Nicholas Michael DuganOverview
- Key / Essential / Unique Design Features that you explored in your project.
My project was focused on three main goals energy efficiency, water conservation, and greenery. These three end goals for my building shaped the way I did things. All the way back when we did our first designs on Autodesk forma I choose my building structure based off of the energy potential. Moving on to the way I designed my building I made it so that there was a lot of natural light to cut down lighting demand. I also included sensors to minimize the use of lights. for water conservation I added a rain water capture system with gutters on the roof leading down into a water tank below the building. I did not do the math but this will significantly help with water demand. The final goal that Im not sure I completely did well was greenery. My goal was to make the outside area almost like a little garden area however it did not turn out this way. My goal in greenery was to try to reduce stress and depression. I did include many trees on the outskirts of the building and I also included benches near the trees so that there is an area for people to enjoy the trees and outside air.
- Your Big Successes -- what worked very well and what features you're most proud to share as examples to inspire others.
I am proud of my whole building. I worked really hard on my design and it took a lot of time to accomplish my goals of the building. One of the things that I am most proud of is my plumbing and HVAC system. The plumbing system was one of the hardest things to design in my building because I did not plan ahead. My restrooms are not placed on top of each other so it took a lot of work to get the pipes and everything to connect from the fourth floor down to the first. My HVAC system was also really hard because I could not get diffusers to connect to the ducts. It took a lot of time to connect these two. Another thing that was also hard was getting the ducts to be designed in a way so that they would not be clashing and that they would not take up too much overhead space in my design. Early on in this class we did an assignment that was about aspects of exhibits that make them great. One of the things that I thought made exhibits great were tall floor/ceilings. My goal int he beginning was to make the ceilings 14ft high however I believe they ended up being about 12-13ft high. Although I did not finish with the 14ft ceilings I am very proud that I was able to rout the HVAC system in a way to take up the least amount of room.
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.
In hindsight two things that I would do differently are align my bathrooms and turn my project to true north sooner. The bathrooms were really hard to insert pipes because they were not aligned. It made it especially hard because I had 4 bathrooms in my exhibit two on the fourth floor and two on the first floor. The fact that they did align made it hard to route my pipes from the fourth floor down to the first floor. The true north part made it hard to make things line up. For example when I placed my elevators my design was not at true north and it made it hard to rotate objects and still have them lined up with the walls. One final thing that I wish I did in the beginning was add my elevator and stairs after I had an idea of where all the rooms were going to be. The way I designed my building was I placed my elevator and stairs. I'm not sure if it would have effected anything but I would have liked to see if I could have been more efficient with my space if I placed myself stairs and elevator in a different space.
- Lessons Learned -- what sage words of advice would you share with other students who are embarking on a similar project.
One lesson that I think is most valuable is to plan on paper before you out it in Revit. I did not do this in CEE 120A and I did not do it in this class until later in the class (besides one of the first assignments when were drew out our room placement on paper). Although it is easy to delete and modify things in revit you will save a lot of time by drawing your design on paper before revit when doing anything from plumbing to lighting. Another thing that I learned and that I would recommend the next students do is to place you restrooms on top of each other. This will save you a lot of hassle later on in your design.
