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?
Where the building directing interacts with the site. For my project, the home’s foundation, the driveway, the pathways, the courtyards, the stairs connecting the rooftop balcony to higher elevation on the site, etc. would all be affected depending on the building’s location relative to the property.
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
It always depends on the site. One solution should not be replicated in another location without thinking through its local site impacts and requirements. For this project, I used the sloped terrain in tandem with the the buildings inner and outer courtyard pockets to enhance the flow of movement throughout the vacation home. I still used the pads to ensure the house was structurally sound and that given the steep slope, the home would still be there functioning decades later.
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?
The biggest advantage of stacking levels vertically is ease of construction since the structural supports align, making it both cost effective and faster to build. However, sometimes non-vertical stacking is encouraged when the brief asks for a more complicated, unconventional structure. It could still have rectilinear forms, but be more playful like the Lego House in Denmark. It could also be more organic like MVRDV’s Shenzhen Terraces.
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?