The Scenario House
The Scenario House is Scenario Architecture's renovation and rear extension of the founders' own Victorian terraced house in Stoke Newington, north London, completed in 2016 and delivered on an Archicad BIM workflow with Twinmotion and BIMx for client engagement.
Project Overview
Scenario Architecture partners Maya Carni and Ran Ankory bought a Victorian terrace in north London and renovated, extended and reorganised it for their own family. The project became the practice's demonstration of its own working method: as the founders put it, the house was a chance to be their own clients and to practise what they preach to its fullest expression.
The Design Problem
The central difficulty in a London terrace of this type is that the front of the house and the lower ground floor operate as separate worlds. The brief was to connect them physically and visually while producing a genuinely open living, dining and kitchen arrangement, without losing the character of the original house.
The answer was a split-level double reception connected through to the kitchen and garden by an angled glazed roof light, with a floating library element tying the levels together. A sloping glazed roof runs back to the neighbouring boundary wall. A new bay window with a window seat and a full-height folding glass door bring daylight deep into the plan, and glass balustrades to the stair keep the visual connection between levels open. A parquet-floored living area steps down to the open kitchen and dining space below, and a compact children's room sits under the lowered reception with integrated storage and a pull-out table for homework.
The BIM Workflow
The practice built an accurate three-dimensional model from laser-scanned point cloud data, which matters on a Victorian building where nothing is square and assumed dimensions cause trouble later. Work ran on a purpose-built Archicad template carrying presets tuned to the practice's typical residential projects, and Archicad Teamwork allowed the design architect and the technical architect to work on the model in parallel. All construction documentation was produced from that single coordinated model.
Consultant exchange ran on IFC. The structural engineer, Solid Geometry, worked in SketchUp and shared files with the practice through IFC. MEP Modeler was used to resolve the plumbing and drainage runs, which on a basement extension under an existing terrace is one of the genuinely hard coordination problems.
Twinmotion and BIMx
Visualization was handled through the live link between Archicad and Twinmotion. Refreshing the Twinmotion model updates it to reflect the current design, which turns rendering from a milestone deliverable into something available continuously. That made it practical to explore design options and test materials interactively rather than waiting on render time.
Alongside it, the practice exported VR-enabled models to BIMx so clients could explore the design themselves, including stereoscopic viewing through Google Cardboard, and gave contractors tablet access to the 3D model on site.
Ran Ankory, Managing Director and Founder, frames the reason plainly: accurate and realistic 3D representation is key to meaningful discussions with clients who are not used to reading plans.
Key Facts
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Business Impact
- 35% more efficient than 2D CAD
- All drawings from one BIM model
- Clients review design in VR
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Tools Used in the Case Study
Discover which tools and technologies were used for "The Scenario House".
Twinmotion
Twinmotion is real-time architectural visualization software powered by Unreal Engine, enabling architects, designers, and AEC professionals to transform 3D models into immersive presentations, animations, and walkthroughs in minutes. With seamless integration for Revit and support for other leading design applications, Twinmotion rendering software combines high-quality visuals with an intuitive workflow. Whether you’re exploring Twinmotion pricing, looking for the free version, or comparing the best Twinmotion alternatives, this guide covers everything you need to know.
ArchiCAD
Archicad is a leading BIM software platform for architects, designers, and AEC professionals, providing an integrated environment for designing, documenting, visualizing, and coordinating building projects. Developed by Graphisoft, Archicad combines Building Information Modeling (BIM) with powerful architectural design tools to streamline workflows from concept to construction documentation. Whether you’re comparing Archicad pricing, exploring its features, testing the free trial, or evaluating Archicad alternatives, this guide explains everything you need to know to determine whether Graphisoft Archicad is the right BIM software for your projects.
User Experience
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Why this tool/tech was selected
Why Archicad and Twinmotion for Residential Work
Scenario Architecture is a small London practice working mainly on domestic projects. That shapes the software decision quite differently from a large commercial office, and the reasoning is instructive for any practice of similar size.
Existing buildings, not blank sites
Almost every London residential project is an alteration to an existing structure. Archicad's handling of point cloud survey data lets the practice build the model from measured reality rather than from an idealised drawing, which is the single most useful thing a BIM tool can do on a Victorian terrace where walls are out of plumb and floor levels do not match the drawings.
A template is the real productivity gain
The practice invested in a sophisticated Archicad template with presets configured for the kind of project it does repeatedly. On small projects, where fees do not support setup time, having graphics, layers, favourites and documentation settings already correct is worth more than any individual modelling feature. It is also what makes a 35 percent efficiency figure plausible: the saving is in not repeating setup, not in drawing walls faster.
Two people, one model
Archicad Teamwork let a design architect and a technical architect work on the same model simultaneously. In a practice of this scale that is the difference between design and documentation running in sequence and running together.
Open exchange with a small consultant team
The structural engineer worked in SketchUp. Rather than forcing a platform change, the team exchanged through IFC. For a domestic project with a modest consultant team, insisting everyone adopt the same software is not realistic, and open formats are what make coordination possible at all.
Twinmotion because clients cannot read drawings
The live Archicad to Twinmotion connection removes the cost of producing an image. When a render is nearly free and nearly instant, it stops being a presentation artefact and becomes part of the conversation, which is exactly what domestic clients need in order to make decisions with confidence.
Challenges the Client Faced before
A disconnected Victorian plan
The house arrived as a series of separate rooms with the front section cut off from the lower ground floor. Connecting them physically and visually, while keeping the period character of the street elevation, was the defining design constraint.
An irregular existing structure
Victorian terraces are not built to modern tolerances. Working from assumed dimensions on a project like this produces components that do not fit, which is why the survey was taken as a laser-scanned point cloud and modelled accurately from the start.
Services in a basement extension
Plumbing and drainage runs under an existing terrace, feeding a new lower ground floor kitchen, are constrained by existing levels, the position of the sewer connection and limited ceiling depth. These are the clashes that stop work on site if they are not resolved in advance.
Clients who cannot read plans
This is the challenge the practice identifies as central to residential work generally. Homeowners commit large sums to something they cannot picture, and the resulting misunderstandings surface as change requests during construction.
Mixed software across a small team
With the structural engineer working in SketchUp, coordination had to happen across different tools without a shared platform to enforce it.
The previous method used
The practice's own comparison is with a traditional 2D CAD workflow, which is still the default in much of the UK residential sector. In that method plans, sections and elevations are drawn and maintained separately, three-dimensional understanding lives in the architect's head, and visualization is a separate paid exercise commissioned at milestones.
Two costs follow. Coordination errors between drawings are found late, often on site, because nothing enforces consistency between views. And clients approve designs they have not really understood, because a plan is a professional notation and most homeowners cannot read one. Both problems surface during construction, which is the most expensive place to find them.
Scenario Architecture reports a 35 percent efficiency improvement against that 2D CAD baseline.
Time / Money saved & the Business Impact.
A 35 percent efficiency improvement
The headline figure published in Graphisoft's case study is a 35 percent efficiency improvement compared with the practice's previous 2D CAD workflow. For a small residential practice, where fees are fixed early and margin is thin, an efficiency gain of that order is the difference between a project type being viable and being loss-making.
Design changes resolved faster during construction
Because documentation is generated from one coordinated model, a change made during construction propagates rather than requiring every affected drawing to be found and revised. On a live domestic site, where the client is often living in or beside the works, the speed of that turnaround has a direct effect on programme.
Fewer errors and misunderstandings in documentation
Model-generated drawings cannot disagree with one another in the way independently drafted 2D drawings can. The practice reports clearer documentation with reduced errors, which on a small project translates directly into fewer contractor queries and fewer variations.
Coordination across architecture, structure and services
IFC exchange with the structural engineer and MEP Modeler for plumbing and drainage moved the difficult basement services coordination into the model, ahead of construction rather than during it.
Clients who genuinely understand what they are approving
Real-time Twinmotion views, 3D documents and BIMx models explored in virtual reality replace the act of interpretation that a plan demands. The commercial value is not the imagery itself but the reduction in late changes that comes from a client who understood the design before work started.
The model as a site tool
Giving contractors tablet access to the 3D model changes what the builder can check without calling the architect, and improves collaboration with quantity surveyors, contractors and subcontractors through the same single source of information.
Customer Quote
Ran Ankory, Managing Director and Founder, Scenario Architecture: accurate and realistic 3D representation is key to meaningful discussions with clients unused to reading plans.
Original Case Study
Additional Information
Project credits
Project: The Scenario House. Architect: Scenario Architecture, founders Ran Ankory and Maya Carni. Location: Stoke Newington, north London, United Kingdom. Type: renovation and rear extension of a Victorian terraced house, the architects' own home. Completion: 2016. Structural engineer: Solid Geometry. Software: Archicad with Archicad Teamwork and MEP Modeler, Twinmotion for real-time visualization, BIMx for client and site model access. Survey: laser-scanned point cloud. Exchange format: IFC.
Source
Published as a Graphisoft customer case study, with the completed house also documented in the architectural press.
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