Why is it important to accurately model the land features of your project site with a toposurface?
When it comes to creating a BIM model for a proposed project, it is vital to include the accurate topo information of where the project will be constructed. The topography exists before the project is considered and designers need to study the terrain to determine if the specific parcel of land is feasible for the construction of the project and what types of design (architecturally or structurally) should be implemented. For architects, modeling accompanied with the topo surface allows them to evaluate whether the design is able to aesthetically blend into the surrounding environment. For structural engineers, the topo surface will have significant impact on the construction timeline as well as the success of the project. For example in this module’s modeling assignment, modeling the vacation house on hillside will pose more challenges and restrictions than modeling the retail center in the bay area. This requires good collaborations between the architect and the structural engineer, sometimes need to make compromises to ensure the house can be built that is aesthetically appealing while satisfying the structural requirements imposed by physics. In addition, topo surface is also associated with the cost of the project as certain terrains require extra landscaping efforts, which reflects increase in labor and equipment cost.
What are the advantages of stacking the levels of a multi-story building vertically?
- Can you share an interesting example of a building that doesn’t vertically stack (where the floor plates change their shaped radically between the floor levels)?
- What were the advantages or reasons for non-vertical stacking?
Stacking multi-stories vertically simplifies the design process. For structures such as commercial office building or residential apartments, which consist of number of repetitive and identical units, can benefit the most from the practice of stacking vertically. Once the standardized unit is carefully designed, it can be applied to the other sections of the building where replications exist. This practice significant promotes the cost-effectiveness during the design process and will reduce the amount of material waste. In fact, this method is somewhat similar to the trending practice of modular construction, in which each modular units are prefabricated in a manufacturing factory and transported on-site for final assembly. This method drastically reduces the construction timeline and is an advocate practice of sustainability.
However, there are cases where vertical stacking is not so applicable and beneficial. This can be manifested in projects that involve unique and sophisticated architectural designs such as the following:
Structure like this inflicts many difficulties when it comes to applying the practice of vertical stacking as each component has very unique shape that requires specific manufacturing techniques to fabricate. Therefore, vertical stacking does not provide sufficient cost-effectiveness values to avant-garde structures.
Describe a case when it would be worthwhile to create a new custom component in Revit… How do you decide when customize versus using readily available components?
When it comes to determining whether it is worth creating a new custom component in revit, one needs to consider if the items meet the following :
- the item has unique and accurate information such as dimensions, schedule, material, etc that caters to a specific project
- an item that will be frequently used but it is currently not yet available in the revit families
In my opinion, the modeling of a tunnel is a good case of example that can be created as a new custom component. Modeling a generic tunnel is quite simple as it only requires the creation of a cylindrical object with the removal of the inner cylinder. Once the generic shape is created, the rest is about adjusting the length of the tunnel and potentially adding some details on material properties. More importantly, most of the infrastructure projects nowadays involve the building of tunnels and BIM allows the stakeholders to better visualize the phase of construction. In addition, the construction of the tunnel requires sophisticated project planning and will engender serious safety concerns if not properly executed. The clash detection feature in BIM facilitates this project planning phase as the project managers can visualize the potential conflicts through simulation and address those issues before the project begins.