Architectural Competitions in the Planning Industry
Architecture competitions serve as dynamic platforms for architects to express creativity, visionary ideas, and mastery and offer innovative solutions for emerging landscapes.
Securing an architectural visualization award opens avenues for embarking on novel projects and paves the way for the realization of architects’ creative thinking, transitioning it from design intent to tangible constructions.
The Architecture Competition Visualizations Assignment
RNDR was invited to capture on 3D architectural renderings the design proposed by Groosman Architects, in partnership with RRog Urban Design and Landscape, and Hazenberg for the architectural competition in Josephwijk, Roosendaal, Netherlands.
- Scope of order: 6 architectural visualizations illustrating an architectural tender proposal
- Time: 12 working days, 4 revision rounds
- Team: 1 project manager + 1 CGI artist
The architectural competition proposal ‘Our Gardens’ was selected as the top choice by the jury based on various criteria including architectural design, usability, and climate resilience. The idea extends not only to the interior space of 229 residences but also to the outdoor spaces, ensuring they receive the dedicated attention they merit.
Ingeborg Verheijen, the director of Hazenberg, and Tonny van de Ven, a member of the Board of Directors at Alwel, officially sealed the deal for the upcoming construction project in the Josephwijk district within Roosendaal municipality. The first prize winning vision for Josephwijk, Netherlands ‘Our Gardens’ was selected as the first-place winner.
‘Our Gardens’ in Josephwijk Tender in the Netherlands – Architecture Competition 3D Visualizations Workflow
Schedule of the whole competition workflow:
- CLIENT RENDERING MANUAL and starting files provided on 18 June 2021
- RNDR, 1ST DRAFTS of architectural tender renderings: 24 June 2021
- Client feedback: 25 June 2021 provided by all teams
- RNDR, 2ND DRAFTS of architectural tender renderings: 30 June 2021
- Client feedback: 05 July 2021 provided by all teams
- RNDR, 3RD DRAFTS of architectural tender renderings: 05 July 2021
- Client feedback: 06 July 2021 provided by all teams
- RNDR, 4TH DRAFTS of architectural tender renderings: 07 July 2021
- Client feedback: 12 July 2021 provided by all teams
- RNDR, FINAL DELIVERY of urban renderings in 5000px: 10 January 2022
1st prize in architectural tender / Our Gardens – Living in De Josephwijk, Roosendaal, Netherlands / Architects and landscape designers: Groosman Architecten x RRog Stedenbouw en Landschap x Hazenberg I TBI / Storytelling architectural visualization: RNDR
‘Our Gardens’ in Josephwijk Tender Proposal: Conceptual and Visual Core
The main idea for architectural visualizations was to portray ‘Our Gardens’ as a transformative modern working-class community defined by its vibrant verdant essence and effortless social unity. This project demanded architectural visualizations that foster a sense of belonging, resident empowerment, and interconnectedness.
Come with us on an exploration through this article where we will delve into the intricate tapestry of architectural housing design concept. We will explore a model of connected living of ‘Our Gardens’ – a space of comfort, urban vitality, and the essence of a neighborhood in Josephwijk, Netherlands.
Behind the Frames: Architectural Visualization Presenting ‘Our Gardens’ the Main Ideas of the Concept Proposal
The brainchild of Groosman, in collaboration with RRog Urban Design and Landscape and Hazenberg, is the envisioned transformation that will turn the area into a modern working-class community characterized by its strong emphasis on green spaces and a harmonious sense of social unity. Within this urban landscape, a blend of rental and homeowner residences will foster a profound sense of belonging, and resident ownership forming the essence of the neighborhood.
The name ‘Our Gardens’ aims to encapsulate the principles of sustainability and transform them into elements of aesthetics, comfort, and urban vibrancy. The overarching objective is to enhance social inclusivity through the advancement of the built environments with an ecological approach. This is achieved by employing diverse architectural elements that establish connections, mitigating the usual disruptions that buildings might create.
From the project’s inception, the visual recognition of its conceptual foundation needed to be showcased effectively, necessitating sufficient representation through 3D architectural renderings. The emphasis was on articulating the collective vision and intentions of the designers using visual techniques inherent in storytelling architectural visualizations.
We aimed to encapsulate the essence of ‘Our Gardens’, a convergence of urban dynamic landscapes where sustainability, circularity, and greening are the focus, offering the visionary experience created by the architects.
1st prize in architectural tender / Our Gardens – Living in De Josephwijk, Roosendaal, Netherlands / Architects and landscape designers: Groosman Architecten x RRog Stedenbouw en Landschap x Hazenberg I TBI / Storytelling architectural visualization: RNDR
Exhibiting Transformation of a Working-Class Neighborhood via Architectural Rendering
Metamorphosing from its original form, this erstwhile working-class enclave is on the cusp of an evolution into a modern, sustainable community that revolves around the essence of connection. Aligned in vision, the designers share a common goal for the neighborhood: envisioning an expansive community enriched with welcoming spaces that foster resident interaction.
The neighborhood is under development and construction with a focus on resident involvement: Onze Tuinen – Distinctive Residency in the Josephwijk. The shared vision and aspiration for the community revolve around creating an expansive residential area that incorporates diverse welcoming spaces to facilitate resident interactions.
The commitment lies in promoting ecological practices, circular concepts, and environmental sustainability and extends beyond the 229 residences, encompassing outdoor spaces as well, ensuring their appropriate consideration.
Through the implementation of the ‘Our Gardens’ blueprint, Josephwijk is set to transform into a modern working-class community characterized by its prominent green essence and harmonious social unity. This innovative plan incorporates a blend of rental and owner-occupied residences, emphasizing the core values of residents’ sense of belonging, ownership, and interconnectedness.
1st prize in architectural tender / Our Gardens – Living in De Josephwijk, Roosendaal, Netherlands / Architects and landscape designers: Groosman Architecten x RRog Stedenbouw en Landschap x Hazenberg I TBI / Storytelling architectural visualization: RNDR
The Impact of Storytelling Architectural Rendering for ‘Our Gardens’
Storytelling in architectural rendering is a method that harnesses the power of imagery to tell a narrative, evoke emotions, and transport viewers into the envisioned world of a project. Through a skillful fusion of design elements, lighting, textures, and context, storytelling architectural rendering creates a vivid and immersive experience for the audience.
Storytelling architectural rendering is not limited to the aesthetic aspect alone. It also serves as a communication tool, enabling architects to compete for architectural tender and constructions bids, in order to architectural contest jury boards and clients to align their visions and expectations. Depicting how spaces are inhabited and experienced, helps stakeholders grasp the potential of a design more intuitively.
With the conceptual framework behind ‘Our Gardens’, we aimed to focus on showcasing the elements of visual storytelling through the interconnectedness and neighborhood – the primary vision of the project. Let’s delve deeper into how we used the elements of storytelling for creating competition visualizations for ‘Our Gardens’ proposal.
#1 Varied-Angled Renders in Architectural Visualizations
As mentioned earlier, interconnectedness and neighborhood were a few of the primary elements of the project. Hence, we made sure to create 3D images that resonate with that idea.
An aerial view is essential to highlight the connection of the city with the proposed project, ‘Our Gardens’. It gives the bigger picture and visual introduction to the journey throughout the project. Aerial views help concisely convey the core design concept. Judges can quickly grasp the central idea behind the proposal and how it translates into the physical layout. This clarity is particularly crucial in a competition where numerous submissions are reviewed.
Another view we worked with were the human eye-level views. These 3D renders facilitate the narrative by enabling the visualization of how people would move through and interact with the space. Eye-level architectural visualizations focused on entrances and interior public spaces – both were showing openness and interconnectedness. With this storytelling aspect, we aimed to enhance the communication of the design concept, functionality, and user experience.
The render shown below showcase the exterior of the elevated dwellings from a human point of view. Visual frames like this also allow the viewer to get an idea of public and private spaces. By having it visualized at eye level, the viewers will see the building from the most familiar point of view – just as if they were looking at it from across the street.
1st prize in architectural tender / Our Gardens – Living in De Josephwijk, Roosendaal, Netherlands / Architects and landscape designers: Groosman Architecten x RRog Stedenbouw en Landschap x Hazenberg I TBI / Storytelling architectural visualization: RNDR
#2 Visualizing the Unseen Narrative: Sustainability within Echoes of Climate Crisis
Along with interconnectedness, the project heavily relies on sustainability. The architectural renderings created are supposed to be like notes pinned on particular topics: exclusively helping the viewers visualize sustainability.
The essential aspects of the sustainability aspects project proposal were emphasized in the architectural renderings. Among them, the main role was playing the inclusion of green spaces that envelope the building along with pathways that lead to different zones of the living spaces.
‘Our Gardens’ carries a steadfast commitment to environmental consciousness, circular practices, and sustainability. The renders we created secured various pockets of inviting spaces as the architects mentioned a spacious neighborhood where there are various inviting places where residents can meet.
Amid the world’s impending climate doom. One can imagine an image showing dust blowing and the stark desolation of an abandoned land save. Several communities that have seen the devastating consequences of climate change have faced drought, wind erosion, and the alarming rise of extreme weather events. ‘Our Gardens’ become a solace for the residents as it is dedicated to promoting green practices, circularity, and sustainability. Their commitment extends not only to the residences themselves but also to the outdoor areas, ensuring they are given the rightful focus. The neighborhood is being crafted and established with active involvement from its residents, fostering a sense of community ownership.
Without an artistic visual image what seems to be merely structures built become an eloquent and imaginative story without a concrete tool for its presentation. Therefore, competition visualizations are critically important to the industry, the primary communications tool for architects to express ingenuity, design intent, and future visions.
#3 Presenting Community Building through Architectural Visualization
Renders are a vital tool that allows design without limits, creating details and interpretations of buildings, structures, complexes, and even entire cities. It is important to show the community, the people who make a space worth living in. The rendered image sets an unobstructed plain with a delicate mixture of views, vistas, and perspectives creating a collage of myriad moods and reflections of the people.
Shared spaces such as parks, communal gathering areas, and interconnected pathways were strategically placed. These renders capture the essence of a vibrant community, emphasizing social interactions, collaborative activities, and a sense of belonging as intended in the design. Like below, the 3D image captures the interactions and engagements among residents. Through carefully designed architectural renderings, they communicate the envisioned lifestyle and the integration of residents within the neighborhood, fostering a sense of unity and connectedness.
1st prize in architectural tender / Our Gardens – Living in De Josephwijk, Roosendaal, Netherlands / Architects and landscape designers: Groosman Architecten x RRog Stedenbouw en Landschap x Hazenberg I TBI / Storytelling architectural visualization: RNDR
#4 Architectural Visualizations that Go Beyond Aesthetics
The created 3D architectural renders encompass two elevated dwellings on a vast urban landscape, where applied sciences combine to create a tapestry of diverse perspectives and emotions of the community. By showcasing not just design, but the thoughtful incorporation of all things breathing, the 3D image renderings are more likely to resonate with competition judges and viewers, setting the stage for winning entries through a compelling synthesis of creativity and technical understanding.
‘Our Gardens’ renderings show a massive details form a pictorial journey of various scenes for the viewer’s wonder and curiosity. With a deep thought process about design and creativity, we always focus on providing 3D visuals that should evoke the design sense as well as its aesthetic that makes viewers wonder. The beautiful and artistic visualization sets prolong the viewer’s curiosity, making them lost in the future design proposals.
Unlocking Victory: The Power of Visualizations in Securing 1st Prize Architecture Competitions
Architectural visualizations are a chance to submit and highlight the best of the best projects, not just honorable mentions. Participants submit design entries with storytelling visualizations that captivate the competition jury and build their portfolios. Illustrations showing the delicate mixture of plans, sections, and perspectives creates a collage of various scenes for securing an architectural competition award.
1st prize in architectural tender / Our Gardens – Living in De Josephwijk, Roosendaal, Netherlands / Architects and landscape designers: Groosman Architecten x RRog Stedenbouw en Landschap x Hazenberg I TBI / Storytelling architectural visualization: RNDR
A Summary of How We Helped Securing Victory in an Architectural Competition
The success of a project depends significantly on the creation of a captivating visual narrative. The world of visualization has changed dramatically but from our experience with architectural firms, we aim to create and submit compelling exterior and interior space entries that resonate with clients and competition jury boards to help them envision the project. We also believe that it is highly important to submit tender renderings for competition presentations that are captivating and stand out among the numerous works of other architects.
We aimed to establish ‘Our Gardens’ as an icon within the city, showcasing its visionary distinction within the urban landscape of Josephwijk, Netherlands. This intention arises from a well-founded belief that winning entries consistently leverage appealing architecture competitions’ architectural visualizations, leaving viewers and audience reading into them.
We strive to unveil concepts on rendered images that captivate the discerning eyes of the jury members of the architectural competition and are easily recognized as winning entries or honorable mentions. Architectural visualizations are limitless in their scope and can be used to describe details, spaces, buildings, systems, and even entire cities.
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