Visuals for a planning application: what authorities expect

What counts and what supports

• The submitted plan

  Legally, the drawings count. A visualisation is an appendix, never a substitute document.

• Lay decision-makers

  It becomes useful when non-specialists decide: council members, neighbours, design advisory boards, townscape committees.

• Matching geometry

  Volume, heights and window axes must agree with the plan. Deviations cost trust and sometimes a round of the procedure.

• Only what is applied for

  What is not part of the application stays out of the image: no covered terrace, no fence, no signage.

Who actually looks at the image

The authority checks dimensions. The image works on everyone else: neighbours at the hearing, members of a design board, the municipal representatives. These groups rarely read sections.

A view that shows the building in its real surroundings answers the questions actually asked there: how tall does it look, does it take my light, does it fit the street line?

Matching the plan

The most common mistake is an image older than the plan. If the eaves are lowered by 40 centimetres during the procedure, the image has to follow.

When the geometry comes from the model rather than from free image generation, this check is simple: you change the design and regenerate the views instead of commissioning retouching.

1. 01VolumeLength, width, height and roof shape.
2. 02OpeningsNumber, position and size on each facade.
3. 03SurroundingsDo the neighbouring buildings stand where they really stand? Footprints from open map data give true-to-scale volumes, but heights there are often estimated and should come from the survey plan in disputed cases.

Views that have proved useful

• Street view at eye level

  Focal length around 24 mm. Shows the effect from public space.

• View with neighbouring buildings

  Answers the question of fit.

• Aerial view

  Shows the roofscape and the position on the plot.

• Sectional perspective

  Explains the storeys when the height development is disputed.

What delays procedures, and how to attach images

• Fittings that are not applied for

  Every pergola in the image becomes a question.

• Mood images with no link to the place

  Mediterranean planting on an alpine site, for example.

• No statement of how the image was made

  If an image model was involved, one sentence belongs underneath.

• Different states in different appendices

  One plan state across all documents.

• Resolution

  For an A3 appendix 150 dpi is enough, about 2480 pixels wide. More inflates the file without becoming visible.

• File name and format

  Project, plan state, viewing direction, not "rendering_final_2". Several views in one PDF rather than five single images.

Responsibility stays with the planner

An image is a statement about a building project. Whoever attaches it is responsible for it matching the application. A short note on each visualisation helps: plan state, date and how the image was made. It costs one line and ends the discussion about whether the image was flattering.

A factual image at eye level takes the sharpness out of a public hearing because it answers the question of height and distance before it is asked. A staged evening image does the opposite and invites the suspicion that something is being glossed over. How the origin of each image is marked is described on the page about AI transparency ai transparency.