Human-centered aesthetics when creating exterior visuals

Human-centered design is a major achievement for most fields in the past decade. The technology industry has placed the way humans interact with software at the heart of their development process. That’s how most of the tools we use, including our mobile phones, laptops, and even cars are so intuitive nowadays compared to 20 or 30 years ago. Humans are now dictating how things should work, look and behave. We are at the center of the design. Architecture visualization is one of the domains that adopted this philosophy where the human perspective is cared for and taken into account in high percentage.

In today’s edition of our newsletter, The Panoptikon Perspective looks at the human perspective. How do we see and experience architectural visualizations??

Human-centered perspective of future architecture

One vital part of any set of exterior views for a project is the eye-level view. Selecting ways of observing a project that reflect real-world scenarios, such as walking down the street toward the building, standing in the park across the street, or being near the entrance or ground-floor spaces, such as a coffee shop, are only the beginning of any exploration. These views provide context and offer a more relatable and immersive experience for the viewer. Under no circumstances will these views undermine the importance of birds-eye or aerial views, but merely constitute the part of the story that must be told to the human users of that building.

The human perspective is one of the most natural and immersive to us. Capturing how someone would naturally see and interact with the architecture, everyday moments and interactions that occur in the close environment of the building, will make most viewers feel part of that reality.

From simple representations to narratives about time

We love thinking of images as emotional time-travel portals. A rendering is not limited to representing how things will look like, but tells a story of the life of a building over time. To convey this evolution, we incorporate different seasons, times of day, and varying weather conditions into our shots. Each variation offers a different glimpse into the life of the building, showing how it adapts and responds to its environment. These changes bring depth to the overall result, allowing for a more comprehensive narrative.

A set of images showing various conditions helps build this story, offering a complete picture of the life cycle of a project. This approach allows us to show how the building looks, feels and ages, creating a cohesive narrative we can relate to.

Natural or photographic exposure?

When capturing these views, we try to strike a balance between natural and photographic exposure. There’s an important distinction between the two. Photographs, by nature, manipulate perception through overexposure, underexposure, and other artistic effects. While this can be a powerful tool, it’s important to understand when to use these techniques and when to focus on more natural, human perception.

We think most visuals should reflect what a person would naturally see. In some cases, however, it might be beneficial to play with exposure to highlight specific design features of the project. The key is to consciously choose the approach that best fits the narrative we’re creating. For example, in certain projects, we've intentionally altered exposure to highlight particular design features, drawing attention to aspects that might otherwise go unnoticed. This choice, however, must always be grounded in the project’s needs and the story we want to tell.

Welcome to the real world, Neo!

One of the most important parts of our work is grounding visualizations in real-world scenarios. While we can manipulate lighting, seasons, and weather to enhance the story, these should always be rooted in reality. Our goal is to avoid creating unrealistic or fantastical representations that detract from the authenticity of the project. For instance, using extreme, unrealistic weather effects (like imagining Mars-like conditions on Earth) would break the immersion and make the visualization less credible (although quite romantic).

Overall, when creating exterior visuals, the focus is on delivering a human-centered, authentic representation of the project. We consider the real-world perspectives of people interacting with the building, the variety of conditions it will experience, and the balance between natural and photographic exposure, thus creating images that are both engaging and grounded in reality.

Each decision, starting with where to place the camera to how to adjust lighting and weather conditions, supports the larger narrative of the building’s life and context within its surroundings.

Ultimately, the goal is to showcase the project in its best light, ensuring that every image communicates the story we want to tell while remaining true to the viewer's experience and perception.

Stay inspired,

Panoptikon Team