The Room Papers
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The power of the image: architectural visualization
One of the challenges as interior designers is to convey to the client our idea, our vision of the new space that we have devised for them.
We are used to working with plans in two dimensions, and our spatial vision makes us immediately lift those lines and visualize the space. But not everyone has this facility of moving from two to three dimensions, and, as the saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words.
Some years ago we worked with views and handmade drawings. Many times they were black and white concepts, other times with a touch of color with markers, watercolors or waxes. With the help of these drawings you could make the client understand how his space would look.
But just as we went from making the plans by hand with rotring and paralex to making them on a computer, the same thing happened with the drawings: we went from analog to digital. This change was a revolution: you could teach the project in a realistic way, as if it were a photograph.
In this way the space is understood perfectly, being able to show several options of colors, wallpaper, luminaires, furniture… the possibilities are endless. But it is not only a useful tool for the client; It also helps interior designers to project more accurately and be more aware of the three dimensions of space.
When making a render or visualization it is very important to know what we want to teach and how we want to do it. We can make an image of some detail on which we base the design that helps to understand the concept. Another option is to work the space directly in three dimensions, to take into account the height, width and depth of our intervention. We can also make an image of the entire space, to show the project in its entirety, with real furniture, lighting and textures.
But the most important factor that has to have a good visualization is the lighting, which will give us that point of realism. A good contrast between light and dark will create nuances that will help us understand the space and give the materials details that will make us think that we are facing a photograph.
If we have an image with the same lighting we will know that something is wrong, we will not perceive it as real, since in reality there are always darker areas than others. Playing with natural lighting – that which comes to us from the outside – and the artificial one we can achieve realism in the visualization, in addition to focusing attention on a point that we consider important for the project. Interior designers not only choose pieces and objects that work in space, we transform it to create a unique and contemporary, elegant and cozy atmosphere. With the visualizations we want to achieve this: that you want to inhabit that imaginary space.
As we have said, the irruption of technology meant a revolution in the way of projecting spaces. We know that technology is advancing by leaps and bounds. In the field of visualization, the latest trend is virtual reality, a technique inherited from video games, but adapted to architecture. In this way the user can move freely through all the rooms, seeing how they interact with each other. The way to show the project becomes an immersive experience, taking the visualizations to a new level, in which the client is really involved in the project.
We do not know what the next step will be in terms of architectural images, what we do know is that, as we have seen, they are of great help to all parties involved in a project, from interior designers to the end user.