Last autumn we were very lucky to do a 3D visualization for the concept of spa-hotel in sunny Crete while it was already rainy and dank in Moscow. We were entrusted with this project by international company “MIRUM”.

Although we didn’t get a chance to fly to Crete, we discovered its territory using Google Earth.

The client repeatedly insisted on a very reliable image of this part of Crete: bright sun, minimal wind blows, whitened rocks with grey-pink shades, olive trees, pink and white wisteria, deep blue sky and bright turquoise water. According to the idea, the territory should turn into a huge recreation complex with cascades of pools, glass structures and good modern architecture.

Interestingly, despite the craving for the sun, people often prefer to enjoy it from the shade (which is really much more comfortable and safer), and many renders are arranged so that the viewer is under the awning.

The complex was designed by Sergei Nepomnyashchy, the chief architect of the Institute of Heliotexture. The whole project is designed in accordance with the main principles of heliotexture:

- natural panoramic view from the window

- the location "window to window" is excluded

- spacious accommodation with natural light, lots of surrounding greenery

- effective use of land, work with relief

- energy-efficient materials and forms of architecture

The basis of construction according to the principles of heliotexture is the idea that every apartment should have the opportunity to enjoy nature in solitude.

In this project we used a 3D model of wisteria (fluffy rose bushes) from the resource ”Turbosquid”. This is a huge international base of chargeable 3D models, which are used by all professional visualizers. Often buying a ready-made model is cheaper than wasting time on it yourself. The site has very good and fast service, and it is possible to return money if the 3D model does not match the declared quality.

The customer provided us with a 3D model of the territory, so that the relief on the visualizations was as close to reality as possible. We got a lot of photos of the area for the color correction of the final renderings, so that visualization was very contrasting. We also worked with a large number of references and examples of similar hotels.

For the project, we used Megascan rocks and stones. If you haven’t used the capabilities of these guys for visualizations yet, you've missed a lot. Megascan from the company Quixel gathered a huge database of textures and models of the surroundings. They used special 3D scanners to transfer textures in high resolution from the original to the 3D model. Now we (like everyone else) use it with pleasure. But it is always worth remembering that the surroundings should not be the main detail of architectural visualization. And what should be? That's right, architecture.

We set the sun at the geographical point and the specific time of the year on the renders. For the background, we downloaded the low-poly 3D model of the mountains from Google Earth so that surroundings look as accurate as possible.

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Visualizations made by:

Rostislav Nikolaev

Evgeny Gusmanov

Anna Leksina

Customer: "MIRUM" company

Architect: Sergei Nepomnyashchy