What sort of complexities are introduced when you construct a building complex in phases?
- What happens at the interfaces between the buildings as the phases advance?
- How can you plan and prepare for these complexities as your create your initial building model?
When constructing a continuous building in phases, the existing portion of the building needs to remain in service while the demolition and construction for the next phase occurs. You can plan for phasing by designing for the final phase and then adding temporary configurations/cutoffs for corridors/utilities. For example, a large hallway could be cut off by a large temporary wall/door.
Build from the middle outwards. Spatially it would be very difficult to construct the core of a building after the peripherals have already been put into service.
What are the principal advantages of using a single building information model of the existing conditions as the foundation for modeling several proposed design alternatives for a portion of the building?
- Why not create a separate model for each of the design alternatives?
The advantage of using a single building info file as the basis for all design options is that the existing building conditions are managed in one single file. If we duplicate the model across multiple files, then any corrections will need to be made multiple times and without error/inconsistencies. Keeping design options in the same building info file will also reduce the number of files to maintain/store for the project.