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Space design & 3D visualisation

See the room before you build it.

We design homes, offices and shops in 3D and render them photoreal. You judge the layout, the materials and the light on screen, while a change is still quick and cheap.

Plan a spaceHow it works
Concept render of a small office: a walnut desk facing two visitor chairs, a back wall of open shelves around a dark panel with a softly lit sign, and a glowing cove in the ceiling.
Concept design · Office

Why render first

Find the mistakes on screen, not on site.

A cabinet that stops a door from opening. A lamp that glares off a screen. A colour that looked right on the swatch and wrong on four walls. In a model, each one takes minutes to fix. On site, each one costs materials and days.

  • Measured to the millimetre.

    Every wall, opening and pipe is drawn from site measurements.

  • Lit for morning and for night.

    Each room is rendered in daylight with the lights off, and in the evening with them on.

  • Drawn so a carpenter never has to guess.

    Every number the build needs is on a drawing, not left to the render.

Concept render of the office in daylight with every light off.Daylight, lights off
The same office view in the evening, with the ceiling cove, picture lights and wall sign switched on.Evening, lights on
Concept design · Office. Same camera, same room: daylight with every light off, and the evening with the cove, picture lights and sign on. Drag or use the arrow keys.

How it works

From a tape measure to a set of drawings.

Six steps, in this order. Nothing moves on until you are happy with the step before.

  1. Illustration of a measured room plan: walls, a window, a door swing, a beam and a pipe, with dimension lines in millimetres

    Step 1: Measure

    We measure the room, or work from your plans, and note every door, window, beam and pipe.

  2. Concept render of a compact bathroom from the doorway: a sliding glass shower, a wall-hung WC on a tiled ledge and a vanity with rolled towels

    Step 2: Model

    We build the room in 3D to those numbers, with your furniture and fittings at their real sizes.

  3. Top-down plan render of a compact bathroom: a walk-in shower, a wall-hung WC, a basin counter and the swing of the door

    Step 3: Check

    We test the plan before anything is chosen for looks: door swings, legroom, walkways and reach.

  4. Looking up at a lit ceiling cove and recessed spots in a concept office.

    Step 4: Light

    We light it twice: daylight with the lights off, and evening with them on.

  5. Concept render of a bathroom vanity: a white vessel basin on a dark wood cabinet, a wall-mounted mixer and a mirror cabinet above

    Step 5: Shoot

    We render the views you will actually see: from the doorway, from your chair, from the sofa.

  6. A carpenter's plan of an L-shaped desk with every dimension marked in red.

    Step 6: Hand over

    Drawings for each trade in mm and ft-in, with cut lists and finish maps.

Low, close view behind an office chair: a curved monitor, a desk lamp throwing a pool of warm light, and deep shadow under the desk.

We light a room the way a film lights a scene.

Our founder trained as a cinematographer, with an MFA from the New York Film Academy and awards for cinematography on short films. So every view is framed from a real eye line, and every light is placed for a reason.

About the founder

Concept design · Office, evening

Revisions

Thirteen versions of one small bathroom.

Each note went back into the model, and each change was checked again for clearance before the next round. Step through them.

Bathroom plan, version 1 of 13.Version 1
Bathroom plan, version 2 of 13.Version 2
Bathroom plan, version 3 of 13.Version 3
Bathroom plan, version 4 of 13.Version 4
Bathroom plan, version 5 of 13.Version 5
Bathroom plan, version 6 of 13.Version 6
Bathroom plan, version 7 of 13.Version 7
Bathroom plan, version 8 of 13.Version 8
Bathroom plan, version 9 of 13.Version 9
Bathroom plan, version 10 of 13.Version 10
Bathroom plan, version 11 of 13.Version 11
Bathroom plan, version 12 of 13.Version 12
Bathroom plan, version 13 of 13.Version 13

What changed

  1. Version 1

    The first model, straight from the site measurements. Every fixture placed and every clearance checked.

  2. Version 2

    The glass door now opens into the shower, so it never blocks the second door. A stone slab replaces the wall-hung basin.

  3. Version 3

    The bar across the glass goes. The mixer moves back to the side wall, and the shelves move to the far corner.

  4. Version 4

    The second door now swings into the room. The WC goes wall-hung, with its cistern hidden in a tiled ledge.

  5. Version 5

    The door is hinged on the other side. The floor drain tucks under the basin cabinet.

  6. Version 6

    Too little legroom. A shorter WC and a narrower basin take it from 200 mm (8 in) to 320 mm (12½ in).

  7. Version 7

    The chosen WC, drawn from its spec sheet. It sits deeper, so legroom drops to 280 mm (11 in).

  8. Version 8

    A shorter bowl wins back 50 mm, and the WC shifts towards the door for elbow room.

  9. Version 9

    The cistern frame is set 50 mm into the wall. Legroom is now 380 mm (15 in).

  10. Version 10

    The window stone now sits flush with the tile, so there is no edge in the shower to knock an elbow on.

  11. Version 11

    The WC and basin swap places. The shower gets 75 mm deeper, and the WC gets 449 mm (17¾ in) clear on each side.

  12. Version 12

    The basin top deepens to fit the chosen basin, and the hinged glass becomes a sliding door. Nothing swings in the shower now.

  13. Version 13

    The WC ledge widens to fit the chosen cistern frame. Legroom and side clearances stay exactly as they were.

One bathroom plan, thirteen versions. Each one a note, answered. Concept design · Bathroom.

Render and drawing

The render shows the feel. The drawing carries the numbers.

Every render comes with the drawings to build it, one set per trade.

Concept render of an office back wall: open shelves either side of a dark panel with a halo-lit sign, drawers below, a chair in front.Render
What the wall will look like: shelves, drawers and a lit feature panel. Concept design · Office.
The carpenter's sheet for the same wall: a dimensioned elevation of the shelves, drawers and feature panel, and a section through the low unit.Drawing
What the carpenter builds from: the same wall as an elevation and a section, in mm. Open the drawing full size

What the carpenter builds from: the same wall as an elevation and a section, in mm.

Concept designs

A few rooms, rendered.

Concept designs from our in-house 3D pipeline. Every room on this page is a render, not a photograph.

Concept render of a small office from the corner: lit cove, shelving wall with a sign, two framed prints under picture lights, visitor chairs.
Concept design · Office
Concept render of a bathroom from the window: sliding glass shower in front, vanity and tall cabinet beyond.
Concept design · Bathroom
Close view of a halo-lit sign on a dark panel between wooden slats, with plants in front.
Concept design · Office feature wall
Close view of a basin counter: white vessel basin, wall mixer, a tray of rolled towels and small plants.
Concept design · Basin counter
Concept render of a walk-in shower in greige tile with black fittings, a small window and corner shelves.
Concept design · Shower
Concept render of a bathroom vanity: oval basin on a dark stone top, wall mixer, mirror cabinet and rolled towels.
Concept design · Bathroom vanity
Close view of a wall-hung WC with a thin rose-gold line, next to the shower glass.
Concept design · Wall-hung WC
Concept render of a compact bathroom: wall-hung WC, flush plate on a tiled ledge, round basin on a dark cabinet.
Concept design · Compact bathroom

What you get

Everything the build needs, in one set.

You keep all of it, and every trade works from the same numbers.

Stills
Photoreal views from your real eye lines, in daylight and in the evening.
Drawings
Plans and elevations for each trade, in mm and ft-in.
Cut lists and finish maps
Every panel, its size and its finish, listed per trade.
Site sequence
Which trade goes first, and what each one needs from the one before.
Automation, if you want it
Lighting scenes, switches and wiring designed into the room from day one.
See home automation

Have a room in mind? Let's plan it.

Plan a space

Send a few photos and rough measurements to info@thydarkhour.com. We take it from there.