This week’s interview is with Jim Keen, an architect, illustrator and author from Brooklyn.

Jim has been working as an architect in London, Sydney and New York for twenty years, before he pursued a career in illustration and literature.

In a time when architects have unprecedented means to depict ideas, with an explosion in technology from photo-realistic rendering to virtual reality, Jim took a step back. But his architectural hand drawings are no sentimental approach to good old sketches, rather is he using latest technology to shift the focus back to the essence of the architectural idea. His clear line drawing style communicates the design, atmosphere and space in detail but “without the fake-realness that can so easily derail presentations.”

See for yourself and enjoy the interview!

You have a lot of experience as a practicing architect. When and why did you decide to shift your focus to illustration?

I really enjoyed my architectural career, and over twenty years I was able to work in London, Sydney and New York for both Grimshaw Architects and KPF. I feel very lucky to have achieved what I did.

However I was feeling increasingly restless and wanted to try other approaches to life while I still could. I’ve always wanted to write fiction and I’ve used hand drawn illustrations in successful presentations for years so decided to take the plunge two years ago. I work on illustration in the day and my novel, ‘The Streets and The Skies’ at night while my children are asleep.

Did 20 years of working in an architectural office prepare you for your life as a freelance illustrator and author?

It is a huge help. After working so long ‘on the other side of the table’ there is a sort of short hand you develop in architectural conversations. This means the amount of time architects have to spend explaining the design or revising my work is very small compared to cheaper non architect renderers.

I’m also fluent in the 3D software architects use so they can just provide the model and I do the rest – camera set ups, whatever is needed which is very different from the ‘traditional’ illustrator who wants everything given to them.

Fiction is completely different but being self disciplined and working to tight schedules is something that definitely crosses both careers!

What differentiates your illustrations from photorealistic renderings, which are flooding the architectural world?

Renderings have become so overused they no longer have any impact. Clients are bored of them and the same old presentations give the same old results.

Hand drawing makes your work stand out from the crowd so you immediately make an impact. As it is looser in its character it allows the designer more time to design and helps the client focus on what is important – the space not on the details.

Hand drawing is a clearer, faster and more original means of design communication than digital images these days.

How do you promote your illustrations? Do you do marketing?

I had a lot of plans when I started out but the work came in so quickly, I so far haven’t done any marketing at all apart from my websites – www.jimkeen.com and www.mechanical.one. I’m finding there is a reason startups have two people, one to get the work and one to do the work! I’m looking for a marketer now to help if anyone wants to reach out to me …

What are your tools for “spacial” storytelling?

Apple chose my work to publicize their new iPad Pro as I’ve worked very hard to develop a style of illustration that explains space as clearly and simply as possible with iOS tools. I draw with a 12.9” iPad Pro and use a MacBook Pro when needed.

They’re just tools though – it all starts with the design intent. What is the image to convey and why? Once I understand that I mock up the layout first, proportions, entourage, colors then add as little detail as I can. Less is more if you want the client to appreciate the space quickly.

Look at the illustration style of Hergé in Tin Tin for instance, so much is communicated so simply. There is a great quote from him, “I would have drawn less but I didn’t have the time.” Which explains it well,

like minimal architecture minimal illustrations take far more work than throwing everything possible into the image.

What software do you use to create your illustrations?

iOS – Morpholio Trace and Procreate on an iPad Pro and Photoshop on MacBook Pro for illustrations. Scrivener for writing.

Do you have any advice for archipreneurs who are interested in starting their own business?

Why should anyone use you or your product? You have to be extremely clear about that and have a good reason. (I’ve spent far more time explaining why I draw than I expected!)

Oh and be prepared for most people not to understand why you’re leaving your day job :)

How do you see the future of the architectural profession? In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major opportunities for up and coming developers and architects?

AI and automation are going to reduce architectural employment significantly over the next 30 years. Any job that is rule based (space planning, zoning, scheduling etc) is going away sooner rather than later. However AI will struggle with social interactions so the future is more than ever dependent upon how we interact with each other and the space around us.

About Jim Keen

Jim Keen is an award winning architect who worked for Grimshaw Architects and KPF in London, Sydney and New York. After twenty years in the profession he switched to pursue a career in illustration and literature.

He has perfected a style of visual communication so effective that Apple commissioned art work from him to promote their new iPad Pro. This clear line style communicates the design intent instantly without the excessive detail computer renderings are forced to provide. This enable the client to focus on the design and space instead of details.

He has written three novels, the third of which, “The Streets and The Skies,”  is due out next year.

The post Visualizing Architecture: How Jim Keen’s Hand Drawn Illustrations Stand out from Renderings appeared first on Archipreneur.

Most architects enter the profession with little to no knowledge on how to implement a smart marketing strategy. This is one of the reasons marketing is often neglected by AEC businesses.

An archipreneur could take advantage of this knowledge gap. Architects can build on their existing skill set to become savvy marketers.

Throughout our architectural education, we are taught to be problem-solvers. We present our project in front of juries, clients and peers. We deploy strategies for effectively researching topics. We can analyze the data we find. We can deliver detailed designs. Marketing, then, is just a natural extension of these skills.

Here we’ll cover the basics how you can start out with marketing. Keep in mind that many clients think of architecture services as a cost and not a value. This should be the starting point for all your marketing efforts: clients are interested in added value. Your job is to communicate that value as persuasively as possible.

A lot of new companies start out with ‘tactical experimentation’. That means throwing all kinds of content out at broad demographic categories and seeing what fits with which demographic best. This is not a good approach.

More often than not, this approach results in excessive money spending and companies not being sure of how to untangle the statistical evidence they receive.

The solution: Figure out your:

• Company’s mission
• Target audience
• Value proposition
• Situation
• Marketing infrastructure.

Then use that information to guide your tactical experimentation.

#1 – Mission

‘We stand for quality’

‘We are a multidisciplinary, award-winning firm, cutting-edge…’

‘We undertake a variety of projects’.

You’ve heard them all, but none of these taglines helps anyone in understanding what your company actually does. Superlatives are meaningless without useful information as to the ethos of your company.

Differentiating yourself from your competitors is not easy, but your efforts have to go beyond these sound bites. Your mission shouldn’t be taken lightly. It is responsible for the ‘About Us’ section on your website, your logo design, color scheme, types of projects, office culture and letterheads, among others.

#2 – Target Audience

If you want to attract the right customers, it’s essential that you develop a target audience profile. Use your analyzing skills here. You can start to build a profil by answering the following questions:

• Are you offering your services to businesses or individuals?
• To what age group do they belong?
• What’s their social status?
• Are they conservative or liberal?
• Where are they located?
• Which social media channels do they use?
• What is their likely family situation and lifestyle?

One great way to tap into a ‘ready-made’ group is to try cohort marketing. Cohort marketing targets people within a demographic of shared experiences and interests. The Internet is a fantastic resource for finding these groups, for example in LinkedIn or Facebook groups.

#3 – Value Proposition

This is the part of your marketing strategy that can help you really stand out. A value proposition explains how your service or product will help solve a customer’s problem.

How is that different from your mission statement? Your value proposition communicates how your offer will positively change a method of work or an activity for your clients.

Let’s re-establish: If you offer great value but are not doing a good job of communicating it, you will not attract clients.

Your value proposition should be the first thing that visitors will see on your company’s homepage, and should be written in clear and simple language.

A great value proposition should closely reflect your target audiences’ desires. The best value propositions are clear and concise, promise concrete results, and explain how your services are unique. They highlight:

• Why your clients should pay attention to you and not your competitors,
• Why they should subscribe to your email list, and (most importantly of all)
• Why they should hire you.

#4 – Situation Analysis

Analyze your company’s current situation as comprehensively as possible. Take a critical look at its weaknesses as much as you do its strengths. Think about how you have set up your organization and business model, and how they respond to the external influences and threats you have defined.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is your mission statement and how attractive is it for your clients?
• Would you invest in your company?
• Who are your competitors?
• What are they doing that’s unique?
• Are there (m)any potential investors?
• What are the most promising opportunities for growth?
• How can you improve your services to better fit the market?
• Which markets accommodate the type of service(s) you provide?

#5 – Create a Marketing Infrastructure

Architects are used to preparing exhaustive documentation about projects, designs and construction processes. The same rigor has to be applied to your marketing efforts.

In order to keep track of the most successful marketing efforts that have brought in clients, you will need to create project and client databases, along with photo galleries of your work.

Creating a well-organized marketing infrastructure is the best solution for companies that cannot yet afford to hire expert marketers and lay the foundations for future marketing strategies.

***

All that being said, there is no single marketing solution that works for everyone. There is a marketing strategy for each archipreneur, because each has his or her own story. And marketing, at its most basic definition, is simply telling your story – to your market.

Every potential client starts their search with a clear vision of what they are looking for. They have created their own story for what they want and for who they are looking. Your goal is to replace their story with yours.

Finally your story, told at meetings, in interviews, by the way you communicate with clients on the phone, in email and on social media – in short through every point of contact you have with the world, online and off – becomes your brand.

How are you telling your story?

The post How Architects Can Use Their Existing Skill Set to Become Savvy Marketers appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Volker Eich and Elke Anna Mehner, who founded Strategiekreis Architekten Business Design (Strategy circle for architects). Through their consulting program, they help architects who have their own practices to improve on them, fortifying their business ideas and developing suitable strategies for them.

Volker Eich has also written a book, Das Strategiebuch für Architekten (The Strategy Book for Architects, currently only available in German), which is essential reading for any prospective archipreneur.

Both Eich and Mehner worked as architects for years before Eich founded the Strategy Circles, so they are insiders to the industry and know precisely how architects tick. As both had external interests in addition to architecture, they were keen to combine their passion for architecture with these interests, from art to drama, and build a business on the values that they found complemented the architecture industry. What resulted was their business addressing a very interesting niche in the architectural industry: business design.

Let’s hear what both have to say about the architecture industry, as well as how an archipreneur can develop a strategy for his/her practice and business design.

Enjoy!

What made you decide to become strategy coaches for architects after having worked for some time as architects yourselves?

Volker: Before I decided to become an architect, I had wanted to be an artist. But I didn’t have the guts for it. I didn’t know any artists then and I hardly knew anything about the arts. I was aware of my calling but in my family the artist’s profession was not considered suitable and so I was expected to choose a more secure career for myself. In the end I studied architecture, which was an acceptable compromise!

When I graduated from university I first started out as an employee in an architect’s office, which was quite convenient because it meant that I had regular income. But I really wanted to have my own office. In order to prepare for that, I applied for a teaching job at the Technical University Berlin, and I participated in numerous competitions for architects. But I failed in this approach. After 5 years, the teaching job was over and I had not won any of the competitions to which I had submitted my work. At that point I realized that I had never really wanted to be an architect. So I decided to find a job as a freelancer and confront the question that would end up changing everything: “What is my mission in life?”

I wanted to find out if there really were any “golden rules” for success.

Elke Anna: When I first met Volker, I knew immediately that I wanted to join the Strategiekreis Architekten (Strategy Circle for Architects) as a member. I had previously worked very hard for a career in architecture but in spite of my efforts, my attempted architectural business wasn’t profitable. I felt like I was trying to navigate a stormy sea while sitting in a nutshell! If I had continued, my business would have been doomed, and what’s worse, my family would have had to pay the price.

I had previously worked very hard for a career in architecture but in spite of my efforts, my attempted architectural business wasn’t profitable. I felt like I was trying to navigate a stormy sea while sitting in a nutshell!

While working with the members of the Circle, something completely unexpected happened. I recalled a childhood dream of mine. When I was a little girl, I wanted to become an actress and spent hundreds of hours in front of the mirror, watching all the characters that appeared in my play. That mirror was my secret audience. Supported by the Circle, I began to ask myself what had happened to these childhood dreams of mine. The Strategy Circle encouraged me to question my self-image as an architect. That was the decisive step that helped to put me back on the right career path. Despite my enthusiasm for architecture, I realized that I wasn’t in the right place. But in the Strategy Circle, I was at least with the right people.

The Circle shared problems that were all quite familiar to me, particularly the gap between being an artist and the desire to be an entrepreneur. That was a recurring drive for members of the Circle. In the two years that followed, I completed my coaching training and finally ended my career as an architect. In those years, I had found out what truly moved me, deep down. My concern is now to be able to relate with other people and to help them find out who they are and where they want to be in their careers.

What was the main reason that sealed your decision to become a strategy coach?

Volker: I sealed my decision while on the island of Lanzarote. One day, I was sitting on a beach, talking with two new friends whom I had met on the island. Our conversation there revealed all the elements that were missing in my job at the time – we were talking about the sorts of things people don’t normally discuss.

We shared problems and fears. We talked about the things we loved and the things we were hoping for in life. We stopped pretending to be someone; all three of us tried to unveil who we really were, inside. It was a risk, but it ended up being my epiphany. I thought that this was exactly what I wanted to experience in my work: being connected, and sharing the thoughts and feelings that really matter.

All of a sudden, I heard this strange numinous voice say, “Are you willing to take this seriously?” My answer was “YES!” and, four weeks later, I ended my career as an architect. This “beach scene” brought about the Strategy Circle. I began to understand that, for me, the ultimate art form was found in the relationships we forge as human beings. My business model was beginning to take shape, along with an understanding of what kind of artist I would be.

Elke Anna: In order to recognize who you are, you need another person to be your mirror. When I decided to become a strategy coach, I inverted my childhood dream and became the mirror we are all in need of, rather than the girl sitting in front of it. Three years after joining the Circle, Volker asked me to become his business partner.

What types of clients do you typically help with your coaching offer?

Volker: Our service is only available to individuals. We don’t work for companies or organizations; we consider ourselves as dialogue partners for architects who are self-employed. Some of our clients are interior designers, landscape architects, urban designers and structural engineers. Some of them have very small offices, while others have up to 50 or 60 employees. Most of our clients are based in Germany but we also have clients in Austria, Switzerland and the United States of America.

Elke Anna: There are a few things all our clients have in common: they all suffer from their daily workload. Many of them don’t have the clients they want. They would love to get more recognition and make more money. They all want to change something in their practice.

How does business design for architects work?

Volker: When you decide to design your business model with us, we will ask you a number of questions. We want to understand, first, who you are and what kind of change you want to bring to the world. We want to learn about your mission – What story are you telling your audience? Who belongs in your community? Who would be the coolest people / companies / organizations to become your future clients? Why do your clients love your business? Who would be the coolest people to work for your company? How will your business change the world? Which innovations make your business unique? How have you been making sure that your company will outlive you?

How will your business change the world?

Elke Anna: By answering these questions and many others, you design a dynamic model of your business. By writing down your answers, you create a manual that lays out all the necessary elements and procedures you need in order to fulfill your business’ mission. With your company manual, you possess a powerful quality management system that helps you to increase the level of organization in your company. Once you have completed the first stage of your business design, you can change, improve and redesign your business as often as you want. Or, you might choose to sell the model.

How do you help architects to develop their practice?

Volker: We provide two formats: you can choose between our Mentor Program or the Strategy Circle.

In our Super Mentor Program, you get a series of one-to-ones with your personal mentor. These conversations are carried out through personal meetings, email and Skype. The end result of these conversations is a workable business model. With our support, designing your complete company model usually takes between 18-24 months. A corporate manual for your company is produced from a series of question/answer responses that have been gathered over the months of our support.

We also offer a Mini Mentor program, which concentrates on just one aspect of your business model. It might be rounding out your mission, a better understanding of how to become an entrepreneur, creating a thriving community, designing your dream innovation, hiring the best staff, and so on.

Elke Anna: The Strategy Circle comprises a community of self-employed architects who support each other. Circle members get together for three days biannually. Every meeting is moderated by two mentors, which makes all the difference because they make it very easy for architects to talk about things they would normally not share with other architects, such as: How can I become an archipreneur? How can I build up a community of clients who love my work? How can I turn my architectural office into a brand? In the Strategy Circle, your competitors become your allies.

We all dream of a better world but when it comes to turning the dream into a reality, we are often guilty of getting in our own way. If we want our own future to develop in a way we want, we must make sure to behave in an appropriate way. Just as you need a mirror in order to see yourself, you also need someone to give you feedback and thus become aware of how others see you and your business. In the business world, you will hardly find anyone willing to give you that kind of feedback.

The outstanding value of the Strategy Circle derives from the feedback you get from its other members; and our policy is that Circle members are always honest, respectful and supportive of each other. The Circle is a laboratory in which you can make your business relationships work. And the better they work within the Circle the better they will work outside.

Why do you think it is necessary for architects to develop a business strategy?

Volker: Strategy is a key component of your business model because when you work as an architect today you have to deal with an increasing number of competitors. So you might want to find out what makes your company unique and special. For us, the art of strategy is all about creating relationships. As an entrepreneur, your goal is to create a relationship between your company and your community, your clients and your staff.

As an entrepreneur, your goal is to create a relationship between your company and your community, your clients and your staff.

Elke Anna: The most important relationship, though, is the one you have with yourself. A good strategy must match who you are as a person. The better you know your character and ambitions, the easier you will find clients and staff who love you and your work.

When we learn how to create better relationships, we also learn how to be successful. The truth is that our uniqueness only reveals itself once it has been subjected to a process of self-awareness. Just as we need a mirror to recognize our physical image we also need a peer to recognize our own uniqueness. The moment we realize what makes us unique is the moment we can start to develop a strategy that leads us to the right decisions, the right people and the right business that support our mission. Only by following the path of a dynamic strategy that has your mission in mind will archipreneurs be able to turn their ideas into real companies.

In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major business opportunities for up and coming architects?

Volker: I have a funny feeling about the distinction you make between traditional practice and – what? An architect will always do what architects have been doing: design buildings. But the market now demands that you also design new business models. That is the real challenge for today’s architects. I would, however, advise against solely looking for opportunities that appear to be the most profitable. First and foremost, you have to find a business model that fits with who you are as a person.

Elke Anna: We believe that there are as many business opportunities as there are people in the world. When we meet a new client, the first thing we do is ask that person to tell us their life story. We believe that everyone’s story is a good one and that they each contain a personal challenge that the hero of the story (the narrator) has to master or overcome. Those who are ready to engage with that challenge may expect to find treasure. We all need to discover the golden thread in our own story – the thing that weaves together our dreams and ambitions. When you find out what moves you, you will know where to go and what to do.

Volker: When you graduate from architecture school and begin your career as an architect, you usually either begin as a freelancer or an employee. But it is not easy to find a good employer because most architects already in the industry don’t have a strategy for themselves. Many don’t have a business model, either. Their business, instead, is highly dependent on the contemporaneous situation of the building industry. They may have a number of great projects today, but they may just as well be left without any work at all four weeks later. Architectural offices hire and fire, and are often unable to offer long-term perspectives for their hopeful employees.

As an architect, you are dealing with building design. As an entrepreneur, you are dealing with business design. As an archipreneur, you are dealing with both.

Therefore, many newcomers to the industry find themselves very keen to start up a business of their own but in architecture school nobody told them how to run an office, create a business model, attract a community of people who love their work, and so on. In other words, there is always the danger of repeating the mistakes of the generation that went before. It is a vicious circle, and the only chance to free yourself from that dynamic is to tailor your own role in the industry and become an archipreneur. As an architect, you are dealing with building design. As an entrepreneur, you are dealing with business design. As an archipreneur, you are dealing with both.

Do you have any advice for “archipreneurs” who are interested in creating a strategy for their business?

Elke Anna: Yes, (laughing) if you are able to read German, read Volker’s DAS STRATEGIEBUCH FÜR ARCHITEKTEN. Find out about the deeper purpose behind your efforts, beyond all the selfish stuff like making money and becoming famous. I know it’s not easy, doing it alone. So find your ‘mirror’. Find a mentor who best reflects who you are and who accompanies you through the experience of becoming an archipreneur.

Volker: Let me quote Steve Jobs: “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works!” So my advice is not only to concentrate on designing beautiful buildings, cities or landscapes but also to focus on designing your own company! Design a beautiful business! Get in touch with the people who love you and your work! Your creativity contains hidden treasure. Go find that treasure! Find the entrepreneur within yourself! And let me tell you a secret: being an entrepreneur is so much fun!

About Volker Eich & Elke Anna Mehner

Volker Eich worked as an architect for 16 years. He taught design at the Technische Universität Berlin. In 2006 he founded Strategiekreis Architekten. In 2013 he self-published DAS STRATEGIEBUCH FÜR ARCHITEKTEN.

Elke Anna Mehner worked as an architect for 17 years. She’s an expert of business design. In 2011 she joined the team; in 2013 she became a partner.

STRATEGIEKREIS ARCHITEKTEN BUSINESS DESIGN is based in Leipzig, Germany.

www.strategiekreis-architekten.de

The post How to Develop a Strategy for Your Architectural Practice appeared first on Archipreneur.

Why Every Project Should Tell a Story

Every story or narrative is a series of events tied together into a plot. In architectural terms, it could be the concept, shape or intended usage of a building. The audience wants to be guided through the plot within your story. In today’s world, you have a lot of tools to carry your ideas and visualize your project’s story. Architects use sketches and diagrams, even videos, to explain and transmit their ideas to the end user.

Telling a story by visualizing it can be can be a very different and innovative way to put forward your concept. Some architects sketch, some collect data and show diagrams, some build scale models and some render their designs. The key is to display your concept in the most appropriate visual form for the project in question.

There are many tools to visualize your architectural story. The art is in first hooking your audience with your story and then “selling” your design concepts to them through the narrative. But you don’t have to start plotting your story entirely from scratch; every urban task has a framework that can be exploited. This could be building law regulations, the spatial program you get from your client or the budget you have for the task.

Here are five popular methods, examples and tools that show the process of visual storytelling in architecture. You could easily make use of them to present your ideas and work to your clients, so giving them simple, visual cues that will raise their understanding of how the project will look. A good architectural design should tell a story that will stick in the client’s mind.

#1 Sketches – The Foundation of Architectural Storytelling

A sketch is a classic tool for an architect and one of the most powerful in helping to display a project narrative. Sketching is always the ‘go-to’ tool when you develop an idea for a building or a site. It is the foundation for all other tools. You could, of course, sketch a diagram as well as a storyboard for your design concept.

The way you draw a sketch should be understandable for the audience and transmit your idea in a clear and straightforward way. The following sketches are examples that easily explain design aspects to the audience.

#2 Conceptual Diagrams – The Storyboards of Architectural Design

Sometimes, you have a lot of ideas to put into one building design. It begins with the urban location and shape you are creating within the wider context of the city. It continues with how you would place the main entrance and organize the floor plans. After that, you might ask why there has to be, say, a public area in the third floor, or a courtyard in the middle. You might want to ensure that the façade has an opening in a certain position. There are many possibilities and questions you have to consider before you end up with your final design.

Naturally, you want to communicate all of these great ideas and the creative potential of your design to your audience. A series of conceptual diagrams make this possible.

Diagrams can tell a story to your client and make people better understand the overall concept of a building before the physical foundations are laid. The Danish company BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) has mastered that approach. They come up with unconventional design ideas and often explain them through a series of well put-together design images.

On first impression, some of their building designs may not seem logical, even out of sync with the context. But if you connect their storyboard to the image, it will all become crystal clear and the shapes you see will be readily connectable to the narrative of their story.

It is fascinating to see how BIG tells these architectural stories, cementing the design in the audience’s mind, enabling them to connect and identify with it and even spread the word – it’s always fun to re-tell a good story!

#3 Models – Prototyping Architecture

The creative world is greatly concerned with design thinking and prototyping before the product is made. Architects have prototyped their plans for years by building models to test their designs on a smaller scale.

Models are a great way to visualize your design in 3D and to test a variety of different shapes in a way that is both time and cost effective. Not to mention, prototypes are a huge help in explaining your designs to your audience.

People who do not have an architectural background often find it difficult to visualize what you mean if you are simply telling them about new floor plans or renderings. Models will solve that problem and help you to tell your project’s story in a much more tangible way. So build models to visualize your design story!

#4 Renderings – Creating Virtual Reality

Architectural renderings illustrate your design project on a virtual platform. They are especially useful tools in winning people over to your ideas. You can introduce atmosphere, materials and even human interaction by way of the virtual platform.

Let’s say you want to sell the plans for a new apartment block. It will be much more likely to sell if your rendering shows beautiful green rooftops and balconies thronging with happy people watering their plants, than if you’d given them a simple mock-up on paper.

Imagine this: one of the apartment’s interiors is furnished with designer furniture and an open wine bottle stands temptingly on the kitchen counter. I know; architects have come to hate those cheesy moments that are often a part of renderings! But these moments are nevertheless important – you aren’t just creating a design plan for your audience; you are creating a vision of their ideal lifestyle.

Good images will burn into the mind of your audience and leave a lasting impression. It is a promising taste of something yet to come. Below are a few great examples of virtual rendering; with some of them it’s difficult to tell that they’re not real.

#5 Video – Let your Audience Fly with You

Making a movie about your project is probably the latest architectural storytelling tool out there. In some countries, it is already standard practice to present your project in this way to your client. In China, for example. Just as with renderings, films of your project can show your audience a virtual taste of their future, with moving images to boot.

Sound and music, virtual mock-ups of building materials and camera ‘flights’ inside and around the building all give you the opportunity to create a long lasting impression for your audience. I am very curious to see how this tool will develop in the future. See an architectural video of the West 57th Street Pyramid Tower from Durst Fetner Residential below.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and can implement some of the suggested tools into your work. I am now very curious to hear about the kind of tools you use to tell your project story.

Please feel free to add links to your architectural projects and stories in the comment section. And please do SHARE this article with your friends and colleagues!

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