When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
When designing a project, I think it is of the utmost importance to ensure that the building is built in the most sustainable way possible. Building to adapt to the terrain is always an interesting idea as it leaves the environment relatively unscathed and if the building were to be removed it would return to its natural state. Although, if there is a great deal of additional work that must be completed to adhere to that ideal it may not ultimately be the most environmental friendly response. In all, I think it is important to look at every environmental and sustainable angle when in the early design stages of a project.
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?
Stacking the levels of a multi-story building is a very efficient way of creating a building that shares the same characteristics from floor to floor. It is also more accurate as once one floor is correctly accounted for it is copied exactly for every subsequent floor. In addition it also groups each floor together so if any changes are made they are attached to every single floor. One example of a building that would not benefit from this would be a building in the shape of a pyramid.
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 customization is incredibly important for critical aspects of building design. For example, if a client has a unique set of stairs that he wants implemented into a building, but the contractor is unsure if it is possible to build these stairs than this would be something incredibly valuable to create as a custom component in Revit. This would allow both the client and contractor to see if these stairs are a viable option early on in the process rather than having to think on the fly later on in the project. For items such as cabinets or appliances, I think it less important to create custom components.