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?
When dealing with an excavated site and a partially submerged structure, one must pay close attention to leakage and structural damage. Accurately modeling the land features helps recognize problem areas and prevent any land erosion and deflect unwanted water pooling up. In some cases, there may be certain things that you can't avoid, like rock structures and large trees. Accurately modeling these will keep your design on track. Basements, foundations, and anything below ground are very affected by terrain features.
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
It’s a balancing act, and it can depend on laws and client preferences. Personally, I would love to see minimal disturbance to the land itself (do the best you can within reason). If the land is disturbed, then I think it should be done in a way that benefits the environment, improves irrigation, structural rigidity, native animals etc.
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?
The construction and design are easier, and the strength can run vertically between the floors.
An interesting building that doesn’t quite follow this, is the Frank Lloyd Wright home “Fallingwater”. There are many exposed cantilever forms because the different levels are widely different from one another. Unfortunately, the structure was not designed well enough to withstand the many forces of nature and is sitting uninhabited. It leaks and is cracking.
However, properly designed non vertically stacked homes and buildings can absolutely work. They need more attention to the structure and load distribution. Non- vertical stacking can add aesthetic appeal, adapt around an environment, or even create new spaces above and below a floor (example: in the negative spaces created by non-overlapping forms).