Office Building Rendering – In-Depth Guidelines

Unlock the world of office building rendering with this comprehensive guide. Discover benefits, how-to's, and real-life applications.

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Published on
May 25, 2021
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11.5 min
Office Building Rendering – In-Depth Guidelines

Modern real-estate rendering software has enabled both clients and designers to create hyperrealistic, detailed building plans before the construction day. However, architectural and interior rendering has a lot more to offer your company than just the ability to create detailed designs ahead of the curve. It also has excellent marketing potential, especially if you'd like your company to score more clients or investors.

So if you're interested in commercial office rendering, this guide is for you. We'll explore everything and anything related to it – benefits, how-to's, as well as discuss the different types and applications of office rendering in real life. Let's start.

What Are the Benefits of Office Space Rendering

Office space rendering is a great tool to create immersive designs that will impress your team and clients from the get-go. Besides this obvious advantage, let's see what other benefits you'll read by opting for office building rendering:

Better Success at Pitching

3D architectural renderings help your team and potential clients to understand the whole concept more easily. When you use mockups and other tools for pitching, not only is it inconvenient, but it's also very time-consuming and challenging to understand. However, from a single 3d rendering alone, you'll be able to showcase all possible features and options.

Flexibility

It also allows you to be very flexible with your project designs. You've probably experienced clients' indecisiveness at least once in your life. They always want to change something, tweak a couple of things here and there, leaving you with a list of requirements that are difficult to fulfill. With office renderings, though, you make all those edits and tweaks in a matter of seconds. And you can play around with all sorts of different elements and details, delivering outstanding customer service.

Cost-effectiveness

Digital modeling is much cheaper and eco-friendlier compared to traditional modeling tools. It allows you to be more flexible with your designs before the construction date and make as many edits as necessary in real-time. That flexibility also minimizes the chances of errors when the construction itself starts, enabling you to waste less money on edits and rebuilding.

office rendering, the workspace is depicted as a productive environment
Work Space – Office Building Rendering by PIXREADY

HOW OFFICE BUILDING DESIGN RENDERING HELPS ARCHITECTS SEAL PROJECTS

While sketches are a great way to score clients, nothing comes close to the abilities of rendering software. It gives you so much power and freedom to play around with different concepts, enabling you to create appealing designs that will make your investors' jaws drop. Here's how office space renderings can change your pitching game.

Showcasing the Concept

The most difficult part about presenting your office concept to your clients is explaining all the small visual peculiarities of the designs – furniture, curtains, materials, textures, etc. Drawings and sketches are never able to show the client exactly how all these elements will impact the overall office space. With renderings, though, you can show elements from all sides and different angles, enabling your clients to understand the concept from the get-go.

office building render, the commercial space exterior exudes a sense of modernity and professionalism
Commercial Space Exterior – Office Building Rendering by PIXREADY

Showing Off Design Features

Design and smaller elements can make or break your whole concept. Customers and clients love seeing accurate representations of what their new office space will look like. In person, you can see all the elements and colors, feel different materials, and differentiate texture. The same thing goes for office renderings. CGI renderings will allow you to include all these characteristics and make them as realistic as possible.

Improving Your Marketing & Advertising

If you're designing an office building that is going to be sold, it would be ideal to find some customers before the construction starts. To achieve this goal, owners of office spaces tend to opt for advertising and marketing to increase their chances. And, what better way to show the concept of your office space than to use architectural renderings? 3D marketing and advertising have become the industry standard when it comes to selling and renting office space.

3D office image, the reception zone is portrayed as a sleek and welcoming space
Reception Zone – Office Building Rendering by PIXREADY

HOW TO MAKE A 3D RENDERING OF AN OFFICE SPACE OR BUILDING

Most interior designers have their own methodology they follow when it comes to making 3D office renderings. However, there are certain steps that are unavoidable, which we'll go in-depth about in this section of the article. Here's how to make a 3D building rendering:

1. Sketching

Sketching is the first step in any kind of design process, and an architectural visualization project is no exception. Before you start, though, choose a location or a site where you'd like to place your building. Note down the lot measurements. Secondly, calculate and decide on your building's specifications – number of floors, height, roofs, etc.

The next step is to create a rough sketch using an appropriate scale. Make sure that the scale is big enough to include all important details but small enough so that the whole design can fit onto one page. Create a grid to divide and separate elements. Once you get that rough sketch, the last step is to include elements and other details. Make sure to do this for both the front and side views. Make sure to use the same scale.

2. Modeling

The next step is to turn your sketch into a model. Use your preferred software. The first step is to model the front side of your office space. Basically, all you need to do is recreate your initial sketch in a digital form. If you're well-versed with modeling software, then you can skip the sketching part and move straight to modeling.

Once you've modeled the front side, use a pencil tool to redo the sketch in 3D. If you'd like to add some depth to your design, you can use the push-and-pull tool. If your 3D model looks slightly different than your sketch, or some elements aren't lining up, just quickly fix them and move on to the next step.

Just like before, when you're done with the frontal view, model the sides of the building as well. This mostly comprises copy-paste work since most elements have already been modeled. Lastly, add materials and textures to bring the design to life.

Pro tip: Only design one repetitive element from each category (e.g. one window), then just copy and paste it onto your building instead of having to draw and model the same window dozens of times.

3. Rendering

The last step is rendering. You can use a dedicated 3d rendering tool or opt for ones that are included in other 3D architecture software suites. You can render the image by uploading the actual photo of the previously chosen site and matching the perspective. Add other realistic details like shading, an entourage, or maybe even some plants and trees. The simpler way is to hire a 3D artist to make high-quality 3D renders of your office space project.

office space renderings, showcased a vibrant and collaborative environment
Jefferson Open Office – Office Building Rendering by PIXREADY

WHAT ARE COMMERCIAL OFFICE RENDERINGS TYPES

3D architectural renderings have taken the industry by storm. An important part of why they've become so popular is the fact that they're very flexible. You can use this type of 3D rendering for multiple types of buildings and architectural needs. Some of the most common ones are:

Commercial Architecture

One of the best ways to showcase your commercial building plans is through rendering. The thing about commercial buildings is that they have to be both visually appealing and functional for the general public. Different types and styles of commercial architecture require a different approach.

For example, you can't use the same design scheme for office space and malls. Regardless of the purpose, your design should ensure that visitors will be able to navigate the property intuitively. Renderings have the ability to make extremely precise planning calculations so that you and your customers would be able to fully visualize the property prior to building.

Interior Design

When it comes to office space interior design, the most important thing is to create a visually appealing space that's organized well. It's very tricky because it usually includes a lot of tiny details. That's precisely why 3D rendering and 3D interior visualization are the perfect options for this type of design. They allow interior designers to create specific light sources, add custom details, as well as the ability to make edits to office interiors in real time.

It also gives designers the ability to include different textures, materials, and placements of furniture, to ensure that everything is cohesive and pleasant to look at. 3D visualization technology offers ultra-realistic representations of all sorts of materials – wood, glass, leather, textile, etc.

Hospitality Architecture

Hospitality commercial architecture is another thing you can successfully showcase and visualize with CGI rendering. Showing off comfort, luxury, and all other tiny details is important to get the overall feel and present the atmosphere of the building to your clients.

3D commercial rendering, the restaurant interior view captivates with its sophisticated design
Restaurant Interior View – Commercial Building Rendering by PIXREADY

Landscape Architecture

When we talk about architecture, what usually comes to mind first are buildings and closed spaces. However, outdoor space design is also a part of commercial architecture and a very important one at that. While it may sound counterintuitive to some, the fact of the matter is that CGI renderings are also an outstanding visual tool for designing outdoor spaces. Combining aerial renderings with traditional 3D landscape renderings is a perfect way to include all sorts of physical objects, plants, and other important elements to show to your clients.

Urban Design

Urban design deals with planning neighbourhoods, cities, buildings, offices of big corporations, etc. It is a combination of all the rendering types we mentioned above because it includes elements from each of the categories. These projects are usually very complex and comprehensive. Because of that, 3D architectural rendering is the best choice for designing these projects. The visual complexity and quality of space rendering software are unmatched.

space rendering off a meeting room, it's depicted as a modern and functional environment
Meeting Room – Office Building Rendering by PIXREADY

WHAT THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN CREATING AN OFFICE BUILDING RENDERING FOR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

The thing about commercial rendering is that it has to encompass the best practices of both architectural and landscape design. You have to create an atmosphere to tell a story because, otherwise, you're just trying to sell blank space with no vision and appeal. You can achieve a specific mood in your designs by adding other surrounding elements that complement your final design idea. Here are some things to consider when doing so:

Include People in Your Design

If you'd like to create a mood and make your design as realistic as possible, you should consider adding people to your designs. When it comes to regular, non-commercial renderings, adding people is not important because homeowners usually don't expect their houses to be visited by dozens of people daily.

When it comes to commercial buildings, though, adding people to co-working space designs is important because commercial spaces were built for that purpose. It's important to realistically depict how people can interact with that space. If we take office building rendering as an example, it would be weird to show them to clients without any people present. Offices are built to support a large number of people at once, so including humanoid figures in your designs will show off the proportions better and how much space there is.

Use Background Photos

Adding any kind of background to your design is important because it shows exactly how it flows with the surrounding area. You can choose between adding a CGI space or including a real-life background photo. While both options are great and have their respective advantages, using CGI to create a background is much more flexible because you'll have a wide variety of options and styles to choose from. Plus, it allows you to customize the background to fit the building, while real-life background forces you to adjust the building to the existing layout.

Time of Day

Setting your 3D render clock to the correct time is also important when creating office space images, or any other commercial building images for that matter. Imagine you've created this super awesome office building with cool elements and details. However, you set the clock to evening. Clients won't be able to see the building in its full glory (unless you added some special effects for nighttime).

People usually frequently see office spaces during the day, so using the correct time will showcase your work the best. On the other hand, if you're creating a layout for a nightclub, setting the time to late night would be ideal for showcasing the space and its features.

office render, the meeting room is illuminated with a warm glow, creating a captivating night view
Meeting Room Night View – Office Building Rendering by PIXREADY

WHY INVEST IN OFFICE RENDERS

Office space rendering has become an unavoidable part of every architectural project. Not only are they highly customizable and give you the most flexibility, but they also give you a jaw-dropping competitive advantage. This is slowly becoming the standard in both offices and the design community, so make sure that your business isn't missing out on some serious opportunities.

Are you in the market for architectural 3D rendering services that will blow your clients away and generate a plethora of new business and client opportunities? If you're ready to take your vision and your business to the next level, our team at PIXREADY is here to help. Book a call with one of our architectural visualization experts and explore your options.

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PIXREADY team

Founded by a group of technology, architecture, and design professionals in 2018, PIXREADY is one of the challengers empowering the 3D visualization industry and making its products and services more affordable. We are determined to assist businesses around the world to create photorealistic images of their products and ideas and enrich the experience of their clients. We focus on the details, with the highest precision in every pixel.