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?
It is important to accurately model the land features of a project site because a building design can drastically change depending on the terrain, for example, designing on a flat terrain versus a hill side. With topography, architects can incorporate the environment into their design, using it to their advantage. It also allows for clear communication with contractos and builders in the future. The builders would understand how the building fits into the context of the land, regarding crucial issues like excavations and slopes. Costly erros can be easily avoided with accurate modeling. In regards to building design, terrain features affect constructional aspects like foundations, floors, walls, and drainage. From an aesthetic aspect, terrain planning can impact views and form.
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
I think this question depends on the project and the terrain. Most of the time, I would argue that it is better to adapt the building to the terrain. This is a more environmentally and costly conscious approach. Drastically altering the terrain can be very expensive and also have many negative impacts on the land. For example, it may cause some animals to relocate, trees may be cut down, and soil is more likely to be eroded. Adapting to the terrain can also lead to interesting design considerations, like using the natural slope of the hill to provide protection from the wind, etc. However, I do believe that many cases require adapting the terrain at least in some small way. For example, clearing trees to make space for the project. Lastly, some architectural designs implement terrains adaptation in ways that makes it very much worthwhile. For example, “The House and Restaurant” by Junya Ishigami is a structure that is built into the earth rather than on top, creating an interesting example of excavation.
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?
There are specific proportions between tread length and riser height to ensure user safety and comfort. People are accustomed to specific standards of stairs, changing these proportions would require unnatural movements that people may not be aware of, creating the potential of tripping hazards. Our brains are wired to predict how much to move for the rise and run of the stair, we are in a state of constant prediction, so changing the rise and run would throw off those calculations.
Building modeling helps prevent the mistakes that often occur when designing and installing stairs because programs like Revit have the specific proportions integrated into their systems. Thus, when installing a stair into the model, the program will default to a stair system that abides to code guidelines, ensuring measurement mistakes are ridded of. As an architecture student, this is very helpful to have as in drawings and physical models, it is extremely easy to measure incorrectly and mistakenly not account for clearance, but on modeling systems these mistakes would give an error message immediately.