Which has been your favourite international project recently?

Trond: I like the images Mats made for Glitnir on Iceland.

Mats: On Iceland there is a special atmosphere that we tried to capture. The architecture there was quite out the ordinary for that area, or for most areas actually. These two very important ingredients made it easier to achieve a unique image.

Tell me more about the project? (it's very ethereal!)

Mats: Glitnir is a Icelandic bank in the city on Reykjavik. It was a competition project, and we made this for a Danish architectural company called COBE.
We tried to create the look of a bright iceberg. The cold and crisp Nordic atmosphere needed to be present in the image as well. The road in front with the fast moving cars was designed to amplify the calm and erect structure in the back.
It was a challenge to achieve the look on the glass. The architects had quite strong opinions on how the glass should appear.

Tell me about the school project?

Mats: This was also a competition project for Norwegian architects Link
Signatur AS. They won it, and that resulted in the need for images for further development of the project. The school is unique around here (outside Bergen), for its contemporary style and the whole plan concept indoors. The images really helped the architect and builder to communicate their visions in this case.

The Soros project is heavily colour treated so that the surroundings are pure greyscale. Was this so that the building stood out more (notwithstanding the skateboarder)? Do you post-process your images a lot? Why?

Mats: Yes, using Photoshop enables us to control the image the way we want it. We then have freedom to completely change the atmosphere and feel of a rendering. Also vast amounts of clipart is often needed, and all of that is added in post-processing. In many cases the pictures lack the contrast and right colours, etc. straight from the render. We see that many problems are more easily solved by quick tweaking in Photoshop, than test render after test render.

What was the work in Xian? A hotel?

Mats: The Xian image shown is describing a little part of a huge 13km long wall of casinos, hotels, clubs etc. The "Xian city wall" surrounds the old and famous inner city of XIAN, where the terracotta army was found - a huge tourist attraction.
So they need a place to put all 55 million tourists to the city each year. And they will be kept and entertained in these new huge structures to the right in the picture. To the left you can see the old city wall.
This was an urban planning project created by Danish architects Transform.

What are you working on now?

Trond: Right now, we are working on making MIR the perfect workplace :) We have spent a lot of time discussing our work this week, and hopefully it will bear fruit. The workplace is where we spend a large proportion of our lives, and we want to make that time as interesting and enjoyable as possible. That means that on occasion, we need to take everything to the table. Its a struggle, and it can sometimes be a bit painful, but always worth it. When it comes to jobs, we are working on a bunch of stuff. Mats is doing some interiors, a design office and a shop; I am
working on a competition for Danish architects Transform; Kristian is working on a restaurant and a "mountain ski lodge"; Vegard is working on apartments and a couple of other projects (he always has a lot of projects running) and Jan-Erik is busy on a large apartment project.

Well good luck with making the workplace perfect! It was great to catch up with you and see how things have progressed. MIR Visuals have a great website that has plenty more images of their work.