The global market for 3D rendering technology has grown exponentially in the last few years, which is perhaps not surprising for an industry that is barely a decade and a half old.
And Australian design firm, Binyan Studios, is at the forefront of the industry’s expansion.
With a team of 114 people working from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and a newly-opened studio in New York, Binyan Studios is working on 200 major regeneration and development projects internationally, from entire precincts in Saudi Arabia to the multi-billion-dollar Hudson Yards and the recently-unveiled Snøhetta residential skyscraper on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
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For Binyan Studios founder Andrei Dolnikov, the goal isn’t necessarily world domination but participation.
“Our goal as a company is to be to be involved in the conversation about any exciting project happening anywhere on the planet.
“This allows us to bring the best of the best ideas and innovation to our home base clients in Australia and to keep our team constantly challenged to keep raising the bar.”
Current projects in Australia for Binyan include MAB Corporation’s Escala project in the Docklands, the $2 billion West Side Place apartment project in Melbourne for Far East Consortium and Crown Group's $1 billion Eastlakes town centre development.
The studio has projects for Cbus in Brisbane, Aqualand in Sydney and Geocon in Canberra also in the pipeline.
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Although Binyan is perhaps best known for its hyper-realistic renderings of residential towers and apartment interiors, Dolnikov has worked on everything from commercial and retail spaces to product and furniture renders to an aquarium in Beijing.
“We work on many other projects types outside of residential, we have two shopping centres currently in production, entertainment and leisure projects – we are working on two Four Seasons in the US and the Ritz Carlton in Melbourne and we recently worked on two university projects, one in Wollongong and one in Melbourne.
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For work in residential development in Australia, Dolnikov has noticed a shift in the market as investors fall away.
“A far higher proportion of our projects are now aimed at an owner-occupier market, it’s a fascinating trend for us as these types of projects often do not have budget or location to have a display and therefore need to show their product in a more virtual – but life-like – manner.
“Generally, when the market is a bit soft, developers need to work harder to market their projects and will need marketing consultants like 3D agencies and firms to be more effective and provide more value,” Dolnikov says.
So, what’s next for a firm that has already worked with some of the world’s largest developers and well-known architecture firms?
Dolnikov says that Binyan Studios has a robust plan for innovation and development.
“While we have always tried to disrupt ourselves year on year, some of our most talented R&D people are working on all sorts of ideas three to four months prior to them being ‘market ready’.
"This is a super exciting time to be in our industry, the more artists that have 10-plus years of experience behind them, the more creative, agile and innovative we are becoming.
Between tech innovation, creative growth and educational progress – I see the next two to five years as being incredible, and we are making sure we will be a big part of driving our industry to the new and as-yet-unknown frontier. I don't see any limits on what we can achieve.
--– Binyan Studios founder Andrei Dolnikov
As the company grows, Binyan is adopting more of a strategic advisory role for its clients.
“What is particularly satisfying is that these days clients are coming to us to help them with strategic advice on the marketing and content of the project as a whole – not just a shopping list as used to happen a few years ago.”
“We are no longer just ‘hired guns’ but ‘trusted advisors’. We are on a journey [with our clients] and this is very exciting.”
For Dolnikov, who started the studio out of a spare room in his Sydney apartment just seven years ago the future is looking pretty bright.
Main image: A Binyan rendering of 130 William Street, New York for British architect David Adjaye.
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