CZWG Architects is an architectural design practice based in London, UK. Working primarily in the residential sector, they are known for their characterful and high-quality architecture.
Eion Curtis, Director of BIM, Technology, and Quality Assurance, tells how Enscape’s ease of use and simplicity have made it the practice’s real-time visualization tool of choice since 2018. He also shares two projects where the CZWG team used Enscape.
Improving visual output with real-time visualization
The CZWG team has been using Enscape since Eion discovered it at a small-scale industry event where it was being presented back in 2017. Before Enscape was introduced, Eion shares how there was a big void between what the design architects worked on and what the visualizers worked on.
“We found the workflow between the design architects and the dedicated visualizers painfully slow. The design architects would do all their work in Revit and export it, and the visualizers had to apply the materials again and do the lighting again before they could render it.”
Adding Enscape to their toolkit has filled that void and has allowed them to work more efficiently and increase the volume of renderings produced in a shorter time span.
“The thing that struck us initially was the simplicity of Enscape. It has allowed us to dramatically improve our visual output as it lets us produce compelling images for our massing and feasibility studies in a very short amount of time. That's the beauty of it.”
Dispelling skepticism with real-life perspectives
In 2021, CZWG was involved in the Free Wharf project in Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex. It involved 540 apartments, 2,774m² commercial accommodation, a 500-vehicle basement car park, and an extensive public realm integrated into new flood defenses with a riverside walk and cycleway.
To visualize the model and get planning permission, the CZWG team used Enscape. The plugin’s enhanced visualization capabilities allowed the team to create rich project imagery rapidly, both static and moving, and show several different viewpoints of the fully rendered model.
“There were concerns amongst planners and local resident groups about whether the buildings were too tall and if you could see them from the other side of the river. We used Enscape to offer a real-life perspective on what could be seen and what could not,” explains Eion.
“We used the standalone executable file feature to take our visualizations to external design meetings where we ‘flew around and walked down the road,’ showing all the viewpoints. This was valuable as it dispelled any skepticism the planners might have had. We could take them to any specific location and demonstrate views of the building from there."
Creating engaging presentations quickly
Another project where Enscape was used was in Oaklands Rise. It's one of the UK’s most significant regeneration projects, a joint venture with the London football club, Queens Park Rangers, and Vistry Partnerships to build new homes and develop new communities.
The project was situated in North-West London and comprised 605 apartments and 3,500m² of mixed-use commercial and office space. The project was the first building to be completed within the wider Old Oak Common and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) masterplan.
Enscape assets were used to populate the scenes, and the CZWG team was able to create convincing renderings quickly enough to meet the project's requirements.
“We could spend weeks perfecting our images, but often the demands of a project mean that we don’t have weeks,” explains Eion. “Using the Enscape assets made such a difference as it enabled our design presentations to be realistic and engaging. We created quick videos and used them throughout the whole design process.”
