NVIDA STUDIO - technology at the service of creativity
Computers have been accompanying us for several decades. From the very beginning, we had a clearly marked division between high-performance huge units used in industry and science and home microcomputers. In the 1980s, boxes housing faster and faster components appeared on our desks, but they still never offered enough power to realize advanced graphics projects with their help. The rapid development of technology has resulted in a radical increase in performance, and we are now dealing with solutions that allow us to realize even real-time ray tracing on home computers. The pioneers in this field are devices equipped with RTX graphics cards from NVIDIA, which are part of the Studio platform designed for wide-ranging creators.
NVIDIA Studio - powerful creativity
NVIDIA Studio is both the hardware and the software that uses it. It's techniques that make creative work easier and more efficient, helping creators realize their unique visions. Its components include Quadro RTX and GeForce RTX graphics cards in laptops and desktops that accelerate content creation, as well as dedicated Studio drivers that ensure the highest performance and stability of creative applications.
The architectural profession used to be associated mainly with a drawing board, which these days is most often replaced by a computer screen. The finished building is a component of many hours of discussing the idea, arranging the space in terms of the investor's requirements, planning the functionality of individual rooms or discussing details related to the external appearance. And this is where computers equipped with powerful graphics cards come to the rescue, accelerating key applications used for architectural visualizations.
Renata Majchrzak of architecture firm Majchrzak Pracownia Projektowa answers our questions about home design.
Majchrzak Pracownia Projektowa project made with NVIDIA STUDIO technology
© Majchrzak Pracownia Projektowa | NVIDIA
How long have you been designing buildings and what do you specialize in?
We have been operating since 1995, and the current shape of the studio is the result of 11 years of work and a process of reorganization and searching for its place in the architectural market. Previous experience gained from working with developers, companies and experience gained from creating various buildings directed our interest to the difficult subject of single-family residential buildings.
Which projects are the most challenging for an architect?
The difficulty and complexity of residential projects is mainly due to social experience and, unfortunately, the lack of architectural education from an early age. The experience of the housing conditions that we as a society have brought with us over the past decades has for many years shaped residential architecture based on the principle of housing hunger, the consequence of which is the absorption of more and less successful realizations by the market and the emergence of the so-called pat-development, which illustrates the quality of some projects in an extremely crude way. This subject was perfectly captured and described by the highly regarded Filip Springer in his book "13 floors", which in my opinion should be a must-read!
On the other side are precisely the architects with their critical thinking skills, emotional intelligence and creativity, which, combined with communication skills, translate the investor's vision into an actual object. Communication in our profession plays one of the most important roles outside of business. Business, not only in terms of making money from architecture, is closely linked to architecture, and its condition directly affects the state of architecture and the quality of architects' work. Communication, on the other hand, is the main skill that determines, apart from the portfolio of course, the possibility of establishing cooperation with a given investor, finding a common language and continuing it on a professional basis.
To all these qualities should be added responsibility, without which an architect can become a bad thing not only for the investor but, above all, for the environment. Responsibility is the factor that determines that the architect is not only a recipient of services fulfilling all the wishes of investors, but is also the creator also of the space in which he designs.
Here it is worth mentioning the story of Castle Ward Palace in Northern Ireland, which was built for Earl Bernard Ward and his wife Lady Anne Bligh. Both were lovers of architecture, but each of a different style. At the design stage, they were unable to communicate. The architect found a way out of this by designing the palace in two styles: the front in classical style, the back in Gothic. This division also applied to the interiors. An extreme example, but quite vividly shows the role of the architect's responsibility in shaping the space and the scale of the problems we sometimes have to face.
Majchrzak Pracownia Projektowa project made with NVIDIA STUDIO technology.
© Majchrzak Pracownia Projektowa | NVIDIA
In your case, how much does it usually take to prepare a custom house design?
All the elements mentioned earlier contributed to the choice of this profession and the nature of our work. At this stage of the business, we create single-family houses that are universal in terms of exterior design and do not break the space in which they are built. Houses that are also versatile on the inside by limiting the structural elements that prevent them from being freely modified for the changing reality of their inhabitants over the years.
When working on projects, the initial stage is mainly devoted to communication, exchange of insights about the plans and the plot. This is followed by the concept work stage, which sometimes lasts a month as in the case of a recent house project for investors planning a large family. But there are also projects in which the process of developing the concept takes many months, during which time it is modified several times and the needs are adjusted for the changing situation. Sometimes the reason is due to the imposition of a surface or financial framework for an extensive functional program.
What new trends can we observe in contemporary functional architecture?
The last two years of pandemonium have changed the approach to home design and modified the concept of the study, which was previously intended to be both a guest room. Now, in our designs, it is a separate single-purpose room for remote work. The changes are not only in the functional aspects. The real effects of the pandemic will probably be seen in a few years. Currently, more attention is being paid to environmental issues, green home design and the carbon footprint they leave. This is a topic, addressed at the design stage, and slowly but effectively design solutions are being introduced into the documentation. On the other hand, builders are increasingly striving to ensure the energy self-sufficiency of their homes to ensure their safety in case of possible global problems.
The environment, or rather its condition, will have a decisive influence on the state of architecture in the future and the form of designed buildings. Most likely, with the use of new materials, of which I suspect modern aluminum will be the structural basis, we will begin to pile up while reducing the square meters of our homes. We will begin to occupy water surfaces, building floating houses, at the same time the houses will be as transparent as possible. And I don't mean glass, but rather a new smart material that will be both translucent and yielding. We have a lot of problems to solve, we have neglected the environment and at the present time it is necessary to take action to save it and, as a result, ourselves.
Majchrzak Pracownia Projektowa design made with NVIDIA STUDIO technology.
© Majchrzak Pracownia Projektowa | NVIDIA
What computers do you use in your studio?
In our daily work we use laptops almost exclusively. The main unit for working in Blender is an MSI Creator 15 stocked with a GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card. In other computers we also have GeForce cards, used both for rendering and for working in the AutoCAD environment.
Thank you for the interview.
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