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Fifty-one years ago, in 1970, a Japanese roboticist named Masahiro Mori came up with the concept of the “Uncanny Valley”. Around the same time, architectural renderings done using analog methods were still in vogue – collages and photomontages used to get ideas across to clients. A decade later, personal computers came along, and that saw the emergence of CAD and the wider adoption of digital rendering. Today’s architectural renderings are almost imperceptible from reality, with the increase in sophistication of rendering sofware. We struggle to tell the difference between what is a rendering and what is not – or rather we
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With increasingly better renderings becoming ubiquitous, students and architects alike feel the pressure of mastering an additional set of skills to get their ideas across. To what extent do renderings make or break a portfolio or a project? How important are they in the design process, and do renderings inform of a particular set of skills besides the software ones? This article explores different perspectives on the role of renderings within the profession.
Attention-grabbing renderings appear to be everywhere, from architectural media to billboards, leaving architects with a strong incentive to try to emulate this type of visualization within their work. However, rendering is a tool that can serve multiple purposes, from storytelling to a strategic communication of skills and intent to the everyday exploration of design options. As digital tools are constantly evolving, architecture needs to experiment with the techniques across an extensive array of design processes, in o