Author: Lauren Donnebaum

Based in the Lake District National Park, Ben Cunliffe Architects design innovative, elegant, sustainable architecture. Established in 2001, the company has brought together a talented team of architects and designers who endeavour to make design and construction extremely environmentally conscious and fully aware of the carbon footprint a new build can create. They are at the forefront of creating low energy sustainable buildings which incorporate a wide range of green technologies – from solar, bio-fuel and ground source air source in their schemes to self-contained waste systems and reed bed filtration systems.

We chatted with Ed, one of the designers and technicians at Ben Cunliffe, about sustainable construction, how SketchUp staves off repetitive strain injury, and the important issue of whether he’d rather live in a house in the forest or a house by the beach.

Hi Ed! Can you introduce yourself and your team to the SketchUp community?

My name is Ed Newcome and I’m a designer and technician with Ben Cunliffe Architects. We’re a mid-sized, award-winning architectural practice based in the south Lake District. Our projects are predominantly residential or small commercial, and all are highly bespoke and individual, with project costs in the region of £200,000 to a bit over £1 million.

How did your team get going with SketchUp – and why SketchUp?

We have always used SketchUp for visualising projects in 3D to clients. We love the speed and ease with which SketchUp can bring our ideas to life, and we find it an invaluable aid to communication with clients, planners, builders, engineers, joiners and other trades. We have a large TV on the wall in the office and we frequently take clients on a tour around the project using that. Clients will often comment on the designs and we can make alterations as we go to experiment with different ideas.

What does your typical design workflow look like?

Typically, the concept designs will be outlined on tracing paper by Ben Cunliffe. We then take the designs into SketchUp to develop the design and to illustrate the ideas to the clients. Once we have agreement on a scheme, we produce planning drawings with Layout. .

How important is the sustainability aspect to Ben Cunliffe Architects? What are the challenges for environmentally conscientious design and construction?

As a practice, BCA is strongly led by environmental principles and sustainability. As a lot of the houses we work on are old, historic houses, it can be difficult to implement modern technologies and standards, but we do our best to deliver efficient, high performing and environmentally sound buildings. Most of our projects incorporate renewable technologies, and some of the new houses we’ve designed have been built using SIP panels.

What about your own dream house? City dweller, beach, forest?

Personally, I like the mountains, so I’d love the opportunity to design a spacious pad deep and high in the hills. There have been some fantastic modern chalet projects in the European alps in recent years. Being able to ski from the door in the winter would definitely be a bonus too!

What’s been the most challenging/proudest piece of work you’ve produced?

Every project has its own particular challenges as each building and site we work on is totally unique. From a SketchUp perspective, on a recent job we had all the contractors querying how a particularly awkward roof structure was going to go together, incorporating steel, oak purlins and timber rafters. It was great to be able to work this all together in 3D, which put everyone clearly in the picture!

Are there any plug-ins that you’d consider absolutely essential?

Solid inspector, 1001 bit tools, Mirror, Follow push pull – to name but a few.

Any keyboard shortcuts you couldn’t live without?

All my keyboard shortcuts are assigned over to the left hand side of the keyboard so I don’t have to move my hand around while I work. (Prolonging the onset of RSI and speeding up the workflow). I use shortcuts for every single tool as far as possible, with others mapped to the extra buttons on the mouse. (I have a 9 button mouse for modelling).

Finally, in a parallel universe, if you weren’t doing what you do for a living now, what would you choose? 

If I hadn’t got into architecture I would probably still be doing various dead-end jobs and puzzling over how to earn enough money to pursue my hobbies and sports while doing very little work at all. I’m not sure this actually exists in reality, but luckily I love what I do now so it’s a less pressing concern.  

To view more of Ben Cunliffe Architect’s work head to their webite, follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Houzz.

Ben Cunliffe Architects were introduced to us via TCS CAD & BIM Solutions.

Based in West Sussex, Paul Hensey designs and manages landscapes and garden schemes throughout the South of England and works on location for projects further afield. A frequent exhibitor at several RHS Shows he has won gold and best in show. His work includes intimate back yards, roof terraces through to large country estates and woodland burial sites. If that wasn’t enough, Paul also lectures on design and is a SketchUp evangelist. He’s also a published author and contributes to several trade journals and magazines.

Yep, Paul is one very busy chap, so we were thrilled to be able to catch up with him to chat about design, data visualisation, and the importance of LayOut.

Hi Paul, thanks for taking time out of your schedule to chat with me! Can you introduce yourself/your team to the SketchUp community?

From the earliest age, I took things to pieces. It’s not until recently that I have learned how to put them back together again. I created frequent and unexpected expenses for my parents when they had to replace objects and gadgets that I’d promised only needed a small adjustment or cleaning. I recall the realisation that everything around us is the product of someone’s ingenuity and thought process and I wanted to be one of those decision makers.

I trained as an Industrial Designer. It was a few years before the introduction of CAD so the drawing board was my home for the first several years of my career. CAD was pretty much created to help Industrial design and so it’s something I’ve used continuously from the early 90’s. I moved jobs and countries in the late 90’s and I had the opportunity to slip into designing both the objects and the landscapes that they sit in. Garden and landscape design was a career that I hadn’t heard much about –  but it quickly dominated what I did – and it has proven to be endlessly rewarding.

So, why choose SketchUp?

Whilst I’ve used most CAD systems on the market, when it’s your own small business, the priorities and justifications are different. Seats of the CAD software I was familiar with were beyond our ability to fund in the early days so we needed an alternative. I picked up SketchUp around 2005, shortly before Google acquired it. It didn’t do everything I wanted, but with some perseverance it got me most of the way when I was designing outside spaces. Something I learned, as an Industrial Designer, was that you should only use one CAD application, appreciate its strengths and weakness. Using more than one dilutes the time and effort you can devote to practice and will always be a compromise. If you know how your tools operate you can work around most problems. SketchUp (Pro) has developed enormously as a tool. In the early days it lacked drafting functions, but now I able to undertake the entire workflow of a project on it. I still have a flare of excitement when I open the software, wondering where I’ll be going today and what I’ll learn. Isn’t that the essence of a good product?

I also teach SketchUp, either in colleges or at my studio. Many designers are either new to CAD or are looking for something that is perhaps more intuitive to an occasional user. It’s always satisfying to see complete beginners develop from ignorance through to getting an idea from their mind realised as a 3D structure all within the space of one day.

Do you tend to have a typical workflow?

Something that attracted me to garden and landscape design was that almost everything I designed was built. Unlike Industrial design where you might design 100 things and see only a few reach fruition. And unlike Industrial design, where the designer is somewhat detached from the end users, I get to know everyone I have designed a garden, landscape or water feature for. It adds a burden of responsibility but, on the flip side, it generates the most sincere sense of satisfaction.

Whilst no two projects are alike they usually follow a common workflow. I take the initial survey of the landscape, whether as a 2D drawing or, more frequently, as a digital map or set of cloud points, and generate a 3D model of the terrain. Typically this takes a day. Survey data is rarely created with the intention of it being used to create 3D maps, so there is often a lot of cleaning up. Sometimes I start developing ideas for a space directly in SketchUp, working directly in 3D, however there is little to beat the thrill of a 6B pencil and a sketch book in a project’s early stages. When I have a few ideas that I’m happy with I record them as Jpegs (scan or simply photograph) and import them. Setting the scale of the imported sketch and within a few minutes the ideas are turned into 3D.

I usually give a client a few different options. I make the images presented to a client in the early stages a little ‘loose’. I’ve found being too realistic locks down the design down too quickly and clients can interpret this as being more finalised when,in reality, the design process is only just beginning. A water colour filter is a quick and easy way to soften the SketchUp outputs, whether through Photoshop or stand alone software such as Sketcher. When the design has been agreed with the client, then the detailing can be worked out. This always requires a new Master model (the early ones tend to be built quickly and don’t lend themselves to being used for the detailed stages). Every material junction and interface is detailed as a mini-assembly, usually within a single model. I model every element, from paving slabs to wall ties. It may seem a large undertaking but once modelled they are available as parts in every future project. Probably half of my time in the detailing stage is spent setting up scenes and sending them to be pasted together as construction and fabrication drawings in LayOut. I love the detailed construction design process so much that I now support the creative process of many other designers, sculptors and structural engineers, translating their ideas into realistic details with all of the supporting models and documents.

Would you say that there is one particular functionality you’re glad SketchUp has?

It’s definitely the automatic update of elevations in LayOut when the master model changes. Having individual components assembled into details means that when scenes are created, cross sections and elevations will show the true relationship and outline of those parts. This takes time to model, but when, not if, the design changes for, say, paved areas, wall lengths, water feature hydraulic systems etc its very simple to move or edit components knowing the drawings are taking care of themselves. Coming from a drawing board I still delight in seeing all the drawings in Layout update in line with the model changes.

Any there any plugins you find essential for your work?

JHS powerbar: free. It’s a collection of some of the best plugins around. I use the pipe generator a lot for water hydraulic schematics. Anything by Fredo6 is worth having. A very simple plugin is DzConvert to construction linedz by Daiku (Extension Warehouse). It will convert finite line lengths (inc curves) into construction lines/ guides. Very useful for aligning organic shapes/ pipes and assembly drawings.

Tough question, but is there one project you’re especially proud of?

The best projects are invariably those that push my own skills and use of the software but are not necessarily very glamorous. I design a lot of water features and natural swimming ponds. These are very organic in shape. It took some patience and practice to learn how to model then so that information, such as surface area and water volumes in different zones could be made visible in the entity information. This is used to specify the correct hydraulic systems, so is critical.

Favourite keyboard short cut?

Space bar and Cmd-Z (Ctl-Z on PCs)

Finally, what would you do if you weren’t designing gardens?

I evolved into garden design from industrial design. The process is very similar, solving special problems and communicating ideas and instructions through drawings and models. I do have a fascination with data visualisation. I can imagine loosing days creating compelling diagrams and graphics.

See more of Paul’s work on Twitter and at Green Zone Design.

Gintare Sidaraviciute

Gintare Sidaraviciute is an award-winning Interior Architectural Designer / 3D Visualizer with a recent First Class Degree Honours from Southampton Solent University. With a wealth of international experience in interior design, 3D rendering, plus scooping up a raft of awards, Gintare has now focused her talents on the 3D visualization market. We spoke with her about winning accolades, having afternoon tea in the House of Lords, and how she turned her passion into a career.

Hi Gintare – First things first – You have the coolest name in the world. Now we have that out of the way, can you introduce yourself/your team to the SketchUp community?

Haha, thank you! It’s not the easiest spelling and pronunciation! I’m an Interior Designer / 3D visualizer. I graduated with first class degree honours from Southampton Solent University in 2016. In the Final Year Show Exhibition 2016 (which was held by my university SSU to exhibit all students’ final works from design courses) I received The SBID (The Society of British and International Design) Award for my final year project – Durdle Door Resort in the category of sustainable innovation and interior design. My project was awarded as the best out of 62 universities across England. In November 2016 I was invited to attend afternoon tea in House of Lords, London where I received my award. A year after that I was nominated and announced winner as NAS (National Association of Shopfitters and Interior Contractors) Young Designer of the Year 2017.

I worked as freelancer and did internships and I found that companies were actually more interested in my visualisation skills and that is where the whole idea was born – to set up my own 3D Visualisation business. It was a bit scary to take the first step but I did that and never looked back and it was the greatest thing I ever did. I now have some amazing clients (internationally and home) and I get to create absolutely amazing projects. I have some really fascinating projects that I am working at the moment. I can’t wait to share them all with you!

How did you get going with SketchUp and why SketchUp?

I was introduced to Sketchup in my first year of university and I was instantly hooked. Even though it was my very first time using Sketchup, I found it so easy and user-friendly. I remember going home after lectures and spending my evenings trying to learn more. My first project was quite simple but when I was creating my second project I had so many questions to lecturers that (funnily enough) even they didn’t have all the answers for. Of course, all the problems that I had back then now seem so silly and easy. However, I did get a 1st on my second project which was so encouraging and it inspired me to go even further with my SketchUp learning. Now, after 5 years of using Sketchup I have learned so much and still love working with it.

 

You won the SBID (The Society of British and International Design)  for your final year project – Congrats! What doors did that open up for you?

Thank you! Winning The SBID award was an absolutely amazing experience. I worked really hard on my final year project and I was really honoured to receive the award. But I would be lying if I said that it opened a lot of doors to the interior design industry. I had to work as hard as anybody else in my interviews and jobs. The great thing about it was that I got some good contacts and had the opportunity to attend some helpful networking events where I met many brilliant interior designers.

What does your typical design workflow look like?

Every week is different and every day comes with new challenges. I have weeks where I work on multiple projects at once and I have weeks where I work on one project. Having clients from Australia to USA and working with different time zones can make my work day up to 16 – 18 hours, but the time flies because I do what I love.

Is there a piece of work you’re most proud of – or one that was most challenging/interesting?

Every project that I do I feel more and more confident with my SketchUp skills. And my last project always feels like the best work but then the next comes and I feel like I improved even more. I think my proudest pieces are still to come which makes everything so exciting.

 

What’s the one functionality you’re glad SketchUp has?

Components and groups. I just don’t know how I would live without them – it makes my workflow so much smoother.

Definitely. That would be my #1 rule – if you’re going to use something more than once in a model, make a Component of it! What about keyboard shortcuts – any you can’t live without?

The great thing about SketchUp is that I can make shortcuts myself and I did to quite a few of them. However, my most used are C (circle), L (line), R (rectangle), S (resize) and Ctlr+F (follow me).

Are there any essential plugins that you use?

V-Ray is my number one plugin. But there are quite a few other plugins that I often use and could not live without  – Round Corner, Curviloft, Artisan, ThruPaint, Soap Skin and Bubble are all in frequent rotation. 

 

Finally, If you weren’t doing what you do for a living now, what would you be doing instead?

Before starting in the interior design industry, I loved taking photos. I was part of a Photography Club and loved every minute of it. All of us were going on trips and making amazing photos. A few of my photos were even exhibited in a Café. It was a proud moment. But if not interior design I would definitely still be doing something creative. Maybe I would be a travel blogger – I even thought about being a hairdresser. But all those hobbies (as I refer to them now) have eventually faded away once I started in the Interior Design Industry. I have so much passion for what I do now – it’s so much stronger than any of my other hobbies. I read a quote once saying, ‘It’s a beautiful thing when a career and a passion come together’ and I feel exceptionally lucky to get to spend all my time doing what I love.

See more of Gintare’s work at https://www.gsinteriors.co.uk/

Follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and on Facebook.

When the Russell Martin Foundation, a registered charity that works to impact positively upon the lives of children and young people through sport within the Brighton area, approached us asking if we’d be able to help make a 3-D model of a football stadium as designed by one of their Under 10’s competition winner, we promptly passed their details along to our Number One SketchUp Education reseller, Cadsoft Solutions.

Matt Lindner, Sport and Recreational Activities Officer for the RMA said, “We were delighted to join forces with Cadsoft Solutions Limited and SketchUp UK to create opportunities for our holiday activities programme. The overall winner was 8-year-old Massi McHugh, whose excellent winning design was made with Lego, which was then modelled in SketchUp Pro by Cadsoft Solutions Limited and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse.”

Massi’s passions are Football and Lego, so modelling the stadium using Lego was a no-brainer. Nick Johnson, Managing Director of Cadsoft Solutions, then took Massi’s Lego build and bought the design to life in SketchUp. In order to give Massi the opportunity to stretch his creativity even further, he was awarded a SketchUp Pro license and we can’t wait to see what Massi goes on to create and build in the future.

You can view Cadsoft Solution’s SketchUp model of Massi’s winning Lego stadium design on the 3D Warehouse by clicking here.

Questions about SketchUp for Education? Contact us below.

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Mark Button has worked as a freelance Concept Designer for over five years. From a young age, he was obsessed with both film and drawing. After being introduced to what he calls his ‘Bible’ (The Art of Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace), he put his two passions together and knew exactly what he wanted to do once he left school. Mark has worked for a range of clients including BBC film, LEGO (M2 Entertainment), Ubisoft, and FFP New Media. Recent work has been features in ‘Bill’ (2015) and ‘Assassin’s Creed’ (2016). I sat down with him to discuss how SketchUp has been instrumental in his design process, enabling him to produce a fast turnaround time for clients.

Hey Mark, thanks for joining us! Can you introduce yourself/your team to the SketchUp community?

Sure thing. Well, I’m a concept artist working in television and film. I work as a freelancer, typically for a few months to a year on a project, designing/developing whatever the client may require to tell their story. It is a collaborative effort with many people being involved throughout production –  so while I am one person, I always work in a team of amazing people.

How did you get going with SketchUp – and why SketchUp?

I started a project, in 2011 I think, and for the first time ever I was asked if I could use SketchUp for the job. I simply said ‘yes’ and quickly had to jump in to the program to get my bearings! As someone with little 3D knowledge, I found SketchUp to be simple to understand and intuitive. I believe it was picked as the choice program because it was easily accessible to everyone in the art department and it is great for blocking in quick architectural forms.

Can you tell us more about how your clients interact with a SketchUp model, and why you think it’s important they do so?

Again, I think its strength lies in how accessible it is to everyone. Personally, I’ve found clients who use SketchUp are able to return feedback and notes much faster. We will sometimes pass the model back and forth until it’s approved. Speed can be important in this industry, so a fast-to-edit program is great to have.

What does your typical work flow look like?

The story/script usually dictates what is needed. I tend to do “hard-surface” design which is anything from props to vehicles to sets. When a brief comes in, I’ll doodle ideas for myself then jump straight in to SketchUp and block out the design. I’ll further refine the design before making a quick render of the model in either SU Podium or Keyshot and then finish off the image in Photoshop. I’d say 99% of the time, that’s how I work.

What’s been the proudest piece of work you’ve produced?

I think the last project you worked on tends to be your best or most favourite piece until the next one comes along. Because of that, I’d say the work I’ve done in the past year has been pretty cool, but I can’t talk about that until it is released next year!

We’ll schedule in a catch-up with you next year then! In the meantime, what’s the one functionality you’re glad SketchUp has?

Components. Without a doubt. Components are a great way of saving on modelling time especially when you are designing with symmetry in mind. Once I learnt about components, my workflow really sped up.

I’ve heard that a lot about components – is there any particular keyboard shortcut you could not live without?

Wow, I’ve never thought about that before! I guess G is cool for setting up components quickly. B for the paint bucket. F for Offset comes to mind. The whole alphabet is pretty wicked, right?…I use ‘Intersect Faces’ a lot but I’m not sure that has a shortcut.

Aha! You can actually just assign your own personal shortcut to tools you use a lot. What about plugins – any essential ones you use?

Definitely. RoundCorner, JointPushPull and Curviloft are must haves. Also CenterPointAll helps a great deal. The SU Podium render plugin is really cool too.

Finally, if you weren’t doing what you do for a living now, what would you choose?

I do wonder this from time to time. This type of work is all I’ve ever wanted to do so I never really gave myself a backup or had any other idea in mind. If I really couldn’t do anything design related, then I’d say I’d work in or run a cinema. I’m as obsessed with film as I am with design so that might be my choice.

To view more of Mark’s work check out his website. Follow him on Twitter here.

For more information on SketchUp and SUPodium visit http://elmtec-sketchup.co.uk/