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 the land features with a toposurface to ensure safety, reduced risk, and appropriate costs for the project (e.g., no additional expense to fix mistakes). There are many critical aspects during initial design and construction phases that require an understanding of realistic physical features of the built and natural environment, such as presence of lakes, trees, elevation, or need for retaining walls. This information also ensures that all stakeholders (e.g., designers, contractors, engineers, owners) can collaborate and communicate effectively with each other to make critical decisions.
The aspects of a building design that are most affected by the terrain features are structural integrity (e.g., basements, retaining walls), viewshed, stormwater management and appropriate drainage, environmental conservation and sustainability, accessibility, energy usage, light and shading.
References
Merrett, P. (2023, October 22). The Top 5 Benefits Of A Topographic Survey. Merrettsurvey.com. https://merrettsurvey.com/news/the-top-benefits-of-a-topographic-survey/
Jvr Land Survey. (2025). JVR Land Surveys. Jvrlandsurveys.com. https://jvrlandsurveys.com/blogdetails/why-every-project-needs-a-topographical-survey
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
This often depends on the context of your building site. For example, if you're on a site that has minimal slope, elevation change, and variation in topography, then you can do small modifications of the terrain to adapt to the desired building design. If there are significant features of the terrain that will impact the structure, safety, and risk of the building then it's important to adapt the building to the terrain. In sites that have a mix of these contexts, a combination of the two might be applied when designing a project.
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?
Cases where it might be worthwhile to create a new custom component in Revit include when there are specific design features that stakeholders deem critical to the project for design or performance of the building (e.g., custom walls, windows, doors, cabinetry). Additionally, if you'd like to alter aspects of an existing component that doesn't exist in the readily available options, such as window or door size, types/material used, then you can create custom components. Readily available components often make more sense to use when you're looking to quickly and efficiently create basic components with accurate dimensions, but aren't concerned with actual design features.