Marianne Loof column
The term ‘rendering porn’ has been circulating, but only really became widely known after last week’s article in the Volkskrant about the effect of slick computer drawings.
The term is crass, but speaks volumes and is also confrontational. I am going about my work at the office today with a slightly different view of those workspaces where buildings rotate on large screens. Designing with 3D/BIM software such as Archicad is a huge development. Everyone can ‘read’ the design. Using 3D design, we are able to model buildings and progress through all the designs from the preliminary sketch. Thus, clients and local residents experience the building in ‘real time’.
And indeed, out of enthusiasm, we illustrate beautifully, we incorporate people, and we share with residents the fantastic view from the top floor apartment. Very different to the stern line drawings, plans and details which together produce the 3D design in the architect’s mind.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing
But does the seductive accessibility of rendering ‘liberate’ us from the shackles of ‘illegible’ drawings, or is it a wolf in sheep’s clothing, ‘trapping’ it from day one in a prematurely clinched image in which everything is too beautiful and perfect. Porn as opposed to true love. True love, which, on the contrary, grows and deepens the more you nurture it.
The folly of rendering also lies in the disruptive effect these images have on building practice. “Architecture trivialises its own role in this way,” Tom Avermaete from Delft University of Technology asserts justifiably. Increasingly, builders and developers think the render can go straight to the production department and that the architect’s elusive creativity can be captured at an early stage. There is a very fine line between liberation and misuse.
Porn provides superficial satisfaction, a short-term fix. Architecture demands true love and depth in a relationship. A love that can grow into a real building, one that still looks good in a downpour.
Cobouw.nl