Week 5 Inspiration: Edgar Street Towers by Iwamoto Scott

As we enter into the second half of the quarter we will be turning our focus from modeling to lighting and rendering for architectural visualization. Looking towards our final we will be producing 4 images. Two will focus on the exterior of our architectonic structure and Two will focus on the interior.

San Francisco architects IwamotoScott have completed a design study for a tower (above, right) straddling a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The proposal was commissioned by New York’s Downtown Alliance as part of the Greenwich South project, a study into how to transform a 41 acre-site south of the World Trade Center site.

The Edgar Street Tower Visualizations by Iwamoto Scott provides a template for the development of your final images.

Exterior Image 1: Site/Urban Context

One of your exterior images should present your model in context to its site. It can be integrated into a photograph which shows the existing urban context with the proposed structure.

Feel free to choose a time of day or view that will express its relationships to the surrounding architecture. You will generally want to use a wide angle view for this visualization. Also try to use contrast to create emphasis that focuses on your subject. You want to guide the audiences eye to the important aspects of your illustration.

You may also choose to use a dramatic or dynamic point of view to express the relationship of your visualization to its site or urban context. In each case the visualization should provide insights into the form, structure, material and scale relationships of your subject to its background. You may also choose to generate an urban context digitally.

Nightscapes provide a way to add a sense of drama to your visualizations and to create emphasis using light.

Exterior Image 2: Pedestrian Context

The second visualization should express the pedestrian experience and interaction with your model at the street level.

This model will provide both a sense of scale and materiality that happens at a human scale. It is very important to include images of people and other elements that will provide that important sense of scale and materiality for your visualization.

Interior Visualizations:

Interior Consideration 1: Structural and Material Components

You will be creating two visualizations that depict the interior of your architectural models. The Interior renderings should focus on the structural and material elements that comprise the interior of your model. Try to create the most dramatic images view sheds that you can. You want to the viewer to gain an insight into the spatial dynamics of your structure.

Interior Consideration 2: Light and Shadow painting

Your interior visualizations you should also express how light works within your architectural model. You should consider the following factors. How does light fenestrate as it moves from the exterior environment into the interior of my structure. What are the direct and indirect light sources contained in the model. Finally how is shadow painting used to define the interior forms and create a sense of mood and drama in your visualizations?

These visualizations provide a good model and framework to work from.

Design Daily: Edgar Street Towers by Iwamoto Scott