Welcome to CONVERTED, The 9th International Architectural Design & Visualization Challenge I’m running in partnership with Substance by ADOBE as the Material Category Marquee Sponsor and ASUS as our Hardware sponsor.

Converted entry by Shiju NK

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CONCEPT :
The Smiths were keen on preserving parts of what is left behind of their family’s bygone workshop – portions of the crumblings walls, the trees that still stand strong inside, ruins of a boat since they loved boating and the landscape engulfing the property.
All that the Smiths envisioned to me was, to not strip the ruins of its historic integrity and to retain as much of the original feel of the space as possible.
I was immediately drawn to this sensitive scheme of recreating a family’s visions into reality. This in particular is going to be a challenge and responsibility, breathing a new life into an old structure. My journey of this conversion project begins…

LOCATION AND SITE :
The beautiful property is surrounded by lush greenery and farm lands, a small canal located adjacent with the backwaters running below the front portion of the property. The dilapidated structure takes form of the natural ground level which slopes to the rear.

BRIEF:
This conversion project is purely my imagination. I will be designing the old and the new structure from scratch. The images posted have been used as references for the design process. I will soon be posting initial concept sketches of the old structure with snippets of its modeling and taking the work progress from there!

Images Source : Internet

Converted entry by Pasqua11

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Puente Nuevo, Ronda’s bridge is located in Andalusia in the south of Spain designed by the architect Martín de Aldehuela. It was completed in 1793, after 40 years of construction and after a first catastrophic attempt where 50 builders lost their life.

Built in three stages, the first stage forms the foundation against the bedrock and the first arch, which in turn forms the foundation for the main arch that takes the bridge to a height of 90m. The final stage includes the two top arches and the centre room of about 60 square, which was a prison for bandits and dangerous criminals during the 19th century, and then for political prisoners during the Spanish civil war.

Despite its dimensions, the bridge looks like a natural element of the rock. The material used in the construction, extracted from the bottom of the river gorge, blends with that of the cliff walls achieving a stunning camouflage effect with nature.

Spain is the world’s leading source of the golden juice of the olive fruit, the essence of Mediterranean cuisine. It produces about half the world’s total olive oil, of which about 46% is exported, making Spain the world’s leading olive oil producer and exporter.
More than 350 million olives are grown all over Spain, and in some regions the olive landscape is staggering. This is the case in some parts of Andalusia where extensive olive orchards grow alongside holm and cork oaks on broad plains or alongside green pine forests on mountain slopes, creating a landscape of outstanding beauty and personality.

My starting point for the “Converted” competition is to integrate one of the oldest tradition of agriculture in Spain into a third conception of the Ronda bridge. The project is based on integrating the modern architecture of the farm into one of the most ancient bridges in that area.
Mixing the old raw materials with modern elements such as glass, steel and concrete, the idea is to keep the old functionality of the bridge, connect the old town to the new one, but at the same time keep alive a tradition but in a modern environment. It is a matter of respect for the connection between OLD and NEW.

Converted entry by Mateusz Sum

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Hi all !

“technological advancements […] adoption by content creators […] re-evaluation.” I’m going to focus on that part of the brief. Some key words are coming to my mind quickly, a blur, a cacophony of ideas; creating and manufacturing, forging, production, mass production, automation, computing, data, big data, very big data, and then even bigger data, networks and webs, converting and converging, adoption and adaptation, manual, automated, globalized but isolated, shared or owned, monopolized, democratized and decentralized, free or subscription based 😉

Here I am trying to uncover spatial relationships between past, current and future industrial trends, often catalyzed by or bundled into “revolutions”. Especially in the context of generating art, creativity, collaboration and how we, as a collective, use and occupy physical space to perform all those endeavors.

I’m not working with any existing site, as I’m mainly focusing on the meaning of this space and what it may (or may not 😉) convey.

As for technical aspects, in case anybody’s wondering – I am using Unreal Engine + Houdini combo because they love each other and I love them too. Just as much as Substance Suite. RTX is ON, because why not, and so is DLSS, because it’s there and you should use it as well. I think I’m going to stick to CPU lightmass as it gives me better results than GPU lm, at least for now. I am aiming for weekly updates but we will see how it goes, things can get iffy and hairy in UE pretty quickly lol xD

Getting right into it with something between concept ideas and WIP images already:

Converted entry by alexndr_shur

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After a long pause, I continue working on my project.
The first thing I needed to do was to build a block model of the building using a photo and the perspective match tool in 3d max. Structurally, the building will be without major changes, but the appearance will change dramatically.

Converted entry by Artifictial

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A brief history
Valtsani Mills, situated in Thessaloniki, Greece, is an industrial building that was built in 1923 from the Valtsani Brothers and V. Giannopoulos. It was a model of a roller mill with automated production system, equipped with machinery from the Swiss company “Daviere” and the French “Teisset – Rose – Brault”. During its heyday it produced 70 tons of flour per day and it was connected with the railway station through a special dedicated track to facilitate the transportation of grain and flour.
Its decline started in the early ‘60s when there was a change of management and it was finally abandoned resulting to its current state.

The challenge
Its pure geometric form, the clean contours and the imposing volume present a great opportunity to revamp the building preserving its original façade, through a modern approach that will promote communal activities and eventually upgrade the current state of the area which is quite relegated.

The concept
The suggested concept is to transform the building and its surrounding area to a multipurpose cultural center including a library and a botanical center amongst others. Special attention will be given to the surrounding area of 56.000 sq. feet (5.200 sq. meter), where a system of vertical and horizontal vegetation will be developed to create pathways that lead to “living spaces” (possibly themed).

The prelim sketch focuses only on the building and it’s inspired by the shape of an open book to visually relate to the concept of culture and education. This serves as my starting point to further explore the space’s options once I start modeling.

Technical Details (approximation)
Elevation: 69 ft. / 21meters (at its highest point)
Width: 29.5 ft. / 9 meters
Lot Area: 56.000 sq. feet / 5.200 sq. meters
Coordinates: 40°38’58″N 22°54’54″E

Converted entry by davepBK

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I live about two blocks from this site located in the historic neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Formerly a Gulf fuel station, the site has sat abandoned for more than five years. It’s a prime corner on the intersection of two busy streets, Myrtle and Vanderbilt Avenues. The kink in the garage roof is a detail that caught my eye and feels like it was designed with 1950s optimism in mind. This fuel station was one of the last remaining in the neighborhood.

It’s a revolutionary time for electric vehicles. However, a high hurdle to get over is access to charging points in dense urban places like Brooklyn. The vast majority of people here who own cars park them on the street. So this project proposes giving this former fuel station a new life as an EV charging hub. The original garage will house a local EV bicycle dealer and repair shop serving both the public and numerous delivery riders that rely on them for work.

Above the site will be a new public green space. The supporting structure will take inspiration from the elevated train that used to run along Myrtle Ave until the 1970s. Through some internet scouring, I found a photo taken in 1944 of this exact intersection showing the original train structure above.

There’s been a considerable amount of historic building in the neighborhood already lost and replaced with faux-modern residential buildings. I think there’s an opportunity here to reflect some history of the area paired with serving future needs of the community.