Why is it important to accurately model the land features of your project site with a toposurface?
- What aspects of a building design are most affected by the terrain features?
It’s important to accurately model land features of the project site for several reasons. One of those reasons being to evaluate different terrain. For instance when you are designing for a mountainous area, it is not helpful for the BIM to be completely flat because when the construction begins, the house will not be flat if it sits on a hillside and it will be difficult for the builders to change the offsets and heights. Another reason this is important is the potential landscaping. It will be possible to change the landscaping to what the designer wants, but the initial landscaping that is already in the location where the house will go is important. It is important to know where trees are located and what trees need to be taken down and what trees can stay when we are doing our building models. Another aspect of modeling the location of the building accurately is understanding the weather conditions of that area. For these instances, it will be more beneficial to link the location to the building model because it will be necessary to design a building with an understanding of extreme weather conditions that we need to accommodate for.
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
What considerations affect a project team's decision-making when deciding the floor-to-floor height to use in a multi-story building?
- From a real estate developer's perspective?
- From a designer's perspective?
- From an engineer's perspective?
- From a builder's perspective?
- From an owner's perspective?
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?
Why do stairs follow specific proportions with a set relationship between the tread length and riser height?
- How can building modeling help prevent the mistakes that often occur when designing and installing stairs?
Stairs have a set relationship between the tread length and riser height because they are following a specific building code compliance along with considerations for user safety and comfortability. These are all very important aspects for designing stairs. Building code compliance is necessary because the building code compliance regulations are there for a reason. These regulations were formed initially with many considerations about ergonomics, user safety, and variations in stride length between each individual. This being said, it is very important to follow the regulations before beginning construction rather than finding out after construction and having to redo the stair because it’s not up to code. Building modeling especially Revit prevents these mistakes from occurring because it automatically assigns the tread length and riser height that will be built in the house and follows the codes.
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?
It’s worthwhile to create a new custom component in Revit when the previously made components do not represent what is needed in the project. There are several resources including BIMtopia, the revit library, other online resources, etc. that have pre made items, so a lot of the time the designer will be able to find the item they need. However, if they are designing an item that has a unique feature and has to be made a certain way then they will need to create a custom component. One example of this might be a customized desk or lamp. If there is a unique shape that the designer specifically wants to design for that piece of furniture that is necessary for the style of the home then it is definitely worthwhile to create a new custom component. You should decide to use a readily available component when the options and previous designs match the designer’s intent or if you are making a concept design rather than specifics. The initial design can have placeholders and then the details may be added later with a customized design.