Module 10 - Points to Ponder

The transformative power of BIM.

◦  Which specific thing in this course could not have been done with drawings alone?

Facade automation would not have been possible with drawings. While you would be able to replicate the facade design on each apartment and floor, BIM is able to do it automatically in much less time.

◦  Which things were harder in a model than they would have been by hand?

Aligning the building with the terrain proved to be difficult in the model. In a drawing, you could simply draw the building on top of the terrain, or draw the terrain to be flat to smooth it out quickly. However, in Forma, you had to adjust the building to sit on top of the terrain, or manually smooth out the terrain. 

Your building is a set of decisions, most made before you knew enough.

◦  Which decision are you most confident was right, and what evidence supports it?

◦  Which would you revisit, and what would you need to know first?

You produced roughly thirty deliverables across ten weeks.

◦  Which one taught you the most, and why?

◦  Which felt like busywork at the time and turned out to matter later?

Every model in this course was a simplification.

◦  What did your model never know about your building?

My model never knew the behaviour of people within the building. For example, how people use lighting and air conditioning. All human behaviour in models are estimated, and thus are not representative of actual conditions. 

◦  At what point in a real project would those omissions become unacceptable?

Real human behaviour is typically omitted in real design projects because of their complexity. However, if the building was to be designed to hit a certain energy-efficient threshold, for example, accurate human representation is important. Understanding the quantity of people in an area at a certain time is important to control heating and cooling levels, in order to not undershoot or overshoot. Also, understanding human interaction with doors and windows is important to control air quality and ventilation.

What's next?

◦  Which part of this work would you want to do professionally?

I enjoy designing in BIM. I would like to continue this work professionally, especially running analyses on the buildings. I enjoyed seeing immediate results on building decisions on various metrics, like daylight and wind. This iterative approach can help create human-centred buildings by ensuring that pathways aren’t too windy and green spaces receive sufficient sunlight, for example. 

◦  What is the biggest gap between what you can do now and what a practising professional does?

A practising professional understands how various aspects of a building need to work together for it to be practical. In my model, I do not consider HVAC, structural, or building code aspects. However, these details are important to actual building design, and must be incorporated into the model.