Overview - Magdalena Ohstrom
Looking back on this whole design journey, I’ve learned a lot about architecture, sustainability, and how complex building design is. This project pushed me to think creatively while balancing technical constraints, and I’m walking away with a lot of insights.
Key Design Features
One of my favorite parts of my design was incorporating the hill into the building itself. It wasn’t just for aesthetics—it helped with insulation, reduced wind loads, and made the structure feel like it belonged in the landscape. I also aimed for sustainability, using passive solar design, strategic daylighting, and a high-performance envelope. The curtain walling was another experiment—definitely a challenge, but it gave the building a unique character.
What Worked Well
I’m proud of how the overall design came together, balancing form and function. Running environmental analyses on the initial proposal forms (including stacked freeform massing & a circular building on columns) helped me refine things like solar exposure and energy efficiency, which made a huge difference in selecting a building form to pursue. The HVAC strategy was another win—finding a way to optimize heating, cooling, and ventilation while keeping the space comfortable took some work and iterations, but I think it worked out well. All in all, being able to turn an abstract concept into a structurally sound, feasible building was rewarding.
Biggest Challenges
Modeling Forma concepts in Revit, especially for the freeform geometry, was way harder than I expected. I went through so many iterations just trying to make the form work structurally and efficiently. Also, integrating the hill into the design wasn’t as simple as just plopping a building on a slope—it required repeated grading adjustments. If I could do it again, I’d probably explore the topography techniques earlier on to prevent stress creating my Forma design in Revit.
Lessons Learned
The biggest takeaway is to be flexible. Design is never a straight path, and every challenge ended up teaching me something valuable. Getting feedback from others is key—I had to be open to input from my TA and new ideas that came up when working on later modules. I had to go back often and edit/make updates to previous models.
I’m excited to take these lessons into future projects, and am glad to have strengthened my VDC skills on Revit this quarter.
