In this project, the scope was to create some 3d rendering images of a 35-room boutique hotel in Wanaka, New Zealand. They wanted to use them for marketing their hotel in this great base for holidays in summer and winter because of its dual characteristics. Kayaking, fishing, and even ski and snowboarding are some of this place activities.

We had to implement our clients’ design and showcase these excellent materials and finishes in a mix with a great amount of foliage, especially in the courtyard, to feel like “home.” Implementing vertical gardens is a great way to improve the sense of being, remove air pollutants, reduce urban temperatures, and showcase one of our identity marks, realistic foliage.

That exact mark brought this client to us after seeing one of our Australia projects, “Duplex house in Melbourne” (See image below).

We are always trying to incorporate some foliage because it is one of the most important things to implement in a building. Either it is a green wall or just hanging (creepers) foliage, they always help create a natural feeling and provide a fresh and green glimpse into an urban environment.

Greenery is the go-to for what our brains perceive as the most familiar things we see in our environments.
One other important thing we wanted to show was movement and also action. We did that by adding some people to showcase each space’s use: a guy singing right to the fire with his guitar, a girl running in the courtyard, or the waitress inside the restaurant, and some people returning from shopping walking by the street.

As far as what the client provided, he send  us an Archicad 3d model as a base that we used to create our own geometry on top, which we always try to do to have the best result possible.

He also provided some rough renderings from his software so we can understand what he needed in order to suggest to him some potential views that will capture his needs.
 

One crucial step for us is to ask for as much information as possible from the start. Trying to create something that does not exist and “recreate” reality is complicated and time-consuming. Reality has many more features than what we perceive when our eyes see an image. That’s why we ask for as much information as possible.

Some of the information we ask for is included below.

- Street name and exact location of the property to recreate the surrounding buildings, streets, and structures as accurately as possible. This step is crucial for the composition of our renderings. We strongly believe that it is not only about the main building but also of how it blends with the existing surroundings. At the same time, we use these surrounding to make our rendering more realistic and accurate

- Finishes, furniture, and product specs. Every piece of an image plays its role in communicating our clients’ design intention. This is something we sometimes respect more than our clients do. So we usually ask for the actual product pages and name to learn more about each product. Then we go one by one and find images of each of the products’ actual implementation to understand how it reacts in different light conditions to recreate it accurately.

- Detailed architectural plans if available so we can see a lot more information than what the client could tell us. That includes lighting plans and fixture specs, landscape and foliage species plans.

Click here to see this project and the images in full resolution.