Can monolot win you a competition? Well, not alone. But if you have a great design that deserves to be built, we will do our best to help you make it happen. Read how we help to win architectural competitions. 

What makes us successful?

Any image can help your design just up to some point. But how to reach that maximum? With competitions, you don’t need to show every detail. You have to catch the attention within a few seconds. That is why we use photorealism with our secret weapon: tiny details. 

Those tiny tweaks are there to engage the viewer and win them over. Even if we wanted to, we could not describe the process precisely. It is something that comes naturally from our collective teamwork.

However, it is not possible to win every time. You can do the maximum, yet it will not be enough. But you still have the images to present your project: in your portfolio or social media.

Sketches are the new black.

Well, at least for us, they are! Sketches became inseparable from our workflow. Architects work under a lot of stress: we receive the sources in a rush, the deadline is coming closer, and we have a week to create. In this first round, the architects won’t hear or see any outcome, but we work hard to show a complete set of sketches after seven days. 

We look at the proposal with unbiased eyes and look for the best angles to present it. Thanks to that, we always have more sketches than clients asked for. 

These sketches are almost final versions, so they are also a kind of reassurance – even if everything goes bad from his point of view, the architect has usable sketches several days before the deadline. And now we both can focus on the details to make everything perfect.

The first idea is the best idea.

We took a lot of time to get familiar with the environment, find a similar one, and dig deep into references. And we must distribute the team capacity well. 

There is no way we would start to work on the competition before hearing all about the architect’s vision. Right at that meeting, we have the first concepts in mind and ask about details to match our approach with the desired outcome. 

With the experience comes the understanding – we created a process to work as effectively as possible and have enough time before the deadline to embrace our creativity. We know that the design is not necessarily finalized with competition, and we are much more open and welcoming to architectural changes during the process than with usual projects. 

However, due to this dynamic design, we require two rounds of previews. Our team has more time and opportunities to integrate all the comments and possible changes from the architects.

Let’s make it to the final line.

Competitions are like sprint races; you have to start well to finish well. But agile and open communication will get you to the final line. Time is scarce, and we need to know about all the changes to design as quickly as possible. On the other side, our clients need to know that everything is going smoothly and they will have the final images on time. 

We love competitions because we have a sporting spirit. Former professional sportspeople or not, we enjoy the thrills – once submitted, we have a fantastic feeling of a job well done. And when there is a win, it is the best kind of feeling.