From Visualization to Anticipation and Realization

From winning a competition to realization, it sometimes feels like ages can pass. In some cases, it can really take a whole decade, which can be challenging for all project stakeholders: clients, architects, specialist planners, officials, etc. But from the moment an idea is born and brought to paper, it has one specific concern: To convince – even its creator – and if strong enough, it comes alive.

Brace yourselves, there are visualizations that can actually come to life sooner or later with almost keeping the promise they made. One of our examples could be the visualizations we made 2012 for Schneider & Schneider Architekten from Aarau for their competition win of the new “Kantonsspital Frauenfeld”:

Kantonsspital Frauenfeld © Nightnurse Images

The full completion of the project is planned for 2023, a tiny bit more than a decade later. The current construction progress looks almost like its virtual predecessor.

Kantonsspital Frauenfeld © Schneider & Schneider Architekten

However, there are visualizations, which fail because of some kind of resistance, e.g. like the Ozenanium in Basel that was not realized due to a referendum. Thus, just last year this ten-year-old challenge got backed into the water like the fall of Atlantis (sorry, we are simply visual storytellers). Taking years of architectural and visual work along with it.

” Voters in Basel have rejected a controversial project to build a giant aquarium complex for the local zoo – the largest attraction of its kind in land-locked Switzerland“.

We are still proud to have supported our customer Boltshauser Architekten over years with visuals. After all, we enjoy working with great architects and good architecture.

Ozenanium, Basel © Nightnurse Images

Truth be told, what all visualizations have in common is that they are showing “hey, look what there could be“, showing the potential of an idea – for an idea is a potential.

That is not to say that visualizations are a panacea or safety net for bad surprises, for there are more factors contributing to the success of a project (and between us, “success” is often a personal matter, right?). But what visuals do, is they offer possibilities to reveal the potential or even pitfalls of a project, and they help all project stakeholders to keep aware of these during the whole planning process.

How ideas finally turn out and come alive is always up to all the contributors within circumstances of needs, regulations, finances or other impacts. The images help to make see what there could be. They are an extension of the architects’ plans, another tool showing the content in all dimensions.

Every idea, whether in architecture, advertising, politics or even in our daily family discussions at the kitchen table, is presented with its potential. And every viewer and listener is able to form its own picture – that is a free choice.

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