Achieving success in architecture isn't only about designing a building according to the client’s instructions, it's about making a difference in clients' lives. Every business is about relationships and architecture is no different.

In architecture, the most important part of the business is the relationship between the client and the architect. The clients seek the architect with a story, an idea in their minds.

The architect is tasked with interpreting that story and shaping it into a design. Converting this idea into a fully built building is a process in which architectural visualization and storytelling are closely intertwined and connected. In fact, that design process is exactly what makes a difference between two architects.

Every architect is required to articulate the solutions adopted, as well as their design choices. The work of an architect is pretty much esoteric in the eye of their clients.

So an architect must be able to tell a story using visualization so that their clients can get a full picture of what their ideas will look like in the real world.

Each architectural story is different

Each architectural story can be told in different ways, as no two stories are ever the same. The clients will have tons of questions regarding the shape of the buildings or the particular spot in the site plan and so on.

All these questions need answers, but more importantly, the clients need to understand those answers.

Every narrative consists of events that are tied together into a story plot. In terms of architecture, those events are the architectural elements, such as the intended use of a building, its shape or the concept. The architects can use visualization to guide their clients through the plot and present them with each stage of the project.

That visualization allows the clients to better understand the story that surrounds their initial ideas. The architects use architectural renderings and videos as tools to allow their clients to visualize the story behind each project that was based on the clients' ideas.

These tools help the architects tell their story in a way that will capture the attention of their clients and, by doing so, they clearly differentiate themselves from the competition. The more an architect is capable of telling their story in a compelling way, the more successful their storytelling will be.

Architectural renderings and videos

By using architectural renderings and videos, an architect is able to clearly illustrate certain points regarding a design project. That way, the audience gets a vivid idea of what their project will look like.

Since using just the image isn’t quite enough to explain why he did certain things with the design, an architect can use videos to explain things and guide their clients through the story.

The clients are able to fully understand the architect's intentions and compare them to what they had in mind. Videos allow the clients to interact with the story.

Interactive 3D storytelling

The most effective way to tell an architectural story is by using interactive 3D.

Interactive 3D presentations are an essential part of architectural storytelling, as these presentations allow the clients to directly experience their project ideas in real-time and a virtual environment.

The clients can interact with the models and this is what makes them feel closer to the project, which helps them better understand it. This understanding and interaction play a crucial role in strengthening the client-architect relationship.

Therefore, it's safe to say that 3D architectural presentations are crucial in communicating the architectural design to clients.

In fact, interactive 3D storytelling significantly improves design communication as the clients get a realistic 3D environment so that they can view not only the main project but the surrounding areas from any angle.

Such a collaborative and fluid interaction between architects and clients greatly improves the success of projects but also the client-architect relationship. With all that in mind, here are the advantages of 3D architectural presentations:

● Engage clients with 3D

● Effective design communication

● Single presentation with all design options

● The ability to share presentations on social media and websites via links

● Faster feedback

● Any device design communication

Architectural visualization trends in 2019

Since architectural visualization is such an important part of architectural storytelling, new ways require new trends.

Architectural visualization is becoming faster and better with each year, as there are always new techniques and tools. With the advance of real-time rendering applications, there has been a significant change in project presentation.

If you put these applications together with supporting technology like graphics cards, projectors, and virtual reality headsets, photo-realistic rendering is putting up some quite stunning storytelling with game-like presentations, interactive configurators, augmented and mixed reality worlds.

Such dynamic visualization allows both designers and architects to tell their stories to the fullest, but more importantly, their clients to fully visualize the projects and their surroundings in extraordinary virtual environments.

It’s all about allowing the clients to freely explore the project

We already mentioned how all this is beneficial for the client-architect relationship, but this also solves another very important problem.

The problem that has been bothering the architecture industry since the moment architects started using CAD software: bringing technical information and relevant photo-realistic imagery to a single platform so that clients can fully review and explore project design.

This is one of the biggest architectural visualization trends as the problem of sharing of information was posing a serious challenge to architects.

Having everything on a single interactive platform makes things much easier

To be able to actually present a design, an architect has to consider several items: technical specifications for building materials, studies, site plans, elevations and plans, a cost breakdown, videos, and renderings.

When presenting all these documents and visuals, the story and the beauty of design can easily get lost in translation.

Being able to share all relevant information to the project in one single platform solves this problem, but it also allows for much more effective communication between architects and clients.

By providing everything relevant to a project on a single interactive platform, the clients can review, collaborate, and explore architectural project presentation much better than ever before.

CAVE

With all this in mind, the architecture industry is ready to take the next step in the visualization and storytelling evolution: the cave automatic virtual environment or simply CAVE.

CAVE is a five-sided virtual environment that allows the clients to find exactly what they want by exploring all possible options related to one architectural design.

With such an advanced level of architectural visualization, any architect can include all the details their clients deem necessary in their architectural storytelling. This way they can present a project where their clients can explore and navigate a design, to view it from any angle or perspective in full detail.

The entire point of architectural storytelling is to bring clients closer to the main idea of the project and let them participate, which means providing them with a personalized service.

Furthermore, it also helps architects better understand what their clients want and to better present their work to their target audience.

The importance of the modern project presentation

Both the client and architect have a story of their own in their minds. The client comes to the architect with the basic idea and the architect works to convert that idea into a full-scale project design.

Then, the architect uses the skills of storytelling and technology tools to make their clients visualize what their basic idea will look like in real time and space.

Since technical concepts such as these can be extremely complicated to explain on a computer or on paper, 3D, visualization, and storytelling make it easier on both architects to explain and clients to understand.

This way of doing things makes the entire workflow easier, as the architects don't have to wait until the entire project is done to get feedback and clients don't get disappointed because the final design isn't exactly what they had in mind.

That's why visual storytelling is an extremely important part of modern project presentation, as so much depends on it.

Visual storytelling somewhat revolutionized the way architects present their projects and it has become a bridge of understanding between the two parties involved. Single platform presentations have become a common way of doing things and things will get even better in the future.

Thanks to visual storytelling, the architects can illustrate their vision by telling their story to engage their clients even more. It's safe to conclude that architectural storytelling has revolutionized the way architects collaborate with clients and present their projects, which opens an entirely new field of possibilities and opportunities.