Final Project Sharing & Lessons Learned - Roy Zhang

For my building design, two major design features are the central artium design and balcony & shading system (shown in figure below). Because the project is located at Jasper Ridge Bilogical Reserve, CA, there are plenty of sunlighting and natural ventilation. For the atrium, it allows the residence in the building can have enough natural sunlighting, which can reduce a lot heating consumption. I also installed mullion system on the curtain wall to prevent exceed natural lighting. For the balcony & shading system, it can provide enough natural ventilation to the building. The residents of the building can also get access to the balconies on both side. The shading system installed on the curtain of the balcony can adjust angle corresponding to the sun to prevent exceed heating.

I am proud of the whole building design. First of all, I am intrigued with squared shaping building. My building can be regard as four squares combines together. Secondly, I am proud of the energy efficient featrues. I considered the natural ventilation and sunlighting in my building, using balcony and atrium to reduce the heating and cooling load. Furthermore, each room of the building has windows, which means they can get access to the natural sunlighting and ventilation. Restrooms on both sides of the building allows residents of the building can access restroom conveniently. Cafe is provided on the first floor of the building. With the access to sunlighting, people can chat and relax when using coffee. Conference room is loacted under the atrium, which is in the center of the building. Wherever the residents are, everyone in the building can go to the conference room conveniently. Also, the elevtors and tea rooms increase the overall convience of the building.

Most of the challenges are coming from the structural and plumbing design.

For structural design, I have to make sure set a proper size of the beams and columns, otherwise the beams and columns would exposed on the wall. At the same time, I should make sure the choice of the beams and columns can sustain the load of the whole building. Vertically or horizontally depoly the beam system is also important. In my design, if the beam system was installed vertically, it would increase the load on each beam. So it is better to install the beam system horizontally to reduce the length of each beam.

For the plumbing, I met a lot of error says that “Revit could not find a matching pipe segment” or “Not enough space for the pipe connectors”. I have to adjust the distance between pipes and plumbing fixtures to avoid these problems.

The first suggestion I want to make is that it is important to consider the natural sunlighting and ventilation into your building design. It not only can save a lot of energy but also can makes the building look better by applying atrium or balcony.

Secondly, I want to suggest upcoming students not to overly focus on the details of the building design. At times, I found myself spending excessive time on minor layout modifications or ensuring that various systems didn't conflict with each other, and lost sight of the larger objective and my ultimate aims for the project. I believe that setting a deadline for dealing with these smaller elements and re-evaluating the objectives at the project's outset before tackling each section could aid in maintaining a clear vision of these objectives and ensuring that your work is in harmony with them.

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