Design that Changes with the Light: Interactive Architecture
For the past few months, I’ve been working behind the scenes on a project that blends interior design, lighting strategy, and real-time technology. I’m finally ready to share the results — and if you’re an architect, interior designer, or someone planning a home renovation, I think you’ll find this especially exciting.
I created a kitchen visualization in Unreal Engine 5.5, where you can switch between day and night lighting, preview different floor finishes, and try out multiple color palettes for cabinets and pantry walls. It’s not just a render — it’s a space that reacts to your choices, live and in real time.
This post explains how it works, why it matters, and how this approach can benefit both design professionals and clients.
🌞 Why Lighting Should Never Be an Afterthought in Design
Lighting has always been one of the most important elements in architecture. It shapes how we perceive space, mood, texture, and material. Yet in most visualizations, we only get to see a single lighting setup, usually during the day.
But what happens when the sun goes down?
In this project, I wanted to give both architects and clients a way to see the space evolve throughout the day. With a simple toggle between day and night, you can explore how artificial lighting reshapes shadows, colors, and reflection — especially in kitchens where lighting is crucial for both function and atmosphere.
Unreal Engine’s Lumen lighting system made it possible to simulate soft natural light and warm artificial sources without pre-baking. The real-time response helps users feel the difference instantly.
🧱 Materials that Respond to Light: Realistic, Interactive, and Educational
I didn’t stop at lighting. One of the biggest decisions in any interior design project is material selection: flooring, cabinetry, countertops, wall finishes. But seeing static samples or mockups often fails to convey how these materials will behave in a real room.
That’s why I created three selectable options for each key surface:
🟤 Flooring: Parquet (light oak), Marble (white-veined), and Parquet (walnut tone)
🟩 Cabinet Colors: Sage Green, Soft Beige, and Minimalist White
🟫 Pantry Wall Finishes: Matte Clay, Dusty Rose, and Clean Gray
Users can switch between them live, instantly previewing how a space might look. All materials were chosen based on current interior trends with timeless neutral tones that balance aesthetic variety with realism.
These selections are not just cosmetic — they’re educational. Clients and designers can immediately compare tones under different lighting scenarios and understand how textures react to time-of-day shifts. This is something traditional renders simply cannot provide.
💡 What Powers the Interactivity: Unreal Engine Blueprints
You might be wondering: how does all of this work without writing hundreds of lines of code?
The answer is Unreal Engine’s Blueprint system — a visual programming interface that allows designers like me to build functionality without needing deep knowledge of C++. It’s not “just a game engine.” It’s now a powerful design communication tool for architects and visualizers.
For this kitchen, I created a custom logic where each button in the user interface controls either:
The lighting scenario (day/night)
The material applied to a specific mesh (floor, cabinet, pantry)
Everything is handled inside reusable Blueprint Actors and Widgets, so I can scale this system to other rooms (bathroom, bedroom, living) without redoing the logic.
Architects and designers familiar with Revit, Rhino, or 3ds Max often ask me: “Is it worth learning Unreal for archviz?”
And my answer is: not necessarily to build it yourself — but absolutely to collaborate with someone who can, because the possibilities for real-time storytelling and decision-making are game-changing.
👩💻 Who Is This For?
This system isn’t just for showing off cool effects — it’s about solving real design problems.
For Architects:
Help clients understand your vision without 2D plans or imagination gaps
Prototype lighting and material ideas fast
Present high-end visuals that go beyond still renders
For Clients:
Feel confident in your choices by seeing them live
Understand how your kitchen will really feel at different times of day
Discover material combinations you might not have considered
This tool turns passive viewers into active participants, and that’s the future of design presentation.
🚀 What’s Next
This is only the beginning.
Over the next two weeks, I’ll be showcasing more interactive features from this kitchen project — including floor switching, cabinet toggles, and even appliance models that can change with a click.
I’ll also be releasing a walkthrough video that shows how users can interact with the space, change materials, and toggle light states seamlessly — a true interactive application built in Unreal Engine.
My long-term goal is to make these systems available as customizable tools for clients, architects, and studios — whether as part of portfolio presentations, online interior design services, or live consultation tools.
I believe that good design should be immersive, responsive, and empowering. Interactive visualizations like this allow users to step into their future space and explore it on their own terms.
If you’re an architect looking to upgrade your design presentations — or a client planning a renovation and needing visual clarity — I’d love to collaborate.
Create your own space.
Yasmin Nasr
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@2024 . Created By Yasis Studio