Site Photomontage
Start from the street as it is, and change only the thing you're proposing.
A photomontage is the most persuasive image in a planning conversation, and the easiest to abuse. Site Photomontage starts from your own photo of the site and changes only what you propose: an infill, an extension, a retrofit, a greener ground floor, or something taken away.
Styles
| Style | What it looks like | Starts from |
|---|---|---|
| Infill on a gap site | Place a new building on an empty plot between existing neighbours. | A photo to edit (required) |
| Extension or rooftop addition | Add storeys, or a side or rear extension, to a building in the photo. | A photo to edit (required) |
| Facade retrofit | Re-clad or upgrade an existing facade: new cladding, new windows, added balconies. | A photo to edit (required) |
| Adaptive reuse | Show an existing building converted to a new use, the old fabric kept and the new work clearly new. | A photo to edit (required) |
| Street and ground floor | Change what happens at street level: shopfronts, entrances, a parking lane turned into seating. | A photo to edit (required) |
| Restoration | Show an existing building carefully repaired, with nothing new added. | A photo to edit (required) |
| Remove and reveal | Remove an existing structure or clutter to show the site cleared. | A photo to edit (required) |
Choices
| Choice | Options |
|---|---|
| Show the new work as | Realistic · White massing · Ghosted |
| Height | Match neighbours · About a storey taller · Lower than neighbours · Clearly taller |
| Relation to context | In keeping · Tonal contemporary · Deliberate contrast |
| Keep everything else | On · Off |
| Light | As photographed · Relit at dusk |
Show the new work as matters most early on: White massing and Ghosted are the honest ways to show a proposal before its materials are decided.
Starting from your photo
Every style here edits a photo, so attach one before you generate: your own photo of the site, taken level, at eye height. Describe only the change and where it goes, pointing at things by position: "on the empty plot between the white house and the grey block".
Try these
- Infill on a gap site · White massing · Match neighbours: "a four-storey infill with a shop at street level on the empty plot between the white house and the grey block"
- Extension or rooftop addition · Realistic · About a storey taller · Tonal contemporary: "a one-storey timber rooftop extension set back from the parapet"
- Street and ground floor · As photographed: "replace the blank ground-floor wall with shopfronts and a wider pavement with trees"
Keep in mind
- Not a verified view: heights, positions and perspective are approximate.
- The edited photo is a proposal. Keep the original next to it.
- Says nothing about energy, structure or conservation.