CGI for Residential Projects

Every residential project starts with a different problem.

Sometimes the problem is a planning officer who can’t visualise an unconventional design from drawings alone. Sometimes it’s a self-builder who needs to see their future home before committing to it. Sometimes it’s a design team still working through options and needing a massing model to test them against.

The CGI has to solve whichever of those problems it’s actually facing. That’s what determines how we approach it.

Planning applications

Most of our residential work ends up in a planning submission of some kind. That changes what the image has to do. It’s not just illustrative. It has to make a case to a planning officer, a design review panel, or in some situations, a committee.

We’ve been producing photomontages for planning submissions for over thirty years, including some of the larger and more scrutinised submissions in London. We understand what a verified view requires, and we understand the difference between an image that supports an application and one that just accompanies it.

For sensitive or contentious sites, paragraph 84 dwellings, AONB applications, and anything likely to face public consultation, getting the methodology right matters as much as getting the image right.

Design evolution

Some clients come to us before the drawings are finished. That’s not a problem. In fact, it’s often where we’re most useful.

A massing model early in the design process can resolve questions that would otherwise stay open until much later. We’re good at working from incomplete information, and the earlier we’re involved, the more the imagery can do. We’ve written about how early involvement tends to work in practice if you’d like to know more.

Self-builders

Trying to explain an unconventional design to a planning officer is one thing. Explaining it to a partner, a family, or a bank is another.

We’ve worked with a lot of self-builders over the years. We know how to make a design legible to someone who isn’t used to reading drawings, and we know how to do it in a way that holds up when the same image ends up in a planning submission.

Off-plan sales and marketing

When a project reaches the marketing stage, the brief changes again. We can produce photorealistic renders for off-plan sales, developer marketing, and property promotion. The technical process is the same. The creative intent is different.