What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
The primary goals for creating a building model are to:
- Be structurally sound
- Realize the functions required by the users
- In the face of climate change, we also want to utilize solar power as much as possible and try be energy efficient
I think the key stakeholders are the researchers who are using the research station, the students who build them, and the institution that’s paying for the station.
- What do they need?
They need a simple structure that takes up about 500sf of space, some basic lab functionalities and working spaces, a bathroom (water), and a storage room. They also want good ventilation and make use of the sun for lighting and heating.
- What do they care about most?
They care about accessibility and energy efficiency.
How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?
- As you develop your initial design?
- As you continue to iterate and develop on your design?
- What are the key stages?
- And how much detail should you include at each stage?
I did not decide on the details at the beginning — instead, I was trying to figure out the optimal layout and try to meet the area requirements for each partition of the building.
As I continued, I began to think about where to put the lab bench, the sinks, and the windows and doors. I put in the desks and chairs and all other supplementary details after satisfying the project requirements. While annotating the dimension, I kept adjusting the furniture and window locations, in order to make the plan sensible and realizable.
Floor layout and walls → roof structure (to decide on wall heights) → the project requirements, doors and windows → double check dimensions → fill in other details → annotate
Floor layout and walls: Pay attention to where the lines are drawn (core exterior or interior, or centerline, etc). Make sure to use different exterior and interior walls.
Roof structure (to decide on wall heights): Attach wall to roof and make sure there are no misconnections for difficult rooftop structures.
The project requirements, doors and windows: Think about residential or commercial standards to follow. Get the components attach to correct surfaces. Pick appropriate dimensions and offsets, or edit type as see fit.
Double check dimensions: Make sure the area and dimensions are satisfying the requirements, the heights of appliances need to be sensible, try to adjust for symmetry or radial aesthetics.
Fill in other details: load more components as needed, fit into existing plan.
Annotate: Annotate all room dimensions, try to show that we satisfied specifications (e.g. ADA standards), tag doors and windows
How much detail should you include about the composition (layers, materials, thicknesses) of your wall, floor, and roof assemblies at different stages of your design process?
- Conceptual design
- Preliminary design
- Design development
- Construction documentation
Many door and window manufacturers provide Revit families for doors and windows that you can specify for your building design.
- What is the advantage to manufacturers for providing these families? (it's not free to create and provide them...)
It is a form of advertisement to attract potential customers. With the development of BIM, the project specifications will be required by the government in the future, so it is to the manufacturers’ advantage to enable their products in the BIM environment for their clients to comply to government rules.
- What is the benefit to you as the designer of using these manufacturer-provided families? Is there an advantage to using them versus the families provided in the Revit library?
First of all, there are more sizes and designs from the manufacturers than the Revit families alone. There are some special products too, like a bike rack, or coat hangers. You can also find things in other cultures, such as the Japanese tatami mats. Second, I think typically the manufacturer-provided families are more realistic and visually pleasing. They often come with realistic sizes too, so you know what products you can purchase from the manufacturer.