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?
Its important to accurately model land features with toposurface because these features will affect the build-ability of a design and may ultimately affect/change the design. The building foot print and floor is most affected by terrain features. Building pads will need to be dug-out or built up in order to create level surfaces to build the floors upon.
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
When designing a project, either having the building adapt to the terrain or the terrain adapt to the building are both valid options. From a design perspective, it's better to utilize the space you're working in to your advantage. However, there are definitely times when the design will require adapting the terrain to fit the building. In this Vacation House assignment, one could adapt the building to the terrain by utilizing the slopes to allow for a multi-level building with ground floors with walk-outs to the terrain. At the same time, some modifications need to be made to the terrain in order to allow for a building foundation to sit on a level surface. Another point to consider is the economic feasibility; having lots of modifications to the terrain can take time and money in order to dig out or build up sections of the terrain.
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?
Customizing components can be used in various situations. One situation could be if you're trying to utilize a unique component that you cannot find in a library. For example, if you wanted to add a Murphy bed that was "closed" but couldn't find a proper component, you could create a low resolution model that looks like a cabinet on the wall. Another situation could be if you're further along in the design stages and looking for very specific details to be included in your design. Following the previous example, if you are in the final design stages and the building owner has decided to purchase a custom made Murphy bed, you could create a detailed model of the proposed custom bed. From these two examples, you can see how a custom component could be a low-resolution approximation as a "stand-in" or it could be a high-resolution, detailed component to accurately match what will be used in real life.