Design Journal Entry - Module 8

Your Design Journal entries this week should highlight your design thinking that influenced your decisions about:

• your overall strategy and the features of the structural system
• I wanted to maintain the open layout and the spacious movement throughout the building. Therefore, my structural framing was limited by the wall locations and the beam span limits. Originally, I wanted to use wood for the structural columns and beam systems, however, my spans exceeded wood’s limitation. From that, I switched to steel beams and framework with wood columns. After speaking with Sahil, I realized that connecting wood columns with steel beams would be difficult and costly from a constructability standpoint. This became a case of prioritizing buildability and usability over sustainability. I switched to steel for both the columns and the beams. The columns are placed along the walls and around the central atrium. There are structural walls around the vertical circulation spaces. Based on Jayant’s suggestion, there are concrete columns on level 0 with isolated concrete foundations.