The Winners!
INFINITE REALITIES 2024
First Prize Winners
Gokhan Bunsuz
U.K.
Gokhan Bunsuz is a professional CGI artist with 15 years of experience in architectural visualization. He began his career in Turkey as a 3ds Max instructor, laying the foundation for his expertise in 3D modeling and rendering. After completing his undergraduate studies in architecture, he pursued a master’s degree in computer-aided architectural design, which further refined his skills in digital visualization and design.
Currently based in the United Kingdom, Gokhan continues to contribute to large-scale projects, expanding his professional portfolio. Over the years, he has mastered advanced software tools like 3ds Max, Corona-Vray Render, and Unreal Engine, creating visually striking and realistic architectural renderings.
Passionate about his work, Gokhan finds joy and fulfillment in each project he undertakes. His approach combines a meticulous attention to detail with a commitment to delivering technically and artistically superior results. Additionally, he has a strong interest in sustainable architectural design and innovative visualization techniques, incorporating these elements into his projects to push the boundaries of creativity and technology.
Introduction
My name is Gokhan Bunsuz, and I am an architect and CGI artist with over 15 years of professional experience. I completed my master’s degree in architecture with a focus on digital design and visualization. Throughout my career, I have specialized in creating photorealistic renders that combine technical precision with artistic storytelling. My work aims to push the boundaries of architectural representation, not just visualizing structures but also crafting immersive narratives.
Participating in the "Infinite Realities - Rendering Challenge" was an opportunity to challenge my creative and technical limits further. The competition’s emphasis on innovation and storytelling strongly resonated with my professional values, inspiring me to break conventional molds in architectural visualization.
Design Concept
My project, titled "Infinite Realities," consists of three visuals exploring the coexistence of alternate dimensions, nature, and digital elements. These visuals reflect the fluidity of reality and the interplay between physical and virtual realms:
Each visual features floating landscapes, inverted buildings, cascading waterfalls, and digital animal figures. The waterfalls symbolize the continuity of life, while the digital animals highlight the persistence of natural elements in a digitized world. One visual portrays a figure observing the scene from a tree branch, symbolizing humanity’s curiosity and exploration of alternate realities. Another visual showcases a yoga practitioner inside an inverted building, gazing at a forest, representing the balance between digital complexity and the human longing for simplicity and connection with nature.
This series invites viewers to rethink conventional boundaries and embrace the infinite possibilities within architecture and visualization.
Visualization Innovation
In this project, I aimed to redefine architectural visualization by blending technical realism with surrealism. Inverted perspectives, floating landmasses, and digital animal figures challenged traditional ideas of spatial perception and material representation. Advanced rendering techniques, such as detailed material mapping and dynamic lighting setups, allowed me to craft a narrative that feels both otherworldly and grounded.
Innovation was also evident in the storytelling approach. Each scene builds upon the previous one, creating a continuous narrative that emotionally and intellectually engages the viewer. This layered approach transforms architectural visualization into an artistic exploration, pushing the boundaries of rendering.
Storytelling Impact
"Infinite Realities" is rooted in the exploration of alternate dimensions and the coexistence of natural and digital worlds. The three visuals are designed to evoke specific emotions and thoughts:
• The waterfalls and inverted buildings offer a surreal yet captivating aesthetic that inspires awe and curiosity.
• A human figure observing inverted buildings encourages introspection, symbolizing the journey of understanding and exploration.
• The yoga practitioner inside an inverted building represents the quest for tranquility and balance amidst complexity.
These visuals captivate viewers and invite them to question perceptions of reality and the potential of architectural design. Each element emphasizes the emotional and artistic power of visualization.
Creative Process
The "Infinite Realities" project began with the concept of merging inverted buildings and natural elements into a cohesive narrative. I started by defining the emotional and thematic goals for the visuals, sketching rough drafts to outline the overall composition and dynamics of floating landscapes, waterfalls, and digital animal figures.
In the initial stages, I used 3ds Max to model the structures in detail, focusing on ensuring harmony between the inverted buildings and natural elements. Next, I worked in Corona Render, refining the lighting and shadows to create an atmosphere that felt both realistic and surreal.
Post-production in Photoshop involved adding final touches such as colors and atmospheric effects to enhance the narrative and visual coherence. Each step of the process underwent multiple iterations to balance technical precision with artistic storytelling. The final project reflects a seamless integration of technical and narrative excellence.
Technical Excellence
The project was created using 3ds Max for modeling and Corona Renderer for rendering, both of which played a crucial role in achieving a high level of detail and realism. Key techniques included:
• Material Mapping: Advanced texturing techniques ensured materials like stone and water appeared authentic and visually engaging.
• Lighting Design: Dynamic lighting setups highlighted the interplay between natural and digital elements, creating depth and mood.
• Post-Production: Photoshop was used for final enhancements, including color grading, atmospheric effects, and subtle details.
These tools and techniques allowed me to create visuals that are technically precise and emotionally engaging.
Inspirations and Challenges
Nature is a constant source of inspiration in my work, particularly its ability to evoke emotion and tell stories through forms, textures, and colors. Additionally, visionary architects like Zaha Hadid and surrealist painters such as René Magritte influence my approach, blending imagination with technical precision.
Balancing surreal elements with technical realism was a major challenge. Ensuring that inverted buildings and digital figures felt cohesive within the scenes required meticulous adjustments to textures, lighting, and composition. Crafting a seamless narrative across three visuals was another challenge, which I addressed by focusing on strong conceptual connections and ensuring each visual complemented the others both visually and thematically.
Reflections on Winning
Winning this competition is a testament to the countless hours of dedication and creativity invested in the project. It is incredibly rewarding to have my work recognized on such a global stage. This recognition reinforces my passion for exploring the boundaries of rendering and motivates me to continue pushing the limits of architectural visualization.
Second Prize Winners
Allen Porras
Philippines
Third Prize Winners
Wasif Ajwad, Razin Sachi & Salma Sadia
Bangladesh
Wasif Ajwad
B. Arch Student, Level 4, Term 2, BUET
A Graphic Designer turned Architecture student, Wasif blends design, psychology, and history to create functional, meaningful spaces. Specializing in architectural visualization and 3D modeling, he combines creative storytelling with technical precision.
Razin Sachi
B. Arch Student, Level 4, Term 2, BUET
Razin focuses on designing spaces that prioritize people, culture, and sustainability while respecting historical context. He is passionate about architectural history, environmental sustainability, and urban planning.
Salma Sadia
B. Arch Student, Level 3, Term 2, BUET
Salma is a design enthusiast exploring themes through research and evidence. Passionate about architectural visualization, 3D art, and storytelling, she merges creativity and compassion to create visual narratives that connect with both people and nature.
Introduction
We’re three design enthusiasts currently pursuing our undergrad Architecture degree at university, all while seeking opportunities to flourish in visualization and creative exploration. While we come from the same department, we each hold different philosophies as independent individuals, which, interestingly enough, complement each other. As for our background in architectural visualization, we’ve been diving into this field since our freshman year, both academically and personally, even taking on professional visualization jobs.
Design Concept
The Citadel of Memorabilia is a conceptual interpretation of how we view our lives through the window of memories. Our goal was to capture the depth of emotions and feelings in architectural renderings, communicating these emotions in a vivid, tangible form. How we perceive our memories defines the emotions we carry with them, adding meaning and depth that we cherish in our hearts. The challenge was figuring out how to depict how we store and picture these memories in a way that truly provokes thought. So, we went with transparent blocks as the memory holders, with colors representing the emotions tied to each memory. By drawing incidents around the main character (whom we lovingly named Elma), we took her on a journey through the complexities of emotions.
Visualization Innovation
Conventional architectural renderings typically focus on depicting spaces in their truest forms. But as we delved deeper into our theme, we realized we wanted to challenge that idea. Spaces can be abstract too. So, we opted for transparent renderings, layering and superimposing them to capture the complexity and depth of various spaces. Instead of building from the outside in, we decided to create spaces from the inside out, adding elements and layers to inject dynamism into the otherwise static forms. A lot of trial and error went into finding the right angles, spatial arrangements, and processes to truly bring our vision to life.
Storytelling Impact
Our goal was to explore a journey of emotion in an imaginary space, rather than the 3D world we encounter daily. We sketched out what this imaginary space might look like, resulting in the tower of memory blocks stacking on one another. Each block holds a memory, and as the main character recalls something significant, the memory is drawn and filled with an emotion—whether happy, sad, angry, enthusiastic, or romantic. Each emotion is represented by a color, which fills the transparent memory block and forms the backdrop for the incident. In this way, emotions move from intangible to tangible.
Storytelling Impact
We kicked things off with a brainstorming session, throwing out every idea we could think of and intertwining them all. The cool part? We're all visual geeks, so the ideation phase was seriously engaging. Each of us picked up references from movies, books, and series. We wrote everything down, then sketched and overlapped the ideas to see what worked best. For the rendering session, we set up the basic scene, blocking out the composition, and assigning color codes. A lot of trial and error went into this, but eventually, we landed on an angle and lighting that worked for all of us. After that, we focused on layering and adding elements to complete the scene. We worked back and forth until we finally got it right, just like we’d envisioned.
Technical Excellence
We used a variety of software to pull it all together. The base render, including all modeling, lighting, and material setup, was done in Blender, using the Cycles render engine. From there, we took it into Photoshop to go wild with layering and compilation. To speed up the process and maintain consistency, we created multiple base renders in Blender with different material properties. The character-based illustration was key to telling the story, but since the theme was abstract, we wanted the character to have a personal touch. This is where the artistic style came into play, tying everything together. The illustrations were drawn in Photoshop, with careful layering and rendering effects to complete the vision.
Inspirations and Challenges
To be honest, the inspiration came from a mix of fascinating ideas and themes we’ve all studied. The initial spark came from a conversation about the abstraction of emotion, which led us to explore both familiar and fresh concepts. From fangirling over M.C. Escher’s work to geeking out over the Droste effect, Chinese Box effect, memory looping, and time looping (shoutout to Nolan’s movies!), we bounced around with ideas and connected them all while staying true to the core concept: memories reshape and melt into one another, creating a unique experience each time we remember them. It’s a deeply personal point of view we all agreed on, reflecting our individuality.
The real challenge, though, was managing time. With the competition running alongside a heavy academic semester and multiple projects, things were hectic. On top of that, we’re from different semesters, making it even trickier with our varying routines and schedules. To manage this, we broke the work into chunks, dividing tasks based on our skillsets. Of course, we couldn’t pull it off perfectly (because, well, architecture is all about juggling and re-juggling plans!), but this approach worked wonders. We trusted each other completely, knowing we could count on every teammate to handle their part. Solid teamwork and continuous engagement made all the difference!
Reflections on Winning
Winning this competition is honestly so inspiring and a sweet addition to our own Citadels of Memorabilia! We were completely caught off guard and so happy about the recognition. This achievement means a lot to us, and we really appreciate the jury's comments on our work—it’s definitely fueling our drive to do even more in the future. As fellow architectural visualizers and architecture aspirants, this win gives a solid boost to our rendering skills, and we’re all about pushing ourselves to be better. Here’s to hoping for even bigger and better things ahead!
Special mention
Honorable mention
Hyeonguk Jeon, Soyun Park & Inseo Cho
Kacper Klaus, Paulina Kapica & Karolina Trocińska
Jaehyun Chae
Hyeonguk Jeon, Soyun Park & Inseo Cho
South Korea
Hyeonguk Jeon:
Hyeonguk Jeon has been studying architecture for almost 6 to 7 years and is still exploring the best ways to create ideal cities and architectural environments.
Soyun Park:
Soyun Park is currently pursuing a master's degree in Urban Design at Seoul National University. She has been studying architecture and urbanism for 7 years, beginning in 2017, and has a particular interest in urban regeneration and site planning.
Inseo Cho:
Inseo Cho is a master's student majoring in Urban Design at Seoul National University. They have a strong interest in future cities and architectural modules, and enjoy designing across various scales, including urban spaces, architecture, and exhibition spaces.
Kacper Klaus, Paulina Kapica & Karolina Trocińska
Poland
Kacper Klaus is an architecture student from Wrocław, passionate about creating context-driven designs. He focuses on passive building design and climate adaptation, gaining experience through international competitions and practical work in an architectural office.
Paulina Kapica, an architecture student at Wrocław University of Science and Technology, is dedicated to creating accessible, sustainable spaces. She emphasizes sensitivity and functional customization, with interests in graphic design and photography to enhance her architectural work.
Karolina Trocińska, an architecture student at Wrocław University of Science and Technology, works as a junior architectural assistant. She specializes in parametric design, innovative technologies, and deconstructivism, blending aesthetics and functionality. She is also passionate about art, travel, and brewing coffee.
Jaehyun Chae
South Korea
4th Year, Spatial Design Major, Sangmyung University
