Key Takeaways

1. Storytelling over style – Dominik tailored his visual language to each project, proving that narrative depth and contextual cues matter more than a fixed rendering style.
2. D5 Render as a design partner – By using D5 throughout the process, not just at the end, he iterated faster, balanced light and shadow effectively, and even discovered new textures by accident.
3. Designing under pressure – Despite tight deadlines, real-time rendering helped him focus on impactful camera views and details, creating emotionally immersive visuals that impressed the RIBA Eye Line judges.

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"Witty, playful, yet deeply believable."

That’s how the Eye Line 2025 jury, convened by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), described Dominik Los’s entry, The Exquisite Corpse of St Vitus — a speculative design that blends architectural realism with narrative fiction. Winning second place in the student category, Dominik’s work captured attention not just for its bold concept, but for how it was brought to life: through a visual language tailored to the story, powered by D5 Render.

This is the story of how one designer turned a fictional monastery into an emotionally immersive spatial narrative—and how real-time visualization played a central role.

Meet the Designer

Currently working as a Part 2 Architectural Assistant at RG+P’s Birmingham studio, Dominik Los holds a bachelor’s degree from Nottingham Trent University and a Master’s from the University of Sheffield. He’s now pursuing his Part 3 qualification, expected in early 2026.

Dominik doesn’t subscribe to a fixed visual style. For him, each project must evolve its own graphic language that fits its unique context and conceptual depth.

“I avoid relying on a fixed ‘style’ that can be universally applied. Instead, I’m more interested in letting the graphic approach evolve alongside the architectural design.”

This philosophy is evident in The Exquisite Corpse of St Vitus, where cinematic renders, layered drawings, and speculative fiction merge into a coherent spatial proposal.

The Project: The Exquisite Corpse of St Vitus

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Set in a fictionalized Naples, the project critiques traditional approaches to heritage preservation—those that prioritize sanitization over relevance. Dominik reimagines a monastic complex not as a relic to be restored, but as a living, multipurpose space combining a homeless shelter, builder’s yard, and underground nightclub.

Inspired by sites like Scugnizzo Liberato—a former Capuchin monastery now serving as a mutual aid hub—the design proposes a radical reuse strategy grounded in social resilience and adaptive relevance.

“I chose to radically reconstruct the site, not as an act of erasure, but as a way to anchor it in the needs of the present while keeping true to its historic origins.”

The result is a project that challenges aesthetic conventions and functional norms, proposing architecture as a vessel for collective memory and civic renewal.

Visual Storytelling: A Mix of Mediums

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From the outset, Dominik knew this project needed a visual identity as layered as its concept. His hand-drawn axonometric drawings were inspired by postmodernist diagrams and the nightclub architecture of 1970s groups like Gruppo 999. In contrast, the main visuals took cues from black-and-white photojournalism of the 1980s, aiming for a nostalgic, cinematic quality.

“The axonometric is a drawing in progress—you can see it taped up, layered on tracing paper. The renders, on the other hand, feel final and resolved.”

To merge these visual strategies, Dominik used physical models, hand sketches, and digital rendering, even compositing them together where needed. In one key view, a physical model was photographed and blended into a D5 Render scene for added authenticity.

Why D5 Render?

Dominik first discovered D5 through the tutorial on YouTube. He had prior experience with V-Ray and Lumion but was seeking something more intuitive and immediate.

“I needed a tool I could learn quickly and experiment with easily. D5 offered real-time rendering, which let me test lighting, composition, and materials as I designed.”

D5 became a constant part of his workflow. Working in SketchUp, Dominik kept D5 synced in throughout the process, allowing him to iterate on lighting, texture, and spatial mood while still sketching and modeling.

He started using D5 weeks before the submission deadline. Rather than rendering at the end, his visuals evolved in parallel with the design. Each camera angle was carefully chosen and refined, some adjusted mid-process to fit the changing narrative.

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Crafting Emotion Through Light

One standout feature of Dominik’s renders was their ability to communicate mood. He used D5’s lighting tools extensively—placing spotlights, manipulating natural light, and controlling the tonal contrast between foreground and background.

“The emotional quality came from carefully controlling the lighting—backlights, shadows, atmosphere. D5 made that process fast and direct.”

For interiors, D5 shined. Dominik preferred the software’s material realism and atmospheric controls for enclosed, moody spaces. He rendered directly in monochrome using D5’s black-and-white setting, needing minimal post-processing. “I didn’t desaturate in Photoshop. D5 gave me the result I wanted right out of the software.”

He even discovered an unintentional trick while experimenting under pressure. By applying a plaster texture to a brick bump map, he accidentally created the illusion of weathered stucco peeling off masonry. The mistake turned into a breakthrough, producing exactly the aged effect he wanted for the church arches and ceilings—a detail that became central to the project’s visual identity.

Designing Under Pressure

Time was the biggest challenge. Though Dominik submitted only two visuals to Eye Line, he created five in total—each crafted under tight academic and competition deadlines. To make the most of his time, he optimized his workflow using D5 Render's real-time capabilities.

By narrowing focus to specific camera perspectives, Dominik reduced modeling time and maximized visual impact. D5’s real-time rendering allowed him to preview lighting, textures, and compositions instantly—enabling faster decision-making and reducing trial-and-error. Even under time pressure, he was able to design with depth and precision: layering in hyperlocal references like bottles of Limoncello, Neapolitan newspapers, and heavy metal fans to give each scene an authentic, lived-in feel.

In this way, D5 didn’t just speed up his process—it elevated it. It allowed him to shift from rendering as a final step to rendering as a dynamic part of the creative process, even when every minute counted.

Also read: D5 Render's AI Texture Generator: Speed + Realism Boost

Lessons for Emerging Designers

For Dominik, winning wasn’t about technical polish alone. It was about narrative depth, and about embedding layers of meaning into every visual.

“The story is what makes the project memorable. The render isn’t just the output—it’s part of the design process.”

His advice to fellow students is to build scenes that whisper stories—through local artifacts, emotional cues, and cultural references—rather than relying only on clean photorealism. D5 makes this possible with its intuitive material system, diverse asset library, and real-time feedback loop, which let him experiment quickly and add nuance without slowing down.

The Eye Line judges praised this approach, calling his visuals "totalising"—images that contain everything needed to understand the project at a glance. For Dominik, that was the ultimate goal: creating fiction so plausible, it momentarily feels real.

“If you can make someone believe in your fiction—even just for a moment—you’ve already succeeded.”

With D5 Render as his storytelling partner, he proved how powerful narrative-driven visualization can be.

Curious to try Dominik's workflow?

‍Explore D5 Render’s free education license and discover how real-time visualization can bring your story to life.

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