Why does it matter to model the real terrain and real neighboring buildings?
◦ Which aspects of a building design are most affected by surrounding context?
The surrounding context greatly influences how to design a building. Some major context-decided factors include which facade to place windows, where to plant vegetation (where it will get sunlight), where to place shared balconies & public spaces, where to install solar panels, and who to design your building for (socioeconomic level, job focus, etc.).
◦ What kinds of mistakes only become visible once the context is present?
Once the context is present, you might realize that you designed a public courtyard too close to noisy traffic or that the units you designed where too close to the neaighboring building and therefore receive not enough natural light. Also, you might realize that you should have included amenities such as restaurants, a grocery store, or a gym in your building if there is not one nearby for residents.
Should the building adapt to the site, or the site to the building?
◦ From a developer's perspective?
The building should adapt to the site. As a developer, you are choosing to build soemthing on a site because you thank that could provide a benefit to the surrounding area (even if that benefits you). If you were to think the site should adapt to the building, then there wouldn’t be a need for the building in the first place; Rather, a developer chooses a site because the surrounding neighborhood is lacking a certain need, whether that be food access, education, housing, jobs, etc. and it needs a building to help facilitate addressing those needs.
◦ From a designer's perspective?
Similar to a developer, a designer must adapt their building design to the site. The designer’s goal is to meet the client’s needs and if that client is lacking something enough to want to build something, then surely the design must address that client & their site. HOWEVER, in some rarer cases maybe the site should adapt to the building because if it brings in new opportunities never before seen there like industry (steel mills), then the surrounding area might need to adapt to that in order to take full advantage of it’s offered opportunities.
◦ From the perspective of the neighbors who already live there?
The neighbors who live there could think in either sense. On one hand, most of the time people would want a building being designed in their community to fulfill a need they have or a service they are lacking. However, if it brings in a new opportunity to their area, then the neighbor may want to adapt to the building to take full advantage of it.
Sun hours and wind frequently want opposite things from the same massing.
◦ How should a team break the tie when two analyses disagree?
◦ Who should have the final say, and at what point in the process?
Forma's rapid analyses are fast because they are approximate.
◦ What is a rapid operational energy analysis leaving out?
◦ At what stage does that approximation stop being good enough?
◦ What would you need before putting a performance number in front of a client?
You generated three proposals and recommended one.
◦ Did the analysis choose it, or did you choose it and then find numbers that agreed?
◦ What would you have had to see to abandon your favorite option?
◦ If the lot next door is built out in three years, does your recommendation hold?