Mitigating the Time Anxiety of Architects During Bidding with Turzen

Only deadlines can stop architects from their relentless revisions and refinements. Backing up architects' pursuit of perfection is crucial to Turzen’s architectural visualisation services. Especially when in design competitions, architects typically burn the midnight oil under tight time constraints. But when creativity is under the gun, it often ends up getting killed. Therefore, one of our working goals is to raise the gun barrel by one centimetre, alleviating our clients' time anxiety during bidding.

The Eighth Cup of Coffee

"Excuse me, could we pause for a moment?" Niu, a perfection-seeking architect, asked me during a video conference years ago while discussing the storyline of an animation. Then Niu's head turned to a colleague sitting beside him, pleading, "Lee, could you make me another cup of coffee, please?"

"This will be your eighth cup tonight, won't it?" Lee asked with a blank expression, then got up and walked away. Through the empty screen Lee left, I saw piles of opened pizza boxes on the meeting table not far away, and paper cups lying on the desk.

Breaking the silence, I asked, "When can you give me the final model? The deadline is less than two weeks away, this..."

"I know!" Niu unusually interrupted me. His gaze moved away from the screen, muttering, "We're 80% there now, with many details to adjust... um... around Sunday night, we'll try..."

"Could you give me the model you have now? I think we have to start working, otherwise, we'll run out of time." I was anxious, then I tentatively asked: "Could you increase the budget on this?..." Just then, Lee's voice came from afar, "We're out of coffee beans, Niu, how about a can of Red Bull?"

"No, thanks. I appreciate it, I'm just talking money with this guy!" Niu exclaimed with wide-open eyes...

80%

From that night on, Turzen began to intervene in work when a client's model was 80% complete. We used Niu's process model as a stand-in actor for animation previews. Meanwhile, TU's rendering team was also warming up, scrutinising the angles and testing the lighting for all 25 view requirements of the project. By the time Niu's design was complete, we were all set.

Before that, we, like most studios in the industry, only worked on all clients' final models. This is an understandable premise. Participating in a client's design process is cost-ineffective for ArchViz studios. Moreover, starting with an 80% model, we often encounter some issues, such as a fantastic light angle in the predecessor getting vetoed in the final model, forcing us to re-explore other possibilities. Or a sexy camera move being blocked by the replacement model, etc. When the most captivating visuals are fleeting glimmers in the 80% model, the heartache can make TU's artists question this work mode...

Yet, we persisted, especially for our old clients, who enjoy this work mode because it at least eases their time anxiety during the visualisation process. After that night, Niu reformed his team's workflow, marking the completion of an 80% design model as a milestone. During architectural design competitions, the collaboration between Niu's team and Turzen is no longer a linear relay race, but more like organising a shot in a soccer match, advancing through interaction.

S19

“Just also wanted to thank you for the fantastic job you and your team did on the images in such a short time!!”

— Eva Schwärzler

An email from Eva Schwärzler, an architect at Nordic Architecture Office, after We delivered the Strandgata 19 project.

The S19 project is a classic example of this process. Using Nordic's 80% complete 3D model, we started creating the 3D model of the project's context, researching reference pictures, analysing viewpoints, and testing lighting.

By the time the final model was confirmed, even though the deadline was close, we had already done the crucial work: Turzen and Nordic had reached a consensus on all rendering viewpoints and light environments. Therefore, everything was able to progress smoothly to the final result.

Most projects have proven that starting with an 80% completed model significantly relieves our clients' time anxiety during architectural design competitions. I'm writing this blog to inform more excellent architects about Turzen's distinctive work mode. Please contact us directly about this topic and our process. Looking forward to hearing from you.