What to Expect for Architecture Renderings

“Arch-Viz” Is a whole industry unto itself.  Short for architectural visualisation.  But “arch-viz” can mean a wide range of things.  So what should you expect for renderings for your project?

Schematic Design

Schematic design is the first design phase in a project. But even at this point, renderings can vary massively. Always remember: what are you hoping to get out of the rendering?
The first renderings in SD are typically to explore form and potentially color or materials. This would be a typical example:

Sometimes presentation renderings are done even at the SD level. This is typical if you need to attract outside investors, pass a vote with your board of directors, or any time you need to convince somebody your project is worth moving forward.

Design Development

Design Development (DD) is the next design phase from Schematic Design. At this stage a design has been settled on and renderings are continuing to develop materials selections, form, and getting deeper into lighting and the specifics.

A good example of a lighting study is shown below:

Presentation Renderings

The final design phase for most projects is Construction Documents (CD). Interestingly, often renderings are not produced at this stage. This can be very counter-intuitive! The reason is that most design decisions are already made.
When renderings are needed at this stage, it’s typically for final approval for a project. These renderings should be presentation level renderings.
A presentation rendering is the final, polished, artistic image. It should elicit emotion from the viewers and have an impact. It’s not another floor plan or elevation, it’s a 3D image to draw people into the project.
See below some examples of presentation renderings: