Firm Profile: Candusso Arquitetos – Architecture Visualized on the Mac

We were excited to discover Candusso. Candusso Arquitetos is not only a very successful South American architecture firm based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but quite a large one and also a practice that is quite sophisticated in the use of information technologies and their application to the design process. None of this is too surprising. Sao Paulo is the sixth largest city by population in the world and is the third largest city in the world by number of high-rise buildings.

Renato Candusso is a partner in Candusso Arquitetos. We learned that his rather good sized architecture practice was centered around a strong belief in 3D visualization as a key component of their design and business processes and we invited him to talk to us about his firm, their creative process, and how he uses key tools like Maxon’s CINEMA 4D as part of their workflow to achieve their consistently outstanding design.

The Interview

Anthony Frausto-Robledo (AFR): Renalto, tell me a little about your firm. How long has your architecture firm been in business, what is its background?

Renato Candusso (RC): Sure. We have been in business since 1976. Candusso Arquitetos has always stood out by the characteristics of our designs, which besides being bold and noticeable, seek to balance aesthetic appeal and functionality. Moreover, the constant concern we have to provide the best service to our clients, managing deadlines with organization and efficiency, the investments we make in new technologies, and the attention we apply to the development of construction processes, has all turned the office of Candusso Arquitetos into a reference between the professions and companies that make up the building industry in our country.

AFR: And who makes up the leadership of Candusso?

RC: The partners are myself (Renato Candusso) and my father Roberto Candusso. We now lead a team of over 80 highly qualified professionals who are divided into eight teams: concept, legal documentation, execution, computer modeling, popular housing, special projects, partnerships, and administration. Together we have developed over 1500 successful projects in various segments of the architecture industry.

AFR: Speaking of segments, what types of building types does your firm specialize in designing?

RC: We work on single-family homes, condominiums, residential buildings and towers, commercial buildings, retail, hotels and housing developments. The office always meets the market demands and therefore we can fit into all segments.

AFR: Your firm is noted for its excellent use of advanced 3D visualization. Can you tell us about how 3D models and renderings are utilized within your practice?

next page: How Candusso Works with Cinema 4D

RC: The computer model is generally created from basic 2D drawings or 3D BIM models. We study massing, each new element, shapes, textures and colors in order to create a unique identity for each building. Each project has intense rendering work, where the specified materials will ultimately be presented  in a photorealistic manner, as much as possible approaching the reality.

AFR: Are there any special projects of note that utilized 3D renderings or animations in a unique way that lead to project success?

RC: All of our projects are illustrated thoroughly in 3D animation, mainly through a virtual walk-through process. Object animations are also adopted to explain the construction process. Among projects in which we utilized this form of animation, I can cite the Florida penthouses, Hotel in Brasilia, the Condominio Residencial Riveria de Ponta Negra em Manaus, and Modulus where we did stereoscopic 3D animation showing the assembly of a precast construction system.

AFR: I understand your firm uses Maxon’s CINEMA 4D software. Can you tell us why you have chosen CINEMA 4D (C4D) as your rendering and animation solution? What lead to that decision?

RC: Sure, the main reasons are because of feature set, ease of use, speed and their constant innovation. We chose to work with CINEMA 4D because it provides us excellent modeling tools, good representation of the materials applied as textures, and lighting that is almost real. Thus, the illustrative images of the projects we are creating are very realistic, giving our clients the exact idea of what’s going to be built.

AFR: What operating system platform do you run CINEMA 4D on, Mac or PC or both? And can you explain a bit more about how C4D works in conjunction with other CAD or BIM software in use?

RC: Our chosen platform is Apple’s Mac environment, because of its stability and processing performance. We use Vectorworks as our software for developing the projects, and the interface between C4D and Vectorworks is excellent and does not negatively affect the creative process. Both applications have become powerful tools and this is a crucial point for us. When designing you have to be focused on realizing the dreams of your clients and not wasting time on problems of communication between your software.

AFR: Your firm largely does work in South America. Does it also do work beyond that continent?

RC: Our market is very large. Brazil, until recently, consumed all the energy of our office. In the last five years we have begun challenging ourselves to find new markets, new challenges. The current economic environment is not favorable, but showing our work out there can provide more opportunity.

AFR: Can you describe your design process at your firm? How does technology work in conjunction with your design process?

next page: Design Process and Software Pipeline

RC: We work from the design conception through the construction supervision stage; and with the help of BIM technology provided by Vectorworks and its interaction with CINEMA 4D we have a complete visualization system for all phases of the work.

Candusso Arquitetos developed its projects using CG (computer graphics) technology as a tool since the late 1980’s. It makes no sense to us to use graphics computing in just part of the process. And it is important to note that our process is fully integrated and digitally controlled, by a tool created by us called ACOBRA. We have been using that tool since the early 1990’s to help monitor and describe each stage of the project, thus creating valuable historical data for future learning.

The BIM (Building Information Modeling) approach came in to reinforce our process which was already rich with data from ACOBRA.

AFR: That sounds quite amazing. The vast majority of architecture firms lack this kind of digital structure reinforcing and serving their practice goals at this level. At nearly 100 people, your firm is a large firm and you can’t grow to such a size without disciplined and efficient developed workflows. What other interesting technologies have been employed?

RC: Well, for years we were already developing stereoscope animations. Initially we would place cameras side by side and render two separate films and then merge them together. Now that capability is fully automated and easy with CINEMA 4D.

AFR: Renato, can you tell me more about this custom built ACOBRA software your firm uses? It sounds like a project and office management tool that might be database driven.

RC: Sure, the ACOBRA software our firm uses is custom built on top of FileMaker and it can run on both desktop computers and on an Apple iPad. (see images 07-09)

AFR: Thank you for doing this interview.

RC: You are welcome.

[Editor’s note: We’d like to thank the Brazilian Maxon distributor who served as translator for Renato to enable this wonderful interview on Candusso.]

Closing Comments

It is rare to see such large practices entirely on the Mac platform and we enjoyed learning about this large Brazilian firm which as you can see from the office photo shown above seems to utilize a fleet of iMac computers for many of their workstations. We imagine that their modeling group is not on iMacs but given today’s performance over price ratio on the iMac computers perhaps even today they run C4D on them. Our guess is that they have several high-powered Mac Pro workstations being utilized for their more dedicated visualization efforts on CINEMA 4D.

This is a heavily Apple invested and technological savvy AEC enterprise. ACOBRA is built on FileMaker, which as we have pointed out in this recent feature on FileMaker 12, is a proudly owned Apple subsidiary. They even have brought over their ACOBRA application to iOS on the iPad, making field and site specific work more integrated into mainline office information.

Candusso Arquitetos is located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with a regional associated office in Rio de Janeiro. You can learn more here at: www.candusso.com

Candusso’s Primary Toolset

• Apple Mac Pro
• Apple iMac
• Apple iPad
• FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server
• CINEMA 4D
• Vectorworks Architect
• Apple Preview
• Adobe Software