Projects using D5 Render
Explore 28 projects designed with D5 Render.
This place can be described as a quiet, multi-faith meditation and retreat centre nestled into the Himalayan foothills, where the architecture feels like it has grown naturally out of the landscape rather than being imposed on it. Overall character The centre is designed around stillness, contemplation and connection with nature. It is not a conventional religious institution belonging to one faith. Instead, it creates a shared spiritual environment where people of different beliefs, or no particular belief, can come to meditate, reflect, pray or simply disconnect. Architecture The buildings are low-rise clusters of stone, timber and earth plaster, stepping gently along the natural contours of the hillside. Sloping slate roofs, deep timber verandahs, stone retaining walls and courtyards give the centre a strong Himalayan vernacular character. Rather than one large building, the centre is made up of smaller pavilions connected through covered walkways, gardens and courtyards. This makes the journey through the site part of the experience. Sacred spaces At the heart is a quiet central meditation hall, with a simple circular or octagonal geometry and a timber roof structure. Natural light enters from above, creating a changing connection with the sky throughout the day. The interior avoids prescribing a particular religion. Instead of a single deity or icon, the space can incorporate abstract symbols and elements representing different traditions, while leaving enough visual emptiness for individual interpretation. Landscape Nature is treated almost as another architectural element. Stone paths follow the slope, passing through dense Himalayan vegetation, flowering gardens, small streams and waterfalls. Water is deliberately incorporated into the experience, creating a continuous background sound. Large existing trees become gathering and meditation points rather than being cleared for construction. Experience The centre is intended to feel progressively quieter as one moves inward: Road → entrance → courtyard → garden paths → meditation spaces → landscape terraces The transition from the outside world to the inner spaces is gradual. Covered verandahs, filtered views, changing light, the sound of water and framed mountain vistas create moments of pause throughout the journey. Material palette Local rough stone for walls and foundations Timber for columns, beams, screens and ceilings Slate for pitched roofs Warm earth/lime plaster Hand-finished metal details in brass or copper Natural cotton, wool and woven textiles Stone paving and locally sourced landscape materials The result should feel timeless, grounded and slightly imperfect, rather than polished like a luxury resort. The luxury, if any, comes from the setting, silence, craftsmanship and views. Humans have finally managed to build somewhere where the mountain gets to be the impressive part. 🌿⛰️
A poignant architectural tribute to national heroes, the National War Memorial stands as a symbol of honor and remembrance, commemorating the sacrifices of our brave soldiers. The National War Memorial is an architectural masterpiece that encapsulates the essence of sacrifice and honor. The form of the memorial is defined by solemn geometric lines, creating a sense of reverence. Architectural elements such as the placement of statues, walls, and water features contribute to the overall form, creating a space for reflection and remembrance. Lighting design plays a crucial role in accentuating the sculptural elements and creating a contemplative ambiance. The interplay of materials, including stone and bronze, adds to the memorial's form, making it a poignant architectural landmark that pays homage to the nation's heroes.
The Guangzhou Opera House is a "double pebble" structure washed away by the Pearl River, designed by Zaha Hadid. The complex features a custom molded glass-fiber reinforced gypsum (GFRC) interior that allows for continuous, fluid surfaces. The main 1,800-seat auditorium is asymmetrical to optimize acoustics and views, utilizing the latest sound technology within its organic form. It is considered a monument to the new millennium in China.
The NVIDIA headquarters in Santa Clara, comprised of the Endeavor and Voyager buildings, is a testament to the "triangle" - the fundamental building block of computer graphics. Designed by Gensler, the campus layout is mathematically optimized to minimize walking distances and promote accidental collaboration. The structures feature massive triangulated roof canopies with 245 distinctive skylights that flood the "soaring internal volume" with diffused natural light.
Tate Modern is a world-renowned art gallery housed in the former Bankside Power Station. Herzog & de Meuron led the original adaptive reuse (2000), transforming the vast Turbine Hall into a public gathering space. In 2016, they completed the Blavatnik Building (Switch House), a twisted pyramid extension clad in a perforated lattice of 336,000 bricks. The design reinterprets the power station's industrial aesthetic while providing diverse spaces for art and performance.
The Shanghai Natural History Museum in the Jing'an Sculpture Park is a bioclimatic building inspired by the nautilus shell, one of the purest geometric forms in nature. Designed by Perkins&Will, the museum features a distinct "cellular wall" representing the structure of plants and animals. Its intelligent skin minimizes solar gain, while a central pond in the courtyard provides evaporative cooling. The project seamlessly integrates exhibition spaces with the surrounding park.
London's first ecological tall building and an instantly recognisable addition to the city's skyline, this headquarters designed for Swiss Re is rooted in a radical approach − technically, architecturally, socially and spatially. Forty-one storeys high, it provides 46,400 square metres net of office space together with an arcade of shops and cafés accessed from a newly created piazza. At the summit is a club room that offers a spectacular 360-degree panorama across the capital. Generated by a circular plan, with a radial geometry, the building widens in profile as it rises and tapers towards its apex. This distinctive form responds to the constraints of the site: the building appears more slender than a rectangular block of equivalent size and the slimming of its profile towards the base maximises the public realm at street level. Environmentally, its profile reduces wind deflections compared with a rectilinear tower of similar size, helping to maintain a comfortable environment at ground level, and creates external pressure differentials that are exploited to drive a unique system of natural ventilation. Conceptually the tower develops ideas explored in the Commerzbank and before that in the Climatroffice, a theoretical project with Buckminster Fuller that suggested a new rapport between nature and the workplace, its energy-conscious enclosure resolving walls and roof into a continuous triangulated skin. Here, the tower's diagonally braced structure allows column-free floor space and a fully glazed facade, which opens up the building to light and views. Atria between the radiating fingers of each floor link vertically to form a series of informal break-out spaces that spiral up the building. These spaces are a natural social focus – places for refreshment points and meeting areas – and function as the building's "lungs", distributing fresh air drawn in through opening panels in the facade. This system reduces the building's reliance on air conditioning and together with other sustainable measures, means that it uses only half the energy consumed by a conventionally air-conditioned office tower. The Swiss Re tower is arguably the most important 21st century landmark in London.
One Vanderbilt is a 1,401-foot supertall skyscraper that redefines the Manhattan skyline and the experience of Grand Central Terminal. Designed by KPF, the tower features a tapered form comprised of four interlocking volumes that spiral up to the sky. Its facade of terracotta and glass pays homage to the details of Grand Central, to which it is directly connected. The building includes "SUMMIT," a multi-sensory observation deck, and achieves the highest standards of sustainability.
The Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan, is a masterpiece of fluid architecture designed by Zaha Hadid. Breaking from rigid Soviet-era architecture, the building features a continuous, undulating skin made of Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) and Polyester (GFRP) that blurs the line between the plaza and the building interior. There is not a single straight line in the design, symbolizing the infinite and the continuous nature of Azerbaijani culture.
Shanghai Tower, standing 632 meters (128 stories) tall, is China's tallest building and a model of sustainable supertall design. Designed by Gensler, its cylindrical form twists 120 degrees to reduce wind loads by 24%, a strategy confirmed by wind tunnel testing that saved $58 million in structural material. The tower features a transparent double-skin facade that acts as an insulating blanket, and is organized into nine vertical zones, each with its own "sky lobby" atrium.
VIA 57 West introduces a new typology to New York City: the "Courtscraper." This 830,000 sq ft tetrahedron blends the communal qualities of a European perimeter block with the density of a Manhattan high-rise. Its unique pyramidal form maximizes views of the Hudson River for residents and allows sunlight to penetrate deep into the central courtyard. The building features a bead-blasted stainless steel facade and a sustainability strategy that includes water recycling and responsibly forested wood.
8 House (8 Tallet) is a pioneering "vertical village" in Ørestad, Copenhagen, designed by BIG to stack all ingredients of a lively urban neighborhood into a single building. The 61,000 m² bow-tied structure twists in the shape of a figure 8, creating two intimate interior courtyards. distinctive continuous promenade cycles from the street level to the 10th floor, allowing residents to bike all the way to their penthouse. The design exemplifies "hedonistic sustainability" by combining retail, office, and residential units in a way that maximizes views and daylight for all.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta is a game-changing sports venue designed by HOK, featuring an eight-panel retractable roof that operates like a camera aperture. It is the first pro sports stadium in the U.S. to achieve LEED Platinum certification, boasting the highest LEED score (88) of any sports venue. The design includes a stunning 360-degree LED halo board and a transparent ETFE facade that fills the concourses with natural light.
One World Trade Center is the symbolic and physical centerpiece of the rebuilt World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Standing at a symbolic 1,776 feet, it is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. SOM's design features an octagon that tapers into a square glass parapet. It sets a new benchmark for safety and sustainability, featuring a high-strength concrete core, extra-strong fireproofing, and a LEED Gold certification. The tower structure refracts light like a prism.
The Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC), affectionately known as "The Bottle Opener," is a 492-meter supertall skyscraper in Pudong. Designed by KPF, the tower's most distinctive feature is a large trapezoidal aperture at the peak, which relieves wind pressure and houses the world's highest observation deck at the time of completion. The building's form transforms from a square base to a linear top, symbolizing the intersection of earth and sky.
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the world's tallest building, rising 828 meters (2,717 ft) into the sky. Designed by SOM, its triple-lobed footprint serves as a bracing "buttressed core" to resist strong wind forces, influenced by the Hymenocallis flower. The tower features a highly efficient condensation collection system that recovers up to 15 million gallons of water annually for irrigation. Over 40 wind tunnel tests were conducted to perfect its aerodynamics, focusing on "confusing the wind" to minimize vortex shedding.
The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg is a cultural landmark designed by Herzog & de Meuron, featuring a crystalline glass structure resembling a "hoisted sail" perched atop a historic brick warehouse. The heart of the project is the Grand Hall, a "detachable musical instrument" decoupled from the rest of the building for perfect soundproofing. Its organic walls are lined with 10,000 individually milled gypsum fiber panels ("The White Skin"), ensuring world-class acoustics designed by Yasuhisa Toyota.
LaGuardia Airport's new Terminal B, designed by HOK, is the first airport in the world to achieve LEED v4 Gold certification. The project completely reimagined a critical transportation hub, featuring a 1.3 million sq. ft. terminal with dual pedestrian skybridges that span active aircraft taxiways—a design first that improves efficient plane movement. The terminal includes a light-filled headhouse and extensive sustainability measures that earned it the UNESCO Prix Versailles for best new airport.
Halley VI is the world's first relocatable research station, located on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Designed by AECOM and Hugh Broughton Architects, the station consists of eight modules raised on hydraulic legs fitted with giant skis. This allows the station to climb out of rising snow and be towed to avoid being stranded on a calving iceberg. The design supports scientific research in one of the world's most extreme environments.
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