Warr is a freelance designer and visualizer in Houston. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and has worked for Rogers Partners, Peterson Rich Office, Murray Legge Architecture, and REACH Architects, and has collaborated with many other firms. His work has received many awards, including three AIA Fort Worth Honor Awards, an AIA Austin Honor Award, and three UTSOA Design Excellence awards.
There has always been, and always will be, a discussion within the discipline of architecture that questions the style in which we render, but now more than ever we have to ask ourselves this question before committing to a drawing. With an ever-increasing range of technologies, tutorials, and programs available to us, how will we ever decide? For me, it has come down to two things: honesty and atmosphere. If an image is meant to speak about the future of the built environment, photorealism is clearly the most appropriate style to aspire to, due to its honest nature. Without flat, scaleless textures and overblown Photoshop lens flares to hide behind, what are we left with? We would hope that an image that makes the unbuilt environment and atmosphere become more immediate also allows greater conversations about the built environment to take place. My process begins with creating a highly detailed holistic 3-D model and environment for each project and site (primarily using Rhino, Grasshopper, V-Ray, and minimal Photoshop), followed by exploring the project to find real moments and compositions that tell the story of place by capturing atmosphere (e.g. light, texture, place — all real things that we will encounter in the finished project).
Instagram: @alex_warr