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    “Not having architectural education makes you find different solutions” says Charlotte Taylor

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    Visualisation artist Charlotte Taylor discusses how she is translating her digital design work into built architecture projects for the first time in this interview.

    Taylor is the founder of 3D-design studio Maison de Sable, where she collaborates with other 3D designers on renderings of imaginary, fantastical interiors and buildings.
    Recently Taylor’s designs have become less fantasy-driven and closer to real spaces, with some of them set to get built as physical architecture projects.
    “In the long term, I’d like to move more into architecture,” Taylor told Dezeen.
    Taylor is venturing into built architecture projects for the first time. Image by Thea Caroline Sneve Løvstad and top image by Nicholas PréaudHaving not pursued formal architecture training, the designer believes there should be more non-traditional pathways to designing buildings.

    “I didn’t train in architecture at all,” she said. “I think it would be great if there were more entries into architecture because it’s such a hard career to get into.”
    “I’d like to think that there’s hope that you can get into building physical spaces through unconventional means.”
    Casa Atibaia is a fictional home in Brazil that is due to be built. Image by Nicholas PréaudOne of Taylor’s designs due to be built is Casa Atibaia, a house that was originally conceived as an imaginary project in collaboration with designer Nicholas Préaud.
    The duo imagined the house situated by the Atibaia River in São Paulo, creating a digital model of part of the riverbank based on information from Google Maps.
    The interior of Casa Atibaia features on the front cover of Taylor’s bookFrom this, Taylor and Préaud designed a concrete and glass fantasy home raised on huge boulders, the interior of which features on the front cover of Taylor’s first book, Design Dreams, published last month.
    Although the project was not originally intended to be built, Taylor is now in the process of finding a plot of land suitable to actualise the design.
    The fantasy home is raised from the floor on boulders. Image by Nicholas PréaudTaylor has also collaborated with architectural designer Andrew Trotter on a house in Utah, which forms part of Trotter’s wider design for a hotel and retreat centre named Paréa.
    The house, which is currently under construction, was designed to blend into the desert landscape with large spans of glazing and walls finished in lime plaster.
    Taylor also worked on a house in Utah that is currently under construction. Image by Klaudia AdamiakAccording to Taylor her fictional designs have received a mixed response from architects, with some saying that “in the real world, it doesn’t work like that”.
    But for Taylor, not having an architecture degree and exploring spatial design digitally without being constrained by lighting, noise, safety and budget requirements allows for more creativity.
    The house in Utah was designed to blend into the landscape. Image by Klaudia Adamiak”It acts as a sort of creative playground for me in which I can test out all these concepts and see how they work visually,” said Taylor.
    “Then bringing that into the physical world and working with engineers and architects, it becomes pared down.”
    “I think not having architectural education makes you find different solutions or ideas to bring to the real world that wouldn’t have come from just designing an actual space,” she added.
    According to Taylor, digital design allows for more creativity than designing for the real world. Image by Klaudia AdamiakThe designer mentioned that her design icon Carlo Scarpa also never became a licenced architect.
    “My icon, Carlo Scarpa, never had his full qualification, so there are little stories that inspire me, but the general thinking is quite rigid – this particular entry is a bit frowned upon from what I’ve experienced,” said Taylor.

    Casa Atibaia designed to be “ideal modernist jungle home”

    Having learned most of her design skills from experimenting with digital design and collaborating with other designers, Taylor describes herself as “self-studious” and encourages other designers to create work that they feel best represents themselves.
    “Strive to build a portfolio that excites you and represents you the most,” Taylor said.
    “Through building a portfolio and working with 3D designers and architects was how I learnt – it’s very research-heavy.”
    She founded the 3D-design studio Maison de Sable. Image by Klaudia AdamiakTaylor’s Design Dreams book features 3D designs of buildings and interiors created by herself and other artists.
    The curation includes fantasy-like environments as well as renderings of interiors that appear like real, tangible spaces.
    “[The book] became a space in which to share my personal projects, the artists I work with and work I admire around the field of interiors and architecture,” said Taylor.
    Taylor recently published her first book. Image by Klaudia AdamiakAlthough most of the images are already widely shared online, by collating them all into one volume Taylor hopes readers will enjoy getting lost in the printed format.
    “The same way that the Instagram page acts where people go to get lost in the images, to have that in a physical format means you are able to spend more time in detail than you can on a phone screen,” she said.
    Design Dreams features work by Taylor and other digital designers”To take something digital that doesn’t exist in the physical world and bring it to print was quite important for me, to see it in that way,” the designer added.
    Although they work in the digital sphere, Taylor maintains that 3D-visual creators play a part in interior design trends.
    It collates digital designs into a physical format”The arts trends that happen in 3D gradually make their way into interior spaces, and it’s really interesting to see the Pinterest effect,” she said.
    “People love to collect images and make their ideal moodboard with them, and these spaces really play into that. People are constructing their own ideas and making architecture and interiors more accessible rather than something very professional.”
    In her own interior visual designs, Taylor includes elements from her actual home to make the spaces feel more relatable than traditional architecture renderings.
    The Design Dreams book includes fantasy interiors and ones that look like real spaces”It’s down to the construction of the images, they have this sort of lightning and familiarity, and we always put little props that will often be things from my home,” she said.
    “These little details make it lived-in and more relatable versus traditional architectural visualisation, which can be very sterile and not aesthetically relatable.”
    Taylor has also previously worked on various NFT projects, including a video artwork informed by an OMA-design sculpture and NFT capsules that contain digital images of fantasy architecture projects.
    The images are by Charlotte Taylor unless stated.
    Dezeen In Depth
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      Christoffer Jansson passes off virtual apartment as Instagram home renovation project

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      Swedish designer Christoffer Jansson created a virtual apartment and pretended to live in it for months as part of a social experiment he exhibited at this year’s Stockholm Furniture Fair.

      Over a series of 12 rendered images shared on Instagram, the Uncanny Spaces project saw Jansson spin a story about purchasing and renovating a home, which he designed based on a real flat on Stockholm’s Heleneborgsgatan.
      Christoffer Jansson designed a virtual apartment and pretended it was his homeThe digital replica was modelled on the actual dimensions of the 89-square-metre apartment – ascertained during an open-house viewing – and filled with virtual copies of some of the designer’s own belongings to complete the illusion.
      He even went so far as to photograph details such as the cracked wallpaper and weirdly placed electrical outlets found in the real flat, so that he could replicate them using 3D modelling and rendering software.
      He asked his Instagram followers to vote on what colour to use in the hallway”My intention was to explore the home as a tool for communicating status and identity on social media and to discuss the impact of rendered images within interior architecture,” Jansson said.

      “I also wanted to challenge my rendering skills and see if I would be able to convince the viewer that the apartment physically existed.”
      He placed a virtual version of his Marshmallow Table in the hallwayThe ruse proved so convincing that a major Swedish interiors magazine asked to photograph the nonexistent apartment. And fellow students at Konstfack university questioned Jansson on how he could suddenly afford a multi-million-pound apartment in central Stockholm.
      Over the course of two months, he posted the results to a dedicated Instagram account designed to mimic the separate profiles that homeowners will sometimes create for their renovation projects.
      Jansson pretended to paint an antique Lovö dining table pinkThe earliest renders show the apartment as an empty shell, slowly being filled with boxes and IKEA bags as well as like-for-like recreations of Jansson’s personal belongings, such as his Marshmallow Table, every single one of his books or the jacket he wore on that particular day.
      Jansson also populated the virtual home with internet-famous design objects such as Ettore Sottsass’s wavy Ultrafragola mirror or the Lovö dining table by Axel Einar Hjorth to comment on the rise of the “Instagram aesthetic”.

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      “The constant flow of images on social media is affecting our attention span and for interior architecture, it’s becoming increasingly important to find ways to quickly capture the viewer’s attention,” he told Dezeen.
      “A clear consequence of the fast flow of images is the so-called ‘Instagram aesthetic’, which is characterized by geometric or curved shapes, distinctive colour schemes, tiled floors that form graphic patterns and clear contrasts between glossy and matte,” he continued.
      “It’s not the physical aspects of the room that are prioritised, instead the ability of the interior to function well in the image is what is valued most, which negatively affects the physical experience of a space.”
      He also integrated Insta-famous designs like the Ultrafragola mirrorThroughout the project, Jansson worked to provoke and integrate the account’s followers into the design process, for example by taking a poll on what colour to paint the hallway or by pretending to paint a piece of priceless antique furniture bright pink.
      Towards the end of the experiment, the designer began to speed up the timeline of the fictional renovation, as well as making the renders evermore eerily perfect to see if his followers would notice that the apartment was fake – although none ever did.
      By exploring these reactions, the designer hoped to draw attention to the way we use images of our homes to present idealised versions of ourselves, which in turn sets unrealistic standards for our real living spaces.
      The project was a social experiment”Today, we have access to observe the everyday life of others and display our own to the public through social media,” he said.
      “The constant exposure generates unattainable ideals and gradually shifts the barrier of private and public, which makes it more important than ever to present each and every part of our home in a favourable way.”
      Jansson created a wood relief to represent the project in real lifeAt the 2023 Stockholm Furniture Fair, Uncanny Spaces was showcased as part of the annual Ung Svenks Form exhibition of work by young Swedish designers.
      To represent the project in real life, Jansson created a wood relief that depicts a flattened image of his 3D virtual home, realised with the help of digital modelling software Rhino and a CNC-milling machine.
      The project does not touch on the rise of the metaverse, for which designers are increasingly creating virtual furniture, clothing, buildings and entire cities. But Jansson expects the advent of a parallel virtual world will likely exacerbate the issues explored in his project.
      Uncanny Spaces was on show as part of the Ung Svenks Form exhibition at the 2023 Stockholm Furniture Fair from 7 to 11 February. Browse our digital guide to the festival or visit Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Brazilian designers imagine relaxing interiors for Patagonian eco-lodge

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      Designers from Brazil have created renderings that imagine the interiors of an eco-lodge in Patagonia for the design show Casa NaToca.The theme for this year’s Casa NaToca was “refuge” with participating designer asked to design rooms for Mapu, a sustainable house and guest lodges being built in the Chilean part of Patagonia by a couple named Pati Beck and Gustavo Zylbersztajn.
      Designers including Bel Lobo, Leila Bittencourt, Paula Neder and Paola Ribeiro each contributed digitally rendered interiors of the lodge.

      Top: living room by MRC Arq. Design. Above: dining room by Isabela Fraia Arquitetura

      Mapu is being built in the city of Futaleufú next to Lake Lonconao.
      Along with a home for the pair and their children, Mapu will include loft-style accommodation for guests, extra accommodation in the form of an Airstream trailer and a restaurant in a greenhouse.

      Reading room by Marcella Reynol Arquitetura
      Participating designers imagined all of these places with timber walls, natural textures and wide windows with sweeping views of the landscape.
      MRC Arq Design created a living room with a hanging swing and a built-in desk in front of giant windows with views of the mountains, while Isabela Fraia Arquitetura designed a timber-lined dining room filled with art and bookshelves.

      Playroom by Estudio Minca and Hauzz Estudio Criativo
      A kitchen by Rodrigo Ferreira Arquitetura features an island covered in a blackboard for the children to draw on.
      There are cute bedrooms for both of the children along with a room for their cousins, and an attic playroom by Estudio Minca and Hauzz Estudio Criativo with a diorama of the planets suspended from the ceiling and a net floor.

      Children’s bedroom by Quarto das Primas, Muito Mais Arquitetura and Nina Moraes Design
      Marcella Reynol Arquitetura’s reading room features cheerful framed prints on the walls.
      A deck for barbecues designed by Leila Bittencourt, Cynthia Bento, and Flávia-Lauzana features a sunken conversation pit overlooking the scenery.

      Airstream guest house by Cajoo Studio

      “The desire for escapism is at an all-time high” say visualisers creating fantasy renderings

      Cajoo Studio visualised a compact and cheerful guest apartment in a trailer, and there are a wide variety of guest lofts designed for couples or families.
      All of the renderings share a sunshine-saturated palette, with pale timber walls and plenty of houseplants and woven pendant lampshades.

      Barbeque spot by Leila Bittencourt, Cynthia Bento and Flávia-Lauzana
      Previously held in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, this year’s Casa NaToca show is being held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
      Visitors to the online show can explore a 360-degree virtual tour and listen to audio recordings from the designers.

      Guest studio by Ana Hygino and Cau Gonçalves
      More dreamy fictional interiors renderings by architects and designers include a rock-formation hotel in Russia, an idealised holiday villa by the sea, and a hotel with a spa in Ukraine.
      Casa NaToca is online until 11 April 2021. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Dreamscapes & Artificial Architecture book editor selects five favourite 3D artists

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      Berlin-based publisher Gestalten has released a book that showcases whimsical architectural and interiors renderings. The book’s editor, Elli Stuhler, highlights five artists that feature inside.Comprising just over 200 pages, Dreamscapes & Artificial Architecture shows off the fanciful landscapes, structures and interiors imagined by 3D artists “working at the intersection of architecture, interior design, and technology”.
      Gestalten says the hardback book comes at a time when spatial modelling software “has the potential to be immensely liberating”.
      “We have never before had such capacity to render the world as we would like it to be,” explained the publishers.
      “Modeling software is not industry-specific; you don’t have to be an architect to design a building, or an interior designer to render a space,” it continued.
      “In recent years it has become increasingly popular among artists, who take the visual language of traditional CGI and apply it in new and interesting ways. In this book, this is exemplified by renders of impossible spaces that cannot – and will not – be built.”
      A total of 44 3D artists are featured in the title, whose work depicts everything from pastel-pink seaside homes to desolate, post-apocalyptic wastelands.
      Gestalten editor Elli Stuhler talks through five of her favourite artists – see below for the full selection.

      Paul Milinski

      “Australian artist Paul Milinski is featured right at the outset of the book because his work does a really good job of encapsulating the book’s overall mood.
      “His work combines several disciplines: 3D, of course, but he also weaves in architecture, interiors, still-life and landscaping. These spaces don’t always need to make sense – escalators leading down to the edge of a glassy pond, for instance – and that’s what I personally like most about them.”

      Filip Hodas
      “Filip Hodas is a Czech 3D artist with a huge online following, no small part of which will have been garnered by his Pop Culture Dystopia series.
      “Mickey Mouse heads and Poke Balls lie forgotten, overgrown as if they’re remnants of some bygone world. My favourite of his works in the book show hulking brutalist concrete structures surrounded by water, as though emerging from the depths.”

      Hayden Clay
      “Hayden Clay is an American photographer and 3D artist. We’ve included works that look a lot like a flooded version of the New York subway.
      “He contrasts the foreboding subject matter with beautiful, warm lighting, like the next morning after a storm.”

      Notoo Studio
      “Referring to many of the works in this book as ‘surreal’ is a very apt parallel to draw, but I like how this studio takes it a step further and has created a series of vignettes that are contemporary reinterpretations of artists René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico or Maurits Cornelis Escher.
      “This series expands the 2D world of these artists and fills it with contemporary furniture.”

      Andres Reisinger
      “I love the pastel colour palette of Andres Reisinger’s work. One of the works we show in the book is a pool with a deck made entirely from what appears to be white pink ostrich feathers.
      “In real life, what could possibly be less practical? After a single swim, the feathers would be damp and matted – completely miserable. But that’s what I think makes this so appealing, it doesn’t need to be practical. Nothing about these spaces are in any way tied to reality. That’s the joy of it.”
      All images courtesy of Gestalten.

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      Sivak & Partners imagines contemporary beachside guest suite in Odessa

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      Craggy rock walls and a hot-spring style bathtub would feature in this imaginary Odessa hotel room that interior design studio Sivak & Partners has envisioned in a series of renderings.The guest suite would come as part of a boutique beach hotel in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa that Sivak & Partners’ chief designer, Alexey Gulesha, was challenged to create just over a year ago.
      He decided to share the studio’s renderings when the global coronavirus crisis began and put a pause on the design process.
      “This project started from the idea to make something different from other hotels in Odessa – the client had bought a plot and asked us to design something which we wanted to see there, so this is our proposal,” Gulesha told Dezeen.

      Influenced by the dazzling settings seen in James Bond films from the 1980s, Gulesha has envisioned the guest suite as being fronted by a curved, full-height window that offers sweeping vistas of the sandy shoreline and rolling ocean waves.

      In almost every room he has tried to foster a sense of “tactile contrast” – for example, in the bedroom, the hard stone floor is topped with a fluffy cream-coloured rug. A plump bed frame has also been placed beside a couple of Italian architect Cini Boeri’s glass Ghost chairs.

      “I like to draw people’s attention to the fact that the materials to the touch may not be what they seem visually,” Gulesha explained.
      “The Cini Boeri’s armchairs look like a cold piece of glass, but they are surprisingly convenient and comfortable when you sit in them.”

      A wall that resembles a craggy cliff face would feature in the study. Other than a simple steel desk and wooden chair, Gulesha has largely omitted standard office paraphernalia so that guests would be more inclined to spend relaxing time down on the beach instead of doing work.
      “The idea of the materials is that in this digital era, when work means sitting on the PC and answering email for two to three hours, I want to see and feel something natural,” added Gulesha.

      A focal point of the suite is the circular tub in the bathroom, which would slope up from the stone floors to make guests feel like they’re “bathing in a hot spring”.
      Bathroom facilities would be housed inside a see-through volume that, using smart-glass technology, would turn opaque whenever in use.

      Architectural visualisers imagine rainbow-coloured Sonora Art Village during pandemic

      The suite would also include a small kitchenette, should future guests not want to dine at the hotel’s restaurant. At its centre would be a timber prep counter that balances across a pair of chunky stone blocks.
      A couple of rounded boucle sofas would then be used to dress the lounge area, along with a blush-pink abstract artwork that is meant to mirror the texture of the surrounding mottled plaster walls.

      The pandemic has encouraged several architects and designers to turn to the medium of renderings and imagine getaway destinations.
      Siblings Mary and David Javit imagined Sonora Art Village, a community of rainbow-coloured houses in Mexico where people could head to escape “grey reality”. Inspired by the vivid architecture of figures like Luis Barragán and Ricardo Boffil, the houses would be surrounded by cacti and swimming pools.
      Child Studio also imagined Casa Plenaire, a blissful seaside villa where those in lockdown could picture enjoying the “perfect holiday”.

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      Casa Atibaia designed to be “ideal modernist jungle home”

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      Creatives Charlotte Taylor and Nicholas Préaud took cues from the modernist architecture of Lina Bo Bardi to dream up these renderings of Casa Atibaia, an imaginary home that hides in a São Paulo forest.In a series of ultra-realistic renderings, the pair have envisioned Casa Atibaia to be nestled amongst the forested banks of the Atibaia river in São Paulo.
      This is the first collaborative project between Préaud, who is co-founder of 3D visualisation practice Ni.acki, and Taylor, who runs Maison de Sable, a studio that works with a range of visual artists to create fictional spaces.

      The imaginary home was informed by Casa de Vidro, or Glass House, which Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi designed in 1951 for herself and her husband, writer and curator Pietro Maria Bardi.

      Comprising a concrete and glass volume supported by slim pilotis, the house is considered a significant example of Brazilian modernism – an architectural movement that both Taylor and Préaud have come to admire during their careers.

      “Lina Bo Bari has been a huge inspiration for the most part of my career,” Taylor told Dezeen.
      “Discovering Nicholas had an equal passion and excitement towards Brazilian modernism was a perfect match, something we had to explore.”
      “Having lived and studied architecture in Brazil, I was overwhelmed by the presence and national pride around modernist jewels such as Casa de Vidro or Casa das Canoas by Oscar Niemeyer,” continued Préaud.
      “These homes have become landmarks not only for their style and modern construction methods at the time, but also because of the simplicity of the lifestyle they implemented.”

      Like Bo Bardi’s Casa de Vidro, the imaginary Casa Atibaia features a white-concrete framework and expansive glass windows.
      However, instead of pilotis, this house would instead be elevated by huge jagged boulders that jut out from the terrain below.

      Taylor and Préaud’s creation would also be much more sinuous in shape – the river-facing elevation of winding inwards to form a courtyard around a cluster of existing palm trees.
      This courtyard would help loosely separate the private and communal quarters of the home.
      “Lina Bo Bardi’s Casa de Vidro was an inspiration mostly in terms of this ethereal feeling of a delicately suspended home… gentle curves, extended raw concrete slabs and a primal relationship with the elements are our tribute to Brazilian modernism,” the pair explained.

      Some of the boulders propping up the home would pierce through the interior and be adapted into functional elements like bookcases, a bed headboard, or craggy plinths for displaying earth-tone vases.

      Casa Plenaire is an imaginary holiday home for lockdown escapism

      In the living room, a curving cream-coloured sofa is accompanied by a couple of sloping armchairs and a floor lamp with a concertina-fold shade.
      Wooden high-back chairs surround the stone breakfast island in the adjacent kitchen.

      The home would otherwise be dressed with a blend of contemporary and antique decorative pieces, ideally from the likes of French designers like Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Chapo.
      “It would definitely be a dream home for us in another life,” added Taylor and Préaud.

      “Casa Atibaia is a design experiment in which we combined both our impressions and aspirations of the ideal modernist jungle home,” the pair continued.
      “Through this experiment we sought to squeeze out the essence of what Brazilian modernism means to us, blurring the boundaries between inside and out while maintaining a cosy, homey feeling.”

      Charlotte Taylor was one of nine individuals to feature in Dezeen’s roundup of 3D designers, visualisers and image-makers.
      She said the recent rise of dreamy renderings coming from the likes of her and Préaud may be down to the fact that, in light of the global coronavirus lockdowns, the appetite for escapism is “at an all-time high”.
      Earlier this year, in response to the pandemic, Child Studio designed Casa Plenaire – a fictitious seaside villa where those stuck at home could imagine having the “perfect holiday”.

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      “The desire for escapism is at an all-time high” say visualisers creating fantasy renderings

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      With coronavirus confining people to their homes and rising fears over environmental destruction, a new breed of visual artists is creating utopian landscapes, buildings and interiors for armchair escapists. Here are nine of the best practitioners. Renderings depicting ethereal seaside homes to surreal, pastel-hued dreamscapes have become popular in recent months as people in lockdown
      The post “The desire for escapism is at an all-time high” say visualisers creating fantasy renderings appeared first on Dezeen. More

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      Underground House Plan B is a hideout concept for the next global crisis

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      Sergey Makhno Architects has envisioned a subterranean concrete home built for enduring the “unpleasant surprises” that may await in the post-pandemic world. Kyiv-based studio Sergey Makhno Architects told Dezeen that the global coronavirus crisis was the “trigger” for visualising Underground House Plan B, a piece of conceptual architecture. “We realised that the world has many […] More

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      Casa Plenaire is an imaginary holiday home for lockdown escapism

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      As the coronavirus pandemic puts a halt on all travel plans, Child Studio has collaborated with Plenaire to envision an idyllic seaside villa for the “perfect holiday”. Designed as a “hideaway for the lockdown world”, Casa Plenaire is seen through a series of dreamy renderings created using 3D modelling programmes. The project takes its name […] More