Project & Lessons Learned

Note: my Notion hasn’t been working properly this entire quarter so I’m not able to follow the provided template.

Key / Essential / Unique Design Features

• East-west building orientation
• Two floors with similar layouts
• Separation of the building into northern and southern halves with different uses and design features
• Main surfaces facing south
• Curtain walls on the southern half of the building
• Well-insulated exterior walls
• Patio area with nice views of the lake
• Overhangs on the southern half of the building
• Atrium in the middle of the building with a courtyard on the first floor
• Large exhibition halls with lots of uninterrupted space
• Concentration of building core spaces near each other
• Separation of public and private spaces within the building
• Open space on the roof (green roof) and space for solar panels
• Steel structural system with columns, beams, beam systems, structural floors and walls
• Fairly regular column grid following main walls
• Exposed columns for aesthetic purposes
• Air-based HVAC system located mostly in the space above ceilings (thus hidden from the view)
• Interior mechanical rooms
• HVAC system designed based on calculated HVAC loads in each space
• Duct sizing based on airflow requirements
• Convenient location and verticality of the plumbing system

Big Successes

• Overall building aesthetics
• Separation of building into different spaces where people can experience the building in different ways
• Large curtain wall with overhangs that provide complete shading even in the summer
• Overall a pretty good structural system
• Atrium with a nice pyramid-shaped glass roof
• Zero clashes between HVAC and plumbing systems
• Potential for solar energy generation with lots of space on the roof

Big Challenges

• Pretty much everything has been a big challenge since I skipped 220A and threw myself into this advanced class without knowing any Revit modeling - but I’m glad I did it 🙂
• Architecturally curtain wall and atrium were difficult to work with but I managed to figure it out
• Structural system took a lot of time since this was the first time I was learning about structural models and I had to wrap my head around how all the components work before trying to model them
• HVAC and plumbing systems were really fun to model but the level of detail needed to fully model these systems was overwhelming and it was hard to know when to stop and move on. The HVAC system in particular still needs a lot of work.
• One of the main challenges was integrating my initial conceptual ideas into building models. This proved much more difficult than I expected, likely due to my lack of experience and knowledge with Revit. I had to spend a lot of time first learning about these systems and understanding how they work, and then modeling at least their basics or rough versions, which then didn’t leave me with enough time to carefully work on some details I had in mind in the beginning when I was envisioning my sustainable building. Thus besides correcting all technical shortcomings of my models, I would like to include more sustainability features too.
• Generally, the switch from slow-paced conceptual part of this class to fast-paced technical modeling part was very challenging, and it overwhelmed me, but I managed to catch up eventually.

Lessons Learned

• This has been a very challenging but wonderful experience where I learned A LOT! I went from not knowing anything about Revit to being comfortable modeling at least the basics of each building system.
• I learned so many design strategies that can be applied to each system to make them more sustainable, energy efficient, visually pleasing, or simply better.
• I learned how the approach toward designing a building functions and what steps need to be taken in what order. Besides that I learned what specific things I should pay attention to at different stages of modeling, and how to avoid some common mistakes.
• Now that I’m comfortable with the work I’ve done so far and equipped with the knowledge gained in this class, next step is to keep practicing and using Revit as much as I can. Every single moment of my work in this class was a learning experience and I realized there is always more to learn and discover when working with Revit. I’ve been truly fascinated with this software and it was great seeing how many things I learned in other SDC classes came together in this class when I actually had to put them to practice.
• One last lesson: I wish I hadn’t spent too much time worrying about all the details in the initial stages of building modeling. That took a lot of time and thus I had less time to work on other more challenging systems. Also I wish I had all the skills I have now when I first started this class as that would have made it easier to model each system while thinking about all other systems that come after, but I realize that was impossible - that was the purpose of taking this class!

Zoom recording link: https://stanford.zoom.us/rec/share/u5J8LN2cZRhffduDSnnVXHzFhg8ZKv2PL-0ugOnIZ2QaUfdX5IDl-cOsnssxqZl5.FqvkONJDIQlaHmXd