Submitted For
Module 3 - Points to Ponder
Please share your comments on 3 of the following Points to Ponder questions. (Choose 3 of the questions below.)
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 terrain with a toposurface because some of the most critical elements of your project, including your walls and floors are affected by the terrain features. You need to know where the terrain intersects with your building plan. This informs what walls need to be concrete to withstand terrain, as well as shows you where you need to dig in order to be able to set your house into the terrain.
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
- A little bit of both. We do have the ability to displace rock and dirt and other materials from the natural terrain, so this is definitely a tool in our arsenal if it fits the design best, but it’s not free, and it’s not always easy, so it is best to evaluate whether it is viable to adapt the terrain to our building’s needs. If this is not possible, then we should check similar surrounding locations that would still fit all stakeholders’ needs to see if the terrain in any of these other desirable locations is workable. Sometimes, designs that do not disrupt the natural terrain can look cool, although they can be difficult projects. Generally, I would think the first step is try to find a location that minimizes the need for removal of natural terrain, and then adapt the building to the terrain as much as possible without compromising the project’s vision.
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?
- If stairs are uneven in tread length or riser height, even one odd step can throw people off and cause them to trip. This significantly decreases the utility of the stairs. Further, even if the stairs are even, they could be hazardous if the tread length is too deep or too narrow, or if the riser height is too short or too tall. Building modeling helps prevent mistakes that could occur when modeling stairs by hand because it does all of the math for the user. The user gives the building modeling software a few parameters, and the software correctly determines the step location/size based on an appropriate tread length and riser height.