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?

If the land features are not accurate, there are several problems. First, the expected cost for excavation will change. The difference between the actual amount and the expected amount of excavation affects not only the cost but also the time of excavation, which also increases the cost. In addition, the inaccurate model affects the safety of the building. Underground walls must be designed to withstand earth pressure and to prevent rainwater from entering.

When designing a project...

• Should the building adapt to the terrain?
• Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?

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?

Describe a case when it would be worthwhile to create a new custom component in Revit… How do you decide when customize versus using readily available components?

I think there are mainly 2 cases that a new custom component is worthwhile. The first case is when the component should be fit to the room shape. The readily available components sometimes do not fit the room, such as a non-rectangular room. The second case is when the customized component can be used a lot in a project. In general, making a small number of customized components tends to be expensive. However, in a multi-story building, for example, the number of production is larger, the more cost can reduce.