I use area lights to simulate radiosity in interior models. For outdoor scenes I like to use a single direct light for the sun with a hemispherical array of direct lights to simulate skylight. These techniques are a lot faster than global lighting.
The object models are made using editpoly with surface smoothing. I have tried a lot of modeling technologies and this is the one I prefer.
Cityscape
Charles and Ray
Eames, interior, House Number 8
Victor Horta, First-floor
landing, Hotel Tassel. Brussels