualisations by Compass Pools
Partly it’s down to the sheer number of fantasy projects flowing through architecture websites all vying for attention. And it’s also because 3D software can create such realistic images, we have difficulty discriminating between a photograph of a completed project and a visualisation. And we feel let down -betrayed even- when it turns out the project is merely a marketing exercise or the fantasy imaginings of a tech savvy architecture student trying to boost their Instagram followers.
David Bullock, joint managing partner of visualisation studio Hayes Davidson, says visualisations now have to “capture someone’s attention in a millisecond” but image overload can leave us visually saturated so we become “desensitized”.
But digital imagery (and now film and immersive technologies like AR and VR) does have an important role in furthering the dialogue between architects, planners and the public which is why we decided to include it as part of the annual Archiboo Web Awards.
This year we have renamed the category in memory of Alan Davidson, the pioneer of architectural imagery who died last year. Alan pioneered the art of architectural visualisation, and Hayes Davidson, which he set up in 1989, was the first studio dedicated to producing computer-generated imagery for architectural studios.
Visualisation of Joseph Walsh Studio courtyard (ph: IF_DO / Forbes Massie).
In 2017 If_DO won the ‘best use of digital imagery’ award, with credit given equally to Forbes Massie who created the visualisations. It was an outright winner but I remember the comment of one judge who pointed out that most of the entries were “hyper-realist images brushed over with moody weather and happy (almost 100 per cent) white people which reduced architecture to a numbing sameness”.
And he was right. But it’s not the fault of the visualiser or the software just as architectural photographers cannot be blamed for the fact that almost all buildings are photographed without people.
“A lot of our work is for the planning system where we have to be 100 per cent accurate. We can’t even remove road signs but with architectural competitions we take the lead from the architect,” says Bullock.
“But the problem is that early stage ideas are very loose and the image is just an artistic impression when not everything has been considered,” he adds.
In that way the render is similar to pen and ink sketches – both are setting out to communicate the architects’ intention at a particular moment.
We want to see images that tell a story but also challenge us to ask questions”
So when it comes to judging the Alan Davidson Award what will the judges be looking for?
First the image needs to be compelling. The judges won’t give points for impossible angles or the ability to render unlikely lighting conditions but are looking for work with character.
Second we would like to see entries that play with techniques and vary the representation according to context and purpose.
And finally, communicating architecture before it’s built remains hugely important so we want to see images that tell a story but also challenge us to ask questions.
The Alan Davidson Award is open to architectural visualisers and studios. Images must be available to view online. The awards deadline is 9 July 2019.
