Design Ideas for the Built World

View Original

The Relevance of 3D Rendering in Exterior Architecture Design

Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first. Modern 3D rendering makes the design process quicker and more efficient, and it makes the designs easier to test, prototype, and sell. Even the old problems of extended rendering times are now over, thanks to data centers like Rebus Farm, which can render out your designs and your tests while you keep working. These are some of the commonly known benefits of 3D rendering in general architecture design, but what about exterior architecture design specifically? What does 3D rendering offer in the area of exterior architecture design?

Photo by Mo Eid

Get a Strong Feel For The Size of a Building

Being able to render out a design, especially a photo-realistic design is a great benefit to people trying to judge the size of their designs. Take something as simple as adding a sign over the top of a high street store. Being able to see it visually through a photo-realistic render makes a massive difference because it gives people a different perspective on the design. It offers additional information, like how the light may hit the design, how the shadows may obscure the sign from a distance, and how the external lights may need to be set up in order to fully realize the design’s purpose in real life.

Get a Strong Feel For the Scale of the Building

Many modern 3D designs are set with realistic backgrounds, but even when a design is set in a realistic setting, it is hard to gauge the real-life size of a building. With a 3D render and something to add a level of real-world scale, it is possible to judge how large or small certain external factors are. A simple addition is that of a 6-foot-tall person and a family saloon car parked nearby. This is often a better tool for the purposes of scale because things like trees and other buildings can be any size.

Adding a Design into a Photograph of a Background

Back in the old days, people added their CAD designs into photographs. Even in the old Playstation 1 era of gaming, graphics were added, including textures and such, to create the “Idea” of a building in its real-world setting. These days, 3D rendering has come so far that we can take a photo of the proposed building site, create a photo-realistic example of the building design, and add the fully rendered photo-realistic design to the photo background. With the addition of details like correct lighting, a little dirt, and even shadows from in-image elements, we can see what a building (and its exterior) will look like when the design has been built.

Help Everybody Understand The Design

We all know that 3D renders are used to help convince clients and investors to buy into a project. They are part of everything, from the erection of massive skyscrapers to the addition of a room onto a house. The pretty-picture and pretty-model method have been used since the days before a toddler named Trump was building Lego towers in school. These days, thanks to photo-realistic renders, it is possible to show everybody in the decision chain what the end result will look like. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but it actually sets a standard for the sort of work and results that are expected. It isn't just about raw data and designs; it helps to foster a complete understanding of what this project is all about. You can see from the render if a project/design was created to be ultra-efficient, economical, Eco-friendly, futuristic, artistic, and much more. It sets a standard that even a child can understand, which goes a long way to ensuring the project goes the way it was originally planned.


Author: Jennifer Jackson