Sketch to render for a museum concept design by JM Architecture

JM Architecture is a self-taught designer who uses design challenges to grow as an architect, since he has no formal architecture education. This first episode of his series follows a past competition brief: a museum that shows two contrasting emotions, one negative and one positive. Most of the video is about the design thinking itself. Rendair appears near the end, when he brings his sketch to the computer. Watch it for the process, and for an honest look at where AI fits into early concept work.

What you'll see

1. Research before drawing. He studies past winners of the competition, the work of the jury, and existing museums built around strong emotion.
2. A reference he returns to: a monument where rising steps compress the visitor before releasing them to an open view of the horizon. He wants the same compression and release in his museum.
3. Hand sketches in plan and section. A dark, cold, very tall first volume leads up a stair into a second volume that is light, open and lifted, with a skylight pouring light in.
4. Sketch to Render on the sectional sketch, with image strength around 75 percent and a prompt naming a well-known concrete architect as the style reference.
5. Reviewing the result: two concrete volumes, the stair and soft lighting, read as a concept image rather than a final render.
6. Naming the project Forma, after the Latin word for former, around the idea that you appreciate the present by understanding the past.

Takeaways

• He was hesitant about AI at first because it didn't feel like his own work. Now he treats it strictly as a tool in his design process, nothing more.
• He liked how the concrete facade and lighting came out. The scale felt a little small.
• One issue came from his own input: he didn't say the drawing was a cross-section, so the result reads it as an ordinary facade. Telling the tool what kind of drawing you're uploading helps.
• He sees the render as a way to get ideas moving, not a finished design. He expects the project to change a lot as it develops.

Try it yourself

Upload a concept sketch to Sketch to Render, say in the prompt whether it is a section, elevation or perspective, and name the materials you have in mind.

Recorded with an earlier version of Rendair, so some screens and app names look different today.