Summary:
- Architectural visualization studio The Boundary was established in 2014 and has led high-profile projects such as the Waldorf Astoria New York and The Whiteley London.
- They were commissioned to create a full suite of visual marketing content for The Ariel, a residential redevelopment of London's iconic Television Centre, the former home of the BBC.
- With a complex brief and a bold creative direction, The Boundary turned to Chaos Corona as the project's exclusive pre-rendering engine.
- Corona enabled a streamlined, flexible, and collaborative workflow, resulting in assets that perfectly matched their client's creative vision.
Global leaders in the industry, The Boundary specialises in crafting top-tier photorealistic CGIs, animations, films, virtual tours, digital twins, and immersive experiences. Established in London in 2014, The Boundary has expanded to over 120 in-house artists, technologists, and creatives, with internationally positioned studios in New York and Auckland. Its portfolio includes high-profile projects such as the Waldorf Astoria relaunch in New York, the redevelopment of The Whiteley in London, and The Residences at 1428 Brickell in Miami.
Recently, The Boundary was selected to produce a full suite of visual marketing content for The Ariel, a brand new addition to the iconic Television Centre complex. Once home to the BBC, this cornerstone of British broadcasting is entering a new chapter as a mixed-use destination containing creative workspaces, amenities, and high-end residences.
The scope of work to fulfil this project was immense and required a high level of care to ensure the final assets would accurately convey how the new building would both honor the site’s past and its future. With a need for uncompromising quality, Dan Stone and The Boundary team turned to Corona to bring their vision to life.
The challenge: honoring the past, designing the future
The Television Centre, located in White City, West London, was home to the BBC for over 50 years. Now, it’s moving into its next phase, undergoing a significant redevelopment by Stanhope and Mitsui Fudosan that includes renovations and the construction of a brand-new residential building, The Ariel.
The Boundary
Standing at 25 storeys, The Ariel, designed by AHMM Architects, will contain 167 high-end apartments and townhouses. The Boundary was brought on to produce a suite of marketing materials for the new addition. Part of the challenge was to honor the site’s legacy while making it feel like home to future residents. In addition, the Boundary team needed to coordinate with other key stakeholders, including creative branding agency &Dave, to ensure alignment over the whole project.
The scope of work for this project was extensive. The team had to deliver CGI stills, a marketing film, virtual tours, and real-time content, all with a visually immersive narrative. They also faced technical hurdles, including an intricate ceiling design that changed multiple times throughout the project and necessitated high-precision modeling.
Meanwhile, the creative direction added a layer of complexity. First, there was balancing the Television Centre's legacy and history with its future. "[We] faced the challenge of capturing the essence and identity of The Television Centre, a site that had served as a cultural landmark for decades, now with the need to make it feel like a home," explained Dan Stone, Executive Project Manager for EMEA. Additionally, &Dave's creative approach intentionally avoided the typical glossy, high-key marketing aesthetic, instead opting for a more atmospheric tone that "captured the area's life and energy."
The Boundary
There was also a final layer of complexity in the storytelling itself. The Ariel comprises two towers, each with a distinct personality, one more moody and dramatic, aimed at international buyers, and the other light and subdued, more suited to families. For this, the team needed to craft visuals that showed off the architecture and honed in on emotion, ambience, and the interplay of materials and light. "Every decision was made to reinforce the idea that these weren't just apartments but homes in a wider community of expression."
To meet this ambitious brief—balancing precision, artistry, and storytelling—The Boundary needed a rendering solution that could keep up.
The solution: speed, storytelling, and seamless collaboration
The Boundary got to work using 3ds Max and Corona. Making Corona the exclusive prerendering software on the project was a no-brainer. As Senior Associate Eleonora Galimberti put it, "I have been using Corona since the very initial release.... It is one of the most used and trusted software [programs] we use in our studio."
Corona's reliability wasn't the only advantage on this project; its time-saving tools, particularly the Slicer and Pattern tools, helped the team save hours, especially as the ceiling design went through its numerous iterations, requiring technical precision. "Used with the Slicer, the Corona Pattern tool simplified the mapping of the ceiling's intricate details and complex panelling," Dan explained. "What would typically require skilled modellers several hours…. was streamlined to a fraction of the time."
The Boundary
Early on in the process, the Boundary team also used Corona Sun and Sky to build initial clay compositions quickly. Here, Corona offered the flexibility needed to iterate fast before committing to a final direction. After the design was confirmed, the team locked in camera placements and moved on to materiality and texturing.
At this stage, The Boundary could ensure they were building assets aligned with &Dave's atmospheric direction. To deliver on the mood-driven vision, the team used Corona’s Materials tool and Slicer, Pattern, and Distance. This enabled them to create nuanced texturing and atmosphere that matched the vision of a mood-driven aesthetic.
The Boundary collaborated closely with stakeholders to ensure the assets evolved with the design intent and creative vision. The team found that using Corona enabled faster feedback cycles as comments could be left and implemented quickly, leaving time for innovation. "[Corona] provided more opportunities for flexibility, creativity, and collaboration throughout all stages of the process,” said Dan, explaining this was a key factor in keeping momentum across such a multifaceted project.
The results: a bold vision realized
As the project drew to a close, The Boundary produced a high-quality, cohesive suite of marketing materials including:
- A curated collection of 20+ CGIs showcasing interiors and exteriors
- A cinematic marketing film
- Eight real-time interactive tours for off-plan sales
- Real-time images and animations for individual units
- A real-time masterplan and building orbit
All of these assets were brought together on The Boundary’s sales platform, Realspace. Acting as the central hub for the project’s visual content, Realspace enabled sales agents Savills and Knight Frank to deliver a polished and immersive off-plan buying experience, allowing potential residents to explore and connect with the spaces long before construction.
The Boundary
These marketing assets enabled sales agents and their marketing teams to position The Ariel as a forward-thinking lifestyle hub while honoring its place in the historically significant site. "Leveraging cutting-edge technology and creative storytelling, The Boundary has crafted a narrative that highlights the architectural evolution of the BBC Television Centre," said Dan.
But transforming a landmark like this took more than compelling visuals, it required close collaboration, fast, flexible decision-making, and the right tools. With Corona, The Boundary not only delivered atmospheric, high-quality content, but kept every stakeholder aligned throughout, turning complexity into clarity, and vision into reality.
