Overview
Replace this text with your reflections on your design journey through class from a higher level and share your insights about the entire experience. What were:
- Key / Essential / Unique Design Features that you explored in your project.
Key design elements of my building are the atrium located in the center of my building that allows for natural light and the terraces located on the 3rd and 5th floors of my building. I am also pleased with the exterior glazing of my building that is very appealing to look at.
- Your Big Successes -- what worked very well and what features you're most proud to share as examples to inspire others.
For this project I also took a construction approach to the majority of the layout of my building so I had designed my shafts and restroom location early on. This allowed for me to have a location for my duct risers already planned out so routing was a lot smoother since I already had an opening for it. Similarly I had already planned for my restrooms to be stacked on top of one another and back to back. The back to back configuration allowed for sufficient spacing to route my plumbing. I also found a lot of success with the high ceiling in my building which helped with the space constraints where I had large ductwork between the bottom of the steel and the top of the ceiling.
- Your Big Challenges -- what aspects of the project created the biggest challenges and what would you do differently (in hindsight) to avoid or overcome these challenges.
Some challenges that I faced were the exterior glazing of my building that. although looks amazing, creates a lot of heat loss in the building resulting in my HVAC units to be beefed up. Another challenge that I had was with the location of my mechanical shaft in respect to my mechanical room, ideally they should have been next to one another but I put them in separate rooms and they had an elevator shaft between them. This resulting in additional materials being required to run the duct around the elevators. Another challenge was the atrium in my building that was an obstacle for all of my systems. The atrium was the first element I had to consider for all of my systems due to its size and central location in my building.
- Lessons Learned -- what sage words of advice would you share with other students who are embarking on a similar project.
The words “Holistic” and “integrated” are key to keep in mind when designing your each of the elements of you building. Had I known this, I would have given a lot more consideration to my steel when placing my architectural elements such as corridors and atrium. There were several times where I had to make adjustments to my architectural or steel model due to a steel column being in the middle of a corridor or in a bathroom stall. From a holistic perspective you have to take into account all of the systems of your building and take an integrated approach that considers how each of the systems interact with each other.
