1st prize
We’ve been following Uda and Marijn from the beginning of their journey. They were on our wish list of architectural offices that we wanted to work with. It took six years for our paths to cross.
Service
Still images
5 exteriors
Time
2 weeks
Team
2 artists
Location
Amsterdam, NL
Assignment
Finally the bell rang and we were asked to craft 5 images for their competition proposal for the Koffiefabriek near the Amstelkwartier in Amsterdam. Meesvisser’s partner for that project was Lister buildings – a company that makes prefab wooden homes. The result was a relatively young team where open minds and almost sports-like ambitions went hand-in-hand.
Need
The aim was to win the competition. In order to achieve this, we had to thoroughly understand the needs and translate them into pictures. So we broke this down into smaller goals based on information about the key aspects of the project according to its creators. This was possible thanks to the detailed brief we received at the start of the project and the kick-off meeting. In the end we focused on the two most important issues.
Plinth as lively home to a variety of activities. There are boat rentals, a garage, a huge workshop, an atelier, a coffeeshop and a common room.
Quality of the wood textures. Designed building has two faces. The exterior, facing canal and the interior, from the courtyard. The exterior facades are clad with gray recycled wood planks, while the interior has a pure white facade with a natural wood colored grid-like structure.
Challenge
Based on the competition brief, the views were already specified and we had no site images nor access to a Google Street view. Luckily for us, we’d been there before. Since we’ve already had the feeling of the space and its potential we decided to recreate the surrounding buildings in 3ds max.
The use of reclaimed wood as a material for the facade of a building is interesting from an architect’s point of view, but not so easy to produce in 3D. For this project, we have created wood textures of various sizes, thicknesses, lengths and colours in order to best reflect the designers’ idea.
Result
The first few days we’ve internally discussed how to approach the project. At that time we were testing different lighting scenarios and camera positions. We were looking for frames that would reflect the architects’ idea and at the same time would be easy to remember.
In order to expose the diverse qualities of the project we decided on a combination of shots from a distance and closer ones. The shots were taken at different times of the day, which allowed us to focus the jury’s attention on the important aspects of the competition work.
As a result we’ve had two daytime shots full of life and strong contrast, one night shot showing the backlit and lively ground floor, one evening-romantic shot where the warm sun enters into dialogue with the light wood in the courtyard, and one shot from the garden inside the courtyard presenting the white facade with wooden grid and lush garden.
In the end we can all be satisfied with our first joint project. Koffiefabriek gave us the opportunity to meet amazing people, opportunity to craft some good visualizations and finally allowed us to contribute to winning the competition.
Congratulations Meesvisser & Lister Buildings!
Filip Kurasz
Advisor, CGI Art Director, Architect
co-owner of ELEMENT VISUALIZATIONS
He believes that creating memorable visualizations is a process whose success consists of many factors. During his career he has acquired design, photography and graphic design competences and in 2015 he combined them by opening a company that creates visualisations for architects, developers and product companies. Together with his team, he helps companies around the world increasing their recognition in the media, competitions and tenders.