EPISODE TITLE:
From Kharkiv to Xi'an to Dubai. And Every Render Was Worth It. — Olga Myronova-Kopysova on 3D visualisation, the AI revolution, and what Dubai does to your design ambition
SHOW NOTES:
Hello my nerdy, geeky, beautifully obsessed designers — Episode Six is here. And this time, we're going to Dubai.
Olga Myronova-Kopysova has one of the most extraordinary design journeys I've come across — Ukraine to China (MArch, Xi'an Jiaotong University) to Poland to New York to Dubai, where she now works as an Interior Designer and 3D Visualiser at XBD Collective, one of the Middle East's most award-winning luxury design studios. Clients include Emaar, DAMAC, Rixos, St. Regis, and W Hotel.
And she started her career as a 3D Visualiser — which means she has watched, from the inside, how AI is transforming the craft of making spaces look real. This conversation is essential listening.
In this episode:
• Olga's path from Ukraine → China → Poland → New York → Dubai — and what each city gave her design vocabulary
• Inside XBD Collective: what it's really like designing luxury spaces for a market recording $39B in Q1 2025 real estate transactions
• Why 'the render IS the space' in the Dubai luxury market — and what that means for quality
• The AI visualisation revolution from a 3D specialist's perspective: what it can do, what it can't, and what the future looks like
• The honest Dubai expat life — the ambition amplifier, the pace, and the beautiful challenge of building community from scratch
• Triple homework: the AI render test, the city question, and the emotion exercise that changes how you think about visualisation
• Tools discussed: Midjourney, ArchiVinci, Spacely AI, V-Ray, Corona, Adobe Photoshop, 3D Max
Drop your homework answers in the comments — or find Divya at @thegeeksdesignstudio on Instagram.
Find Olga: LinkedIn — Olga Myronova-Kopysova | Upwork — link in show notes
Hosted by Divya Goel | @thegeeksdesignstudio
Guest: Olga Myronova-Kopysova | XBD Collective Dubai | Interior Designer & 3D Visualiser
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