Back to the Future: Old School Massing Studies Meets Chaos Veras
Creating physical massing studies is accessible, collaborative, and iterative. Let's return to first practices of real-world massing studies combined with the power of Veras for rapid and realistic rendering!
Not too long ago, building physical massing models out of cardboard, wood, or plastic was the way to go. But as computers took over in the last 20-30 years, most of that work moved into the digital world. Digital massing has advantages, like using code to quickly churn through a bunch of ideas and automatically render the results. But this kind of workflow requires a specialist. The downside? If you aren't a digital pro, you're kind of stuck on the sidelines.
Still, there's something special about arranging things with your hands. Instead of wrestling with complex software commands like move, copy, or rotate, delete, add, etc., you just use simple gestures to grab a block, lean a piece of cardboard, or tilt a container until it looks right. It's all about your imagination. Anyone can do it, even a kid. Plus, it makes it way easier for others to jump in and collaborate.
So, why not combine the best of both worlds? Old school massing studies can be imagined as simple or highly realistic renderings via natural language descriptions. By the end of the article, you'll be able to re-imagine physical models as realistic and beautiful renderings in Veras.
Although I have a college degree in Psychology, I did manage to take a few Architecture technology classes during my studies. Those technology classes didn't focus on creating highly detailed massing studies, only simple designs. But I learned that even simple massing studies can evolve into satisfying designs. If I can do this I’m certain anyone can create something phenomenal.
To get started, gather a few objects that have strong silhouettes. If you’re in architecture studio, head over to the nearest trash can. Your home or office will have lots of objects easily imagined into architectural shapes. As seen from the image above, I used a box of Pop-Tarts, a colored pencil tube, a smaller jewelry box and an unrolled paper roll. Don't worry about spending time spray painting the composition to create a neutral finish. We’ll prompt a neutral tone and remove all identifying characteristics, colors, and text with Veras.
Prompt: Please re-imagine this composition as a simplified museum board style model using only abstract geometry shapes, no text, lines or other distinguishing features which would identify the original geometry. Render the composition on a neutral surface.
As you can see from the image below, all the identifying features and colors are gone, and the resulting composition has a nice, pleasing, neutral look. The unrolled paper roll has a bit more thickness and uniformity as well, which gives the overall composition a bit more substance.
For this tutorial, we’re eventually going to be reimagining a performing arts theater. Now that we have a great jumping off point, let's start sculpting the model to resemble what we’d like to achieve. Perhaps we could should fill in the “dead-zone” between the horizontal cylinder and the larger cubes with a water feature like a reflecting pool. Veras makes it easy to modify the image using the Shape Tool.
Prompt: Please re-imagine this composition as a simplified museum board style model using only abstracted geometry shapes, No text, Lines or other distinguishing features which would identify the original geometry, Render the composition on a neutral surface, the masked area represents a lighter object, intending to be a shallow modern reflecting pool.
As you can see below Veras did a great job following the instructions and created a simple reflecting pool we can use to balance the overall composition. Surprisingly, even the reflections of the cardboard model can be seen in the reflecting pool.
Continuing with the theme of re-sculpting, let's carve the larger box element into something less uniform. The left side of the model is a little more visually interesting so it's nice giving the opposite side the same amount of attention.
Prompt: Please keep everything the same, but remove the area indicated by the masked region.
Veras did exactly what we asked and sometimes that's all you need. Other times, you'll notice Veras can get a little over zealous with changes. One way I've learned to avoid any unwanted changes is add “keep everything the same” at the end of the prompt.
This is a perfect starting point for more specific architectural ideation. In my experience, I got better results after the previous steps of simplifying the objects from the initial photo rather than ideate straight from the source image.
Prompt: Please re-imagine this composition as an white abstract museum board style model of a sleek and modern performing art theater and symphonic hall, For scale, reflecting pool is 200 feet across, Maintain the overall proportions of the original composition, Don’t add any text to the composition.
The following long sequence of images illustrates the number of times I rendered. Just to set expectations, one prompt and rendering isn't going to create the perfect resulting image on the first attempt. I created a lot of renderings, tweaking prompts and re-rendering, until I was satisfied with the composition. The image below is probably around half of all the images I actually created. I don't think rendering a lot of times is wasteful - a lot of the images that didn't make the final cut have very interesting elements!
The image below is the composition I liked the most. I like the way the former box has shards of geometry carved away, along with the more formal smaller box and large circular element to the real left. But the horizontal cylinder needs a more refinement.
Once again, we’ll use the shape tool to draw a masked region for the specific area to be modified.
Prompt: Re-imagine the masked area as a glazed curtain system and truss structure.
The resulting glazed curtain and truss system completely transformed my expectations!
Time to add some finishing touches. I like the idea of ideating In the style of a scale model, which kind of abstracts the resulting design. However, a little illumination, shadows and reflections will add some depth and drama.
Prompt: Please illuminate the interior of this model as well as subtle illumination of the reflecting pool water feature.
Its amazing how much just adding some lighting can really bring a render together. The lighting attracts attention to areas reimagined as occupied with the addition of scale people. And the cool blue lighting around the edges of the pool compliment the warmer interior lighting. While the overall colors are still abstract, the warmer vs cooler lighting helps differentiate between interior and exterior spaces.
What’s the big idea? We've seen how easy it is to jump back into physical massing models using simple objects and gestures to bring your architectural ideas to life. But making things fast and easy isn't the big idea. Moving between physical massing studies and Veras not about automating workflow, it's more about simplifying workflow in a way that's more approachable, collaborative, yet ultimately more rigorous. Rendering with Veras still requires Architectural empathy and experienced judgment to be successful.
For the last couple of decades, digital massing studies took over, which was great for the pros, but left a lot of experience people out of the process. For example, if a thoughtful designer with decades of experience wasn't an expert coder or software specialists, the best they could do was look at the screen and ask the "expert" to do something. The beauty of hands-on work is that anyone can grab a Pop-Tart box or a pencil tube, collaborate around a studio or conference room table, and just imagine the design. By pairing accessible, physical massing and collaboration with the power of Veras (using natural language prompts), we get the best of both worlds: a return to first practices, powered by Chaos Veras.
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More from the author → Emerson Read
