(RE)-Rendering the Render

Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s The Shed, Hudson Yard

(RE)-Rendering the render A space Autopsy Joseph Istance 2018

This submission explores the overwhelming prevalence of the render, or the visual, that has overtaken means of architectural representation within as little as the previous five to ten years. The render has become the defining typology of representation for the immediate communication, particularly to the wider public at large, of the vivacity of the architect’s intention for an immediate project; plan, section and elevation remain firmly of the architect’s repertoire, whereas the render is becoming an increasingly accessible and populist medium of communication. And yet, both the properties and effects of the render are met with little understanding; the following submission puts forward a process of autopsy to dissect the construct of the render by identifying foundational, standardised elements in order reconstruct a new understanding of the render.

Means of architectural representation have seen dramatic upheaval in as little as the past ten years; a vicious circle of client demand and inter-practice competition, with the advancement of game engine technology, has seen the means of conveying a project pushed ever more toward the hyper real. This may be seen clearly in the evolution of the output of work by New York based architecture practice, Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DSR), which shall form the centre of this submission’s study.

With a series of captivating bodies of work in the early nineteen nineties, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio emerged as a prominent duo; more so, their lines of enquiry were eloquently exhibited through meticulous and refined combinations of hand drawing, drafting and collage. The intellectual rigour and audacity of their work was always supported, furthered and refined just as much through the medium of which it came to be; the drawings possess a texture, collage and wit that retains an incisiveness today.

Projects produced by the now highly successful studio remain as sharp and incisive as ever, yet the means of architectural representation have undoubtedly changed; elegant line drawings are replaced with glistening and shiny renders which do not always convey the intellectual rigour to be found within a DSR project.

More and more often, the practice of rendering is increasingly universal and generalised, to the point of absolving the render of any belonging, personality or individuality to the author. What has increasingly become a process available to all has led to the reproduction of a template set of codes and elements that can be found render to render giving over to an oversaturation of the generic and leading to a relative dispassionateness of the computer generated surface (Cook, 2008, 22).

This submission proposes five foundational operations that come to define the generic render, and are as follows:

1.

People littering

The more populated the render, the more lively, liveable and relatable it appears, presenting a future location to receive happy shoppers or theatre goers in their hundreds. The engimatic characters of the foreground laugh with their friends, walk their dog or even stand and take a photograph of the new architecture proposed, as their surrounding companions diminish in size along the dominant line of perspective to merge into the mass crowd on the horizon line.

2. Over-greening The quickest way to soften the grey of urbanity, forests are imported and gardens are uprooted to dazzle the scene with splashes of nature, forming arborous moments of incident. The more exotic the species the better; deciduous trees present their green in autumn, whilst flowers out of season staunchly defy the winter, peppering the greenery with sporadic moments of colour.

3.

Dramatic skies and reflections

A day render may present itself with clear blue skies, where the lens flare radiates across the image, striking all metallic surfaces with resplendent reflections. Alternatively, a night render with tumultuous rain and heavy clouds may streak the lighting into luminous traces of pale yellow office lights and glowing red brake lights. Or better still, two weather systems within one render collide for mesmerising results.

4.

Strong single point perspective

Following the line of perspective running across the image, past the rule of thirds and revolving around the applied Golden Ratio, the image arrives at the vanishing point. Dramatising the perspective as much as possible, huge office blocks in the foreground give way to miniscule cities in the far distance.

5.

Real scenario

Shattering the illusion of the render, reality arrives in the background. Often a springboard for the render itself, the photo stages the canvas for the render to impose the impending vision; nullified to be black and white or greyscale, the background speaks of the need of improvement for which the project is necessary.

Any number of these categories may be found within any render, the identification of which form the beginning of an autopsy process to dissect the render. The drawing aspect of this submission takes DSR’s imminent project, The Shed, New York, as an example, where each category is dissected and removed from the drawing, observing the affect this instigates.

A process of reconstruction then begins in order to explore the conveyance of the project which the autopsy process has rendered obsolete in its generic properties. This reconstruction process asks, if the computer generated image cannot always articulate a sense of the unique, what may occupy what blank spaces, the voids that the autopsy process has removed? The submission looks to the analogue for the answer, to the instinctive and the intuitive found within the laborious techniques of hand-based drawing media; without a prescriptivity, these tools allow for a certain freedom of expression that begins to relinquish the render from its infamous one dimensionality. Infilling these voids becomes an act of strengthening the essential qualities of the render, instilling and elaborating upon the individuality of the project.

In the case of the render for DSR’s Hudson Yard project, there is a lack of communication of the very conceptual underpinning of the project: a cultural arts and performance venue, the entire canopy transits upon a gigantic pulley system, dramatically altering the spatial dynamic of the building itself and the adjacent public square. The analogue techniques look to the alternative flexibility and improvisation (Serrazanetti and Schubert, 2017, 18) of hand based techniques to begin to ascribe a shift of movement to the drawing in order to convey this; non-static frames of perspective push the drawing toward a movement through composition and the trace of the eye.

In summary, this submission advocates the advantages that a mutual co-operation between the digital and the analogue can display, overthrowing presuppositions of their, until now, supposed opposition; “the distinction between digital and analogue has become tired and obsolete” (Spiller et al, 2013). The autopsy process does not merely deconstruct the render, but also reveals where its propriety and its capability to communicate truly lies; by stripping away the inessential or generic identified, the value of the render is finally made apparent. It does not propose to eradicate the render, but instead direct its use toward purpose and incisiveness.

A hybrid approach precariously balances the real with the unreal in varying states; “mystery and temptation are held by an unreal that nonetheless has a reference back to the real but refuses to ape it” (Cook, 2008, 42). A symbiotic or hybrid relationship between digital and analogue conveys a bespoke, articulate mode of representation that surpasses either of the two’s capabilities alone, leaving an unsolveable question to the viewer of how the render is produced, mystifying the image and propelling the render to convey the imaginary it is intended to. * The following pages are composed of the autopsy process, followed by the alternative analogue techniques and finally the resultant proposed alternative.

Bibliography Cook, P. (2008) Drawing: the motive force of architecture. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Serrazanetti, F., Schubert, M. (ed.) (2017) Zaha Hadid: Inspiration and process in Architecture. Milan, Italy: Moleskine srl.

Spiller, N. et al (ed.) (2013) Drawing Architecture. London, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

1 People Littering Removal of excessive population of render

2 Over-greening Removal of non-climate specific vegetation

3 Dramatic skies and reflections Removal of exaggerated atmosphere

4 Strong single point perspective Identifying the vanishing point

5 Real scenario Reality as staging ground

* The value of the render Autopsy result

* Analogue input

* Re-rendered render