Overview
- Key / Essential / Unique Design Features that you explored in your project.
I would say the key feature of my building was the use of curtain walls for the majority of the circular exterior. This choice influenced more on my project than anything else. It influenced the daylighting, the heating, cooling, and electrical loads, and it influenced my choice of the structure - steel. I felt that steel adds such a wonderful aesthetic in combination with the curtain wall glazing and mullions.
Another feature that was unique and impacted many other choices down the line was the center, four-level Small Modular Reactor exhibit space. This feature took up the entire center up four levels, and everything on the interior was designed off of it. I really liked how that turned out.
- Your Big Successes -- what worked very well and what features you're most proud to share as examples to inspire others.
One big success for me, due to the use of curtain walls, was the amount of daylighting I was able to obtain in the space. This was one of the main goals of my project, and there was so much daylighting in some spaces that special glazing was required for many parts of the building. This is to ensure that the space wouldn’t get uncomfortably bright.
Another success was the center exhibition space where the SMR would be the main attraction. I really like the way that four-level space looks from the time you enter the building and as you walk around the building. On any level, it seems there is a good view or aesthetic of the SMR. I don’t usually get very creative, so seeing that vision come to life is something I’m proud of. I love the way the floors and railings meet at the tangent of the circle and fly out toward the exterior.
- 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.
My biggest challenge was probably my site selection. I had a clear vision in my head from the beginning of what I wanted my exhibition space to look like, and I did a poor job of vetting the project site against that vision at the beginning. Because of the small size area of the site, I went from my vision of one grand level with perhaps a second level on the perimeter of the interior to requiring four levels to obtain the required square footage for the project. Also, I didn’t realize how high I really wanted my levels to be. I thought that 15 foot levels would be tall enough, but I should have used 20-25 foot levels for the effect I was going for. This would not have taken away from the square footage requirements and would have even improved the daylighting in much of the building, as good as it already is.
Not only was size an issue, but the climate played a bigger role than I planned for. Of course I understood that the climate would require a huge heating load, but I didn’t realize how big a load I would be adding by using curtain walls for the majority of the building’s exterior walls. Not only that, but the curtain walls also induced large cooling loads due to the amount of solar radiation they allowed to enter the space. Combined, these loads made it unrealistic to use heat pumps or heat pump water heaters, which was one of the goals I had for the project.
- Lessons Learned -- what sage words of advice would you share with other students who are embarking on a similar project.
Site selection is key. Of course we all know that tradeoffs will be found everywhere, but because I didn’t do a good enough job with my site selection, I severely handicapped myself when it came to big decisions down the line. The tradeoffs were larger than I had planned for because I didn’t make the right site selection for my vision.
Something that helped me a great deal was to ensure I had a good grasp on the basic elements in Revit: walls, doors, curtain walls, components, roofs, floors, levels, coordinates, ACC uploads and sharing, etc. Once I got a good handle on these basics and how to manipulate and adjust them, I was able to really get creative and ensure my vision came across.
Lastly, I would ensure to schedule time to go through each module deliberately. This helped me a great deal, and I can’t imagine how much tougher this process would have been if I hadn’t watched most of the module videos. It was especially helpful to follow along with many of the videos with Revit open on another monitor to follow along. I’m glad I did this, it helped me a lot, and I’m sure it would help others.
As tough as this was, and we discussed this during the poster session, I’m not sure I would have learned as much as I did without this challenging process. I’m glad I went through it.
