Why is it important to accurately model the land features of your project site with a toposurface?
It is important to accurately model the land features of the project site with a toposurface because it affects the majority of lower-level planning for the area. Anything that would run sub-terrain or would not perfectly align with the natural pattern on the ground would cause for concern. In my specific case, I found that the basement was a challenging feature on the slope provided in the model.
When designing a project...
When designing a project, you should adapt the building to the terrain when possible. At times there will be instances that it is not feasible to maintain the original shape of the land, and in those cases, it is understandable to make large changes. However, it would be a more sustainable practice to utilize the existing land features into the design.
What are the advantages of stacking the levels of a multi-story building vertically?
The major advantage of vertical stacking is the simplicity in modeling. There can be shared features among floors that have similar/ identical layouts. Over this summer I was able to look at the building plans on a residential building going up in New York City that utilized variety of stacking methods to create larger room spaces for higher floors while minimizing the quantity of apartments. This also allowed for other amenities to be added to floors with less of the standard apartment style layout.