BUILD AN OUTDOOR ARCHVIZ SCENE

Senior designer Alireza Khoshpayam breaks down his process for visualising this unique remote office project in The Andes

- Alireza Khoshpayam

Designed during the pandemic, this project was based on the newly used term 'workations'. Its purpose is to challenge new ways to work, featuring a remote workspace cabin in an incredible natural setting.

Located in the Andean 'paramo' of Ecuador nearly 4,000 meters above sea level, this project had its roots in past building experiences, with an earlier project existing on-site where the team had experienced the hardships of building in these conditions. Extremely cold weather is enclosed in an atmosphere of clouds and trees, these are the chilling climate conditions ("achachay"). The refuge must retain maximum heat on the inside, and the nearby thermal pools ("arrarray") help you relish in this landscape of extremes.

The answer the team found is to build two modules in the city nearby. The build is done by hand under a roof, and on the day of the move, the structure is put to the test, with it undertaking high tension and compression forces. For the team, moving day represents a great deal of stress and fear of the unknown. Finally, the objective is completed, and the 'Arrachay' cabin is built in two pieces at its final site over 100km away from the building site.

In this guide, I will demonstrate how I tackled the CG visualisation of this 'workstation' building project, with tips for creating your own outdoor archviz scenes.

01 START SIMPLE

A complete understanding of the environment and atmosphere was crucial to the visualisation of this project. Start with a simple box in 3ds Max. Using the edit poly modelling technique, increase the level of detail in the model.

My approach to modelling is always to start with as simple a model as I can, and then work my way up to more complexity as I go.

025 THE DEVIL IS IN DETAILS