Silo

In May 2021, Elephants Art director contacted us with a very unusual project – the restoration of three former water purification silos which they had started working on in 2017.

One of the most iconic buildings in Amsterdam, the SILO is now home to such urban facilities as a cinema, cafe, dance school, and a public rooftop park. The images we produced for the SILO were part of creating a new visual identity for Elephant. Currently, the project is at its final stage and the construction work is planned to start next year.

When working with Elephants, we have a partner who is always really well prepared. Their 3D models are clean, accurate, and have a lot of detail which allows us to make more realistic images. In this case we were also equipped with some site pictures from Marcel van der Burg. We’ve used it in one of the images on our website where we wanted to show how the SILO sits within an existing context near/next to a library in a public square.

Our strategy was to capture the emotions that the architects wished to evoke. On one hand the SILO is surreal, almost like a creation from a child’s dream. On the other, it’s been very carefully designed. What caught our attention almost immediately were the bridges connecting each tower, and the fact that it has a spectacular view towards the city.

Discovering the building was a lot of fun and we came up with plenty of beautiful ideas on how to present it. Unfortunately we were limited to 3 images and the selection process turned out to be really time consuming.

Luckily we all fell in love with a dreamy pic from one of the bridges which now hangs on a wall in our office.

see the SILO project in our gallery

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.

visit my LinkedIn profile

Insight – Vernissage

A new office, website, book, and team members. Sort of a fresh start – but we were already turning 7. Wow… time flies.

We’ve felt it was a cause for celebration, a time to share what we’d accomplished with family and friends. It was also necessary. We’ve never felt like marketing tigers but the amount of people that still believed we do architecture… that really made me think:)

Here are some moments for you to enjoy. Moments full of laugh, play, and simply being together.

Thanks again to all our guests and see you next year!

Filip Kurasz

Art Director

Winning Project – New Prison in Lausanne

The jury of the architecture and engineering competition for the new Grands-Marais prison in Orbe voted in favour of the joint project of Hootsmans Architectuurbureau in Amsterdam and Hildebrand Studios in Zurich. The State Councillor in charge of the penitentiary sector, her counterpart in charge of State construction, the cantonal architect and the syndic of the Commune announced this morning in Orbe the results of this important competition and officially presented the winning project. It is composed of seven distinct buildings of medium volume, each organized around a generous inner courtyard and all connected by a clever longitudinal pavement. Adapted to a two-stage project and with a total budget of 279 million francs, this future establishment will increase the capacity of the Pôle pénitentiaire du Nord vaudois (PPNV) by 216 additional places from 2026 to eventually reach 410 detention places in a closed regime.

Chaired by the cantonal architect Emmanuel Ventura, the jury consisted of 13 members, including Sylvie Bula, Head of the Prison Service, Philippe Pont, Director General of Buildings and Heritage, and ticino architect Mario Botta.

hootsmans Architectuurbureau bv

HILDEBRAND

Hager Partner AG landscape architects

WaltGalmarini AG

Amstein+Walthert

Künzler & Partners SA

Winning Project – Waterfront in Belfast

We are happy to announce that our northern friends Henning Larsen Architects have won the 16-acre masterplan for £400 Million waterfront in Belfast, UK. We feel honoured that we could contribute to the final results by taking care of the visual side of the project.

Henning Larsen Architects inspired by successful harbour front development in Copenhagen proposed a masterplan of transforming the east bank of the River Lagan in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Project aims to repopulate the city of Belfast while reviving the potential of waterfronts. Plans include creation of 750 new homes, as well as a hotel, leisure and office spaces along the riverbanks. Masterplan provides new pedestrian and cycle bridge to link the banks of the river, as well as additional leisure and shopping facilities.

“[The] River Lagan will no longer create a barrier in Belfast but is going to connect it instead.”

says Jacob Kurek, Partner at Henning Larsen.

As an architectural solution architects drew inspiration from Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway and its unique terraced stone landscape.

“The strategy of positioning the lower buildings towards the waterfront in the Belfast Waterside development guides winds over buildings instead of through the streets. In the harsh temperate oceanic climate zone of Belfast, this approach reduces wind speed. We estimate that we can prolong the number of weeks per year it’s comfortable to spend time outside from the current 9 weeks to an impressive 25 weeks.”

Jacob Kurek says.

How you recall the collaboration with visualisation studio?

“We especially appreciated short daily Skype sessions with screen sharing, where we could see the progress. Jakub and Filip from ELEMENT brought valuable comments to the table and made the visuals looking better than we could imagine. I do not need to mention that the whole experience was very professional and everything was on time.”

If you are looking for more information about the design check articles on Dezeen or Archdaily.

see the WATERFRONT project in our gallery

Filip Kurasz

Advisor, CGI Art Director, Architect
co-owner of ELEMENT VISUALIZATIONS

visit my LinkedIn profile

Winning Project – Nyborg Marina

NORD Architects won competition for marina in Nyborg, which consist of new multifunctional building. Water sport facilities will include multi-purpose basin and heated seawater. New place in the city will be a great spot for such activities as water hiking, kayaking, swimming, standup paddling and sunbathing.

[one-half-first]This project gives opportunity to turn this area into attractive leisure, club life and culture destination. Outdoor water sports in Denmark getting more and more interest every year that is why whole initiative is supported by the Danish Lokale- og Anlægsfonden. We are glad to be part of this project. [/one-half-first]
[one-half]We proposed three types of visualizations in different time of the day. First, with the sunny weather with specific day activities. Another one showing leisure atmosphere in the basin with more pale colours and the last one from the kayak perspective in the evening sunset.[/one-half]

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A view on the wooden marina in Denmark in the evening

Insight – Greenbox

In our studio we have special room called Greenbox. It gives us tremendous possibilities to cut out objects and people. Adding them to visualizations in postproduction process allow us to create unique images dedicated to each client. We also decided to share for free with some of them. Remember that sharing is caring!

You can download it here.

Winning Project – Galileo Reference Centre.

De Architekten Cie from Amsterdam won the competition for the Galileo Reference Centre (GSA- https://www.gsa.europa.eu) – a new data collection building for the Galileo satellite system in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

[one-half-first]The development of a non-military Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is a collaboration with the European GNSS Agency (GSA), the European Commission (EC) and the Dutch state – Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Located close to sand dunes in the Noordwijk, it has lightweight plywood structure, with the façade covered with glass panels. Right after the entrance[/one-half-first]
[one-half]we face with the “social lobby”, which is opened up to the first floor. It becomes building’s main circulation area joining two floors as well as outside wildlife with interior’s green terraces. Main factor of the design was its life-cycle. Prefabricated wooden composite structures can be easily disassembled and reassembled allowing to minimum waste production.[/one-half]
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Our studio was responsible for the visual side of the project including night/daylight exterior and interior visualisations. We carefully selected the camera angles to present this project in a subtle and unusual way. In this particular commission special attention was given to the night shot. We expressed the sky full of stars being the main interest of the client. Perspective of the daylight image aimed to show the surrounding nature, which blend with the reflective material of the façade. In result the concept got the green light and we can see it built. Renders were created in 3ds max, V-ray and Photoshop. To achieve unique mood of the visuals we used the matte painting technique.

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