Location and nature of the project
Project location: Quartiere Le Fornaci - Pistoia, Italy
Interstudio was recently involved in a project commissioned by A.T.E.R. (Azienda Territoriale per l' Edilizia Residenziale di Pistoia), a local public entity responsible for the design and improvement of public, low-income housing. The project, developed by A.T.E.R.'s Technical Office in 1998, entailed the upgrade of three different building complexes in the same city quarter.
Some of the upgrades will be extensive, including restructuring, the addition of elevator shafts, thermal insulation, and the application of protective siding, others will instead be less complex and involve changing only the window fixtures and painting.
Interstudio's task was to take the city developer's plans and create 3D models of the buildings, then render them as they will look in their finished upgraded state.
Starting materials
We began with a set of plans, sections, and elevations given to us by the city and several rolls of photos that we took of the buildings and their context.
LEFT: a photo of one of the high-rise apartment buildings and surrounding low-rise structures.
BELOW: the rendered Domus.Cad models from the same view point.
Creating
the
3D models
From the measurements given in the plans and elevations, we created 3D models of the buildings using Interstudio's interactive design program Domus.Cad. Since the object was to see how the buildings will look on the outside, there was no need to model the interiors - exterior walls, fixtures, and other elements that would be seen only from the outside were sufficient.
As the materials were basically the same in all the buildings, we created a common materials palette. One Domus.Cad material (color) was used for drawing plain concrete slabs, another for stucco walls, another for the alluminum window frames, another for glass, and so on. This was to make rendering the models easier when we later tranfered them to Artlantis.
We did the same for several of the window and door frame elements, creating a common set of Domus.Cad objects using our common palette of materials. This reduced work time as we each then did not have to create the objects individually. Plus, they were guaranteed to all be the same size and of the same exact material.
LEFT: one of the window
frame objects, created in Domus.Cad and rendered in Artlantis
using a photo for the background.
Many of the buildings were simple high rise or typical "cookie cutter" structures, making it easy to duplicate the different floors of a building on the different Domus.Cad layers once a typical floor was drawn. In cases where the "before" and "after" situations were very different (for example when the buildings were to be resurfaced completely with protective siding) the buildings current state was drawn on one set of layers and the buildings future state was drawn on another set of layers. Separate layers were also used for contextural elements where applicable.
By keeping the QD3D window open as we worked we could watch the models change with the plan in real time. The ability to design in plan and 3D space simultaneously is Domus.Cad's most important and advantageous characteristic. Each addition or modification made in plan is immediately reflected in the 3D window.
We could move around
the model using the arrow or number keys (just like in video
games), observing it from eye level as the buildings' users will,
or at various heights and distances.
LEFT: a screen shot - working on "the triangle" with the QuickDraw 3D window open and the Interactive option activated so we could view the changes in real time.
Eventually, curved
drain pipes, railings and other smaller elements that might be
more difficult to model in Domus.Cad were modeled in Zoom Light,
then imported to Domus.Cad as a 3D objects.
LEFT: "the triangle" as rendered in Artlantis.
Rendering the models
When the modeling phase in Domus.Cad was complete, we saved the models in DXF 3D format and imported them to Artlantis, where we then rendered them according to the asthetic guidelines specified by the city's project architects.
We chose the appropriate materials and colors from the Artlantis shader catalog and from then on it was simply a matter of drag and drop. All we had to do was drag the Artlantis shader we chose for each element to the corresponding element on the model.
Left: one of the high-rise
apartment buildings as it will look with the new siding.
The ability to change and render images so quickly was a definite advantage as our clients were able to see in rapid succession all the various possibilities for color and materials in the proper context.
Creating Photo Montages
Part of the rendering process included creating photo montages - that is, superimposing the rendered models on photos to give the images the properly scaled background and context. In Artlantis we were able to recreate the exact view points from which the original photos were taken. Then, using the shadows in the photos as a guide, we were even able to recreate the proper sun and light conditions so that when the rendering was inserted into its photo context it looked as natural as possible.
When all the details
were just right, the rendered Artlantis images were saved and
imported along with the scanned photo images to Photoshop, where
one was simply superimposed on the other to create the final
montage.
LEFT: a photo montage completed in Photoshop.
One of these montages used a photo of the upgraded quarter taken from the city center several miles away. Even at great distances we were still able to similate the original view point.
LEFT: the three main
buildings seen from a rooftop in the city center.
Each view in Artlantis was saved separately so if necessary it would be easier to go back and change or modify the rendering. The views were then printed and mounted for presentation.
