The competition was organized by the ICube company, which is actively involved in architectural visualization in addition to architectural and design design. The organizers explain their initiative as follows: there is not a single university in Russia where they specifically taught architectural rendering, and therefore they decided to fill the gap by organizing a competition in which visualizers not only from Russia but also from neighboring countries take part. This year more than two thousand authors took part in the competition.
This competition is undoubtedly youthful, pragmatic and IT-shny. As a rule, young architects are engaged in professional visualizations; in many studios there is even a special vacancy - a visualizer. Note, however, that architects make some renders for internal use - some consider them auxiliary, some especially stylish, while other pictures are intended for clients - brighter, more subtly detailed and naturalistic. These latter are often ordered by special companies consisting of visualization architects; it is also a kind of market adjacent to architectural practice, it has its own leaders, its own rules, and now - its own award-award, which has existed for several years. The presence and popularity of this award (after all, 2,000 applications!) Suggests that we are facing a form of professional activity that is nowadays absolutely necessary for the successful presentation of architecture, and therefore for its existence on the market.
The competition has its own rather unusual evaluation system. To begin with, all works are sent to the organizers' website, and then during the year, monthly from September to September, the jury chooses five best works in two nominations "Best Interior of the Month" and "Best Exterior of the Month", from which it chooses one winner. At the end of the year, among all the finalist works, and there are 120 of them (12x5x2), the jury chooses the winners of the year in three nominations - the same "Interior", "Exterior" and "Best Architectural Animation". Next year, the organizers promised to add more nominations, but they have not yet said which ones.
So, on November 24, after a long rewarding of the well-known winners of the month, the main intrigue of the evening was finally revealed - the three winners in three nominations. The first place for the visualization of the facades was won by the multiple monthly winner Sergei Ladeyshchikov from Alma-Ata for the work "Almost Columbia!" The second and third places in this nomination were taken respectively - Alexander Kadrilyov and Vitaly Morvanyuk. As you might have guessed from the works shown during the awarding ceremony, the main thing that was encouraged here was the maximum realism of the image and the clarity of architectural details, and even better that the building was placed in difficult weather conditions - for example, in twilight, or in sunny weather, but covered with a shadow from trees.
Dmitry Golikov from Moscow, who painted the Beer Restaurant, won the Best Interior nomination. And the second and third places were taken by Omar Diasamidze and, again, Igor Ladeyshchikov. In this nomination, in fact, the same criteria operated, to which you can add the audience's special love for the finely traced details of antique wooden furniture.
The first and third places for the "Best Architectural Animation" were won by one and, moreover, already well-known author - Vitaly Morvanyuk. The second place went to Inkom-Nedvizhimost Corporation.
It turns out that even with so many finalists during the year, the annual prizes were handed out to the same authors with a voice from the people. Although here, as is often the case with on-line voting, one can admit a certain degree of influence of the “friends' voices”. However, it should be noted that almost all prizes were also awarded by a professional jury, who allocated them in the monthly selection.
But what is interesting is that we are facing a competition, of course, applied. It is awarded for texture, detail, or, in extreme cases, for understanding the aerial perspective. However, young visualizers are also architects. To draw something beautiful, you must first come up with something beautiful, unless of course you are working on the order of a senior colleague. Life shows that often young visualizers draw their own architecture, architecture grows through the applied specialty, enriched with all the necessary computer knowledge. Therefore, the Russian Architectural Rendering Award, in addition to its main functions, can become an occasion for reflection on what is needed from architecture for a generation of rendering masters. What examples do they choose to demonstrate their skills. However, it is still too early for conclusions here - many of the works shown are more drawn to a very nice Christmas picture with tiles, apples and other things than to the creative preferences of the architects.
