How Landscape Firm Marpa Empowers Client Collaboration with Real-Time Visualization

presented by Enscape

Written by: Dinnie Muslihat / Cover Image: Ridge Walk Project by Marpa

Rendering technology is gaining traction in the landscape architecture industry as it’s helped redefine how architects and designers conceptualize and communicate ideas. From streamlining workflows to better client engagement, its impact resonates across the profession, including with the firm Marpa.

Integrating Enscape into a fast-paced workflow

Marpa is a landscape architecture and construction firm based in Boulder, Colorado. They use the real-time rendering plugin Enscape to visualize landscapes, facilitate better collaboration, and provide an engaging experience for clients.

Before implementing Enscape into their workflow, the team used Vectorworks to render. Although it made model renderings, they needed something that could provide a type of environmental quality with plant objects, lighting, and textures—something that a strong rendering engine could show.

Marpa discovered Enscape when collaborating with a firm that was already using it. Over a virtual meeting, they visualized interior design and outdoor patios. The live modeling was what piqued project manager Brian Deck’s interest.

“That was the first time I’d heard of it, and I was immediately interested. Once we got it, I started to play around with it. I even spread it to other team members who could use it in their work,” he shares. “It’s intuitive, and placing objects is helpful, especially when working on landscape visuals dominated by trees and plants.”

Ridge Walk Project by Marpa

Another noteworthy aspect of using Enscape is the swiftness and ease it provides when switching textures.

“When building a model, our primary focus is massing rather than species-specific plant materials. We prioritize aspects like retaining boulder compositions, tree placement, and hardscape shapes. Later, we utilize Enscape’s Material Editor to fine-tune textures for creating quality perspectives, which is quick and aligns with our fast-paced workflow.”

Inviting clients into their future gardens with real-time rendering

As a project manager, Brian empowers clients to immerse themselves in the vision of their spaces as vibrant living compositions. He does this by offering carefully crafted perspectives of inviting and layered garden spaces.

Brian’s work involves collaborating with clients during the initial concept and construction phases. He emphasizes the significance of imagery in helping clients visualize their spaces, highlighting Enscape as an exceptional tool for achieving this goal.

“A key benefit of using Enscape is that it’s great for working with clients. The ability to move through a 3D model live captivates them more than if the render was a static image. Enscape lets me fly around the model, which is helpful for the clients to understand the general feeling of their future space.”

Ridge Walk Project by Marpa

An essential aspect of engaging clients is conveying romance or magic in projects. Brian does this by creating ambient scenery lighting in Enscape.

“It allows me to evoke a golden hour feeling in the design, and it happens to be my favorite feature,” he shares. “I find it helpful to do rendering studies at various times of the day. It’s great to have a gorgeous lighting effect, and I’m impressed with how you can treat it like an SLR or a traditional DSLR camera to play with the lighting.”

Visualize your landscape designs quickly and easily

Enscape is a landscape rendering plugin that lets you model and visualize simultaneously within your existing BIM or CAD modeling tool. This provides the fastest and easiest way to visualize and create realistic renderings of any landscape project.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial to see design changes instantly and share with clients export rendered images, panoramas, and entire project files.