Why is it important to accurately model the land features of your project site with a toposurface?
- What aspects of a building design are most affected by the terrain features?
The envelope is most affected by the terrain features. It is almost decided by the terrain, because changing the topography really takes a lot of time and energy.
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
In my opinion, the building should adapt to the terrain. Adapting buildings can be more practical especially when the topography is extreme. But the terrains needs to be excavated or filled in too, because we definitely need a flat surface for the floor.
What considerations affect a project team's decision-making when deciding the floor-to-floor height to use in a multi-story building?
- From a real estate developer's perspective?
- From a designer's perspective?
- From an engineer's perspective?
- From a builder's perspective?
- From an owner's perspective?
What are the advantages of stacking the levels of a multi-story building vertically?
- Can you share an interesting example of a building that doesn’t vertically stack (where the floor plates change their shaped radically between the floor levels)?
- What were the advantages or reasons for non-vertical stacking?
Why do stairs follow specific proportions with a set relationship between the tread length and riser height?
- How can building modeling help prevent the mistakes that often occur when designing and installing stairs?
Stairs need to follow specific proportions otherwise people can get tripped because we subconsciously continue the movement by the same amount. Setting the rise too high, people will put on too much pressure on the knee, and if each step is too low, there will be too many stairs to climb than expected.
Building modeling specifies the rules between the total height of the flight and each step. It is easily adjustable based on our needs too.