New York firm’s director of visualization, Mengyi Fan, enhances real-time visualization workflows, bringing complexity and realism to her designs using NVIDIA RTX A5500.

By JJ KIM

At SHoP Architects, a New York City-based architectural firm, Mengyi Fan and her team aim to inspire industry professionals to create visual masterpieces by incorporating emerging technologies.

Fan, the director of visualization at SHoP, has expertise that spans the fields of architectural visualization and design. She takes a definitive, novel and enduring approach to designing and planning architecture for city skylines and streetscapes.

Mengyi Fan

Fan and her team work on various architecture visualization projects, from still renderings to real-time walkthroughs. They use multiple creative applications throughout the course of their projects, including Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Revit and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. SHoP also collaborates directly with architects at project kickoff, providing images and animations that facilitate quicker decision-making during the design process.

The team consistently integrates new technologies that allow them to explore untapped innovation opportunities, as well as boost research and development. Fan often incorporates real-time and traditional rendering, extended reality and AI into her creative workflows.

To capture all the details that bring the designs together, SHoP uses NVIDIA RTX A5500. Fan is also part of the NVIDIA RTX Ambassador Program, which is designed to amplify the work of professionals from diverse industries who are using RTX technology. Equipped with the latest capabilities of RTX, Fan hopes to continue pushing boundaries in real-time visualization, AI and digital twin applications.

Redefining Creative Experiences 

3D models play a critical role as the single source of truth, which is why SHoP designers need advanced technology to help them create detailed models and visualizations without creativity or productivity slowdowns.

Previously, the team used CPU-based offerings, which limited the scope of work and research and development they could take on. But with RTX, ‌designers can create and communicate complex designs while continuously collaborating with others.

By tapping into RTX A5500, Fan can prioritize efficiency and high rendering quality without worrying about compute power limitations.

“NVIDIA’s professional RTX GPUs are currently known as the industry standard for graphics cards solutions,” said Fan. “RTX provides us with the performance and power needed to do all the above without worrying about hardware constraints.”

The advanced features of the RTX GPUs allow SHoP designers to explore new ways of representation.

SHoP Architects’ projects have grown in scale, location and diversity, and Fan and her team are constantly learning and adapting from each project, drawing inspiration from diverse areas such as automotive, aviation, film and gaming.

Fan views RTX-powered tools as a means of opening up diverse approaches and solutions to be more widely adopted within the industry. And as an NVIDIA RTX Ambassador, she aims to push past technological boundaries by connecting with like-minded designers and creatives.

See more of Fan’s work below. Discover how NVIDIA RTX can help enhance architectural workflows and learn more about the NVIDIA RTX Ambassador Program.