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John Soane: The Latest Architecture and News

Madelon Vriesendorp, Co-Founder of OMA, Receives the 2025 Soane Medal

Dutch artist Madelon Vriesendorp has been named the recipient of the 2025 Soane Medal, becoming the first UK-based female artist to receive the award since its launch in 2017. A co-founder of Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Vriesendorp is widely recognized for her surrealist and humorous visual language that has shaped how modern and postmodern architecture is represented and understood. Her work, which blends playfulness with critical thought, has provided architecture with vivid, memorable imagery that continues to influence generations of architects.

Madelon Vriesendorp, Co-Founder of OMA, Receives the 2025 Soane Medal - 1 的图像 4Madelon Vriesendorp, Co-Founder of OMA, Receives the 2025 Soane Medal - 2 的图像 4Madelon Vriesendorp, Co-Founder of OMA, Receives the 2025 Soane Medal - 3 的图像 4Madelon Vriesendorp, Co-Founder of OMA, Receives the 2025 Soane Medal - 4 的图像 4Madelon Vriesendorp, Co-Founder of OMA, Receives the 2025 Soane Medal - More Images+ 4

From Romantic Ruins to the Ultra-Real: A History of the Architectural Render

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From Romantic Ruins to the Ultra-Real: A History of the Architectural Render - Featured Image

Throughout history, architects have used sketches and paintings to display to their clients the potential outcomes of the projects rattling around their minds. Since Brunelleschi’s adoption of drawn perspective in 1415, architectural visualizations have painted hyper-realistic imaginings of an ideal, where the walls are always clean, the light always shines in the most perfect way, and the inhabitants are always happy.

With technological advances in 3D modeling and digital rendering, this ability to sell an idea through a snapshot of the perfect architectural experience has become almost unrestricted. Many have criticized the dangers of unrealistic renderings that exceed reality and how they can create the illusion of a perfect project when, in fact, it is far from being resolved. However, this is only the natural next step in a history of fantastical representations, where the render becomes a piece of art itself.

Below is a brief history of the interesting ways architects have chosen to depict their projects—from imagined time travel to the diagrammatic.

From Romantic Ruins to the Ultra-Real: A History of the Architectural Render - Image 1 of 4From Romantic Ruins to the Ultra-Real: A History of the Architectural Render - Image 2 of 4From Romantic Ruins to the Ultra-Real: A History of the Architectural Render - Image 3 of 4From Romantic Ruins to the Ultra-Real: A History of the Architectural Render - Image 5 of 4From Romantic Ruins to the Ultra-Real: A History of the Architectural Render - More Images+ 5