Rendering Real and Imagined Buildings:
The Art of Computer Modeling fromthe Palace of Kublai Khan to Le Corbusier's Villas,
Rockport Publishers,1998, ISBN 1-56496-497-3. $50 hardcover, with CD-ROM.
B. J. Novitski, Author
961 Taylor St., Eugene, OR 97402
Phone: (541) 343-7177
Fax: (541) 344-4152
e-mail: bjn@efn.org
It has been nearly 50 years since anyone has walked through Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Building. This architectural masterpiece was tragically demolished before its historic value was widely appreciated. In the decades since its destruction, anyone intent on studying Wright's famous attention to detail and ingenious sculpting of this space had to make do with fuzzy black-and-white photographs or incomplete drawings.
But now it is again possible to experience the Larkin Building and also the Anasazi Indians' Great Kiva that once existed in New Mexico and the ancient city of Cairo. In "Rendering Real and Imagined Buildings" architectural journalist B. J. Novitski describes dozens of architectural treasures that now exist thanks to computer modeling technologies. Recreated digital buildings come alive in color and elaborate detail. Now anyone can enjoy the experience of walking through some of the most famous-once lost-buildings in human history. Learn what it was like to be in those spaces, and imagine what it must have felt like for our ancestors to have inhabited them.
"Rendering Real and Imagined Buildings" also brings to life buildings that never were. Famous architects like Italy's Antonio Sant'Elia, Russia's Iakov Chernikhov, and France's Le Corbusier designed buildings that were never constructed. Now, through electronic models, we can see what might have been added to the collection of world-famous architecture. We also glimpse the fantasy designs of today's architecture students who are stretching technology and their imaginations to show us what Norse mythology's Valhalla might look like, or Isaac Asimov's Planet Trantor. And the latest field of architecture-the design of cyberspace-offers examples of how the World Wide Web will appear as it becomes a more common "place" for us to work and play.
"Rendering Real and Imagined Buildings" also includes a CD-ROM that "walks" you through many of these spaces through the technologies of QuickTime VR and animations.
The book elegantly showcases more than two dozen significant architectural visualization projects with zillions of color images, extensive text telling the stories behind the images, and a CD-ROM with images, QuickTime VR navigable movies, and more.
This book is great as a reference or as a gift. Be sure not to miss the chapter on a "Library for the Twenty-First Century : High-Tech Media in a Small-Town Setting", which highlights a forward-looking design project by well-known DesignWorkshop user and RenderCity! member Ross Leventhal. "Rendering Real and Imagined Buildings" is available now at Amazon.com with shipping in 24 hours and a 30% discount!
Review by Prof Langdon :
Rendering Real and Imagined Buildings : The Art of Computer Modeling from the Palace of Kublai Khan to Le Corbusier's Villas by B.J. Novitski
with a forward by William J. Mitchell
This new book and CD by B.J. Novitski, with some 400 color illustrations and large format initially looks like a great coffee table book, and, in my initial cursory glances at it from time to time, that is how I regarded it. It also, quite decidedly, is not any kind of how-to book on 3D architectural modeling or rendering. In fact, virtually none of the process of how the models, the images, or even the architecture is actually created is covered. However, after I started to really get into it - to read Bill Mitchell's intriguing points about the accurate depiction of imaginary and lost worlds, and perusing the virtual "Museum Gallery" on the CD - I realized that my first impressions were missing a great deal of the experience that this wonderful book offers.
Essentially it is an interesting look at what is going on around the world at the cutting edge of architectural CADD rendering, and is inspiring about showing us the current work of architects working in tandem with archeologists and historical researchers, to show us buildings that have been lost, or never were. Additionally, the book/CD experience shows us some buildings which never could be, as they exist only in imagination, such as the Norse Asgard heaven, FLW's mile high city, and several student projects.
I very much liked the fact that every single illustrated project also tells you what software was used to model and render that project. It is also interesting that such a tremendous variety of software has been used for the various projects, from FormZ, and GDS, to 3D Studio, ArchiCAD, Electric Image, and even PowerCADD and MegaModel, and many more. However, it is difficult to use the book to help evaluate the various modelers/renderers since we see in the book only the final end products - all of which look similarly great - with no indication of how much time or effort is required to generate them. Since the vast majority of the illustrated projects are student semester projects, or ongoing long term anthropological works, we can infer in any case that the resulting images and animations took a great deal of time and work.
The CD for Mac/Windows that comes with the book includes walk-throughs, animations, and photo-panoramas that you can explore at will, all organized in what feels like walking around a gallery where you can approach what looks like a painting on the wall, touch it and jump into an animation of that world complete with appropriate music.
It is definitely more of an "experience" than just reading a book, in fact the appropriate sound and music for each environment at times even gave me chills, particularly in the ancient Anasasi kiva and the halls of Valhalla. The ability to "walk" around no longer existing buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright and other greats is a thrill for any architect.
This book and CD is a great tool to help get people excited about the field of architecture as spacial experience, and I believe sets a new standard of what will be a whole new genre of architectural books to come. ------- review by Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA
Available from :
Rendering Real and Imagined Buildings : The Art of Computer Modeling
B. J. Novitski, William Mitchell / Hardcover / Published 1999
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