The Winners!
ONE IMAGE RENDER CHALLENGE 2023
First Prize Winners
Maged Elbanna
Egypt
Second Prize Winners
Reneah Joanna Fedelicio
U.S.
Reneah Joanna Fedelicio is a fourth-year undergraduate architecture major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with a minor in Creative Writing & Literature. She has prior experience as an architecture intern, private architectural tutor, and freelance architectural visualization artist. Currently studying abroad in Argentina for the spring semester, she is eager to explore various architectural and construction methodologies in Latin America.
Third Prize Winners
Yuxin MA
China
Yuxin Ma, also known as Candice. Currently pursuing a master's degree in MArch Architecture (RIBA Part 2) at Manchester School of Architecture (MSA), she completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China.
Yuxin is particularly attentive to the relationship between architecture and the cultural and historical context of sites. While this project marks her initial foray into using architecture to address environmental and social issues, she firmly believes that architecture and its context are inherently intertwined.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in architecture or related fields?
Hi everyone. I’m Yuxin Ma and you can call me Candice. I'm currently doing my master degree in MArch Archiecture (RIBA Part2) at Manchester School of Architecture (MSA), and I completed my undergraduate studies at University of Nottingham Ningbo China.
I am highly sensitive to the relationship between architecture and culture/history of the sites, but this project is my first attempt to express my desire to use architecture to “solve” environmental and social problems. Either way, I firmly believe that architecture and site are inseparable.
What rendering techniques and styles did you employ to create your architectural rendered image?
My rendering method and style is almost “Collage”. After completing the modelling task, only line drawing and shadow channel are exported using the modelling software (Rhino) and rendering software (Vray). All of the textures and materials are added by Photoshop.
How do you plan to ensure that viewers have a memorable and emotionally impactful experience through your rendered image?
I think drawings with a unique personal style will leave a deep impression on the viewers. From my personal experience, I would not be surprised if the drawing I have seen similar styles or has strong traces of imitation.
What were some of the major challenges you encountered during the rendering process, and how did you overcome them?
I think the biggest challenge is that it takes a lot of time and work to complete such a drawing. As I insisted on adding all the materials and textures in Photoshop rather than rendering, it resulted that each item's texture could not be copied due to the different orientation of them. Therefore, every object even the very small ones took me so much time to complete.
How do you believe your rendered image contributes to enhancing understanding of rendering techniques in architectural design?
I think there are more and more quick and easy rendering softwares and even AI can help us with rendering now. However, the more "backward" ways of rendering, such as Photoshop or hand-drawing, are more subtle and could show our personal styles better.
Special mention
Danniel Cho Valadao
Canada
Honorable mention
José Luis Pérez Hermo
Ayrton Laucks
Sotirios Ntzoufras
Yulun Liu & Dongqi Chen
José Luis Pérez Hermo
Spain
Ayrton Laucks
U.S.
Ayrton Laucks
Sotirios Ntzoufras
Greece
Sotirios Ntzoufras is an Architect and PhD candidate at the School of Architecture of the Technical University of Crete TUC(Greece) on the topic "Robotic Swarms in Architecture" and researcher at the Transformable Intelligent Environments(TIE) Lab TUC. He worked as a teaching assistant in the area of architectural technology, in the School’s fabrication laboratory and the TUC TIE Lab and he has been involved in numerous research projects in Greece and abroad. His research interests are in the areas of architectural and structural design, transformable intelligent environments, robotics and digital tools for Virtual Reality Environments. He has worked as a manager of the Public MakerSpace of Athens (TUC TIE Lab, Stavros Niarchos Foundation), and also collaborates as an associate in architectural firms in Athens. He has participated in the NASA workshop "Extra Terrestrial Habitats on Mars" (University of Houston, TUC TIE Lab) and has organized 4 conferences and 10 seminars as part of the Makerspace of Athens project. For his studies at the Technical University of Crete, he has received a scholarship of excellence and a PhD scholarship. He has 13 publications in scientific conferences and journals, 4 awards in architecture and education (Award for Diploma Thesis 2018, Education Leaders Awards Gold 2018 and 2019, Bronze Award at International Design Awards 2020), 1 honorable prize and 2 shortlisted awards in international architecture competitions, 6 participations in architectural and art exhibitions.
Yulun Liu & Dongqi Chen
U.S.
