Please enter the following info in the fields above:
- Your Name as the Card title
- The link to your Module 5 folder in our Autodesk Construction Cloud project
Please also type the first few letters of your first name into the Link to Student field, then hover over your name from the list of matching records and click the blue plus sign to link this entry to your Design Journal.
Stage 1 - Part 1
Stage 1 - Part 2
Point to Ponder:
The advantage of exporting the values to excel is that they automatically update given design or parametric changes. This allows the designer to change the model without having to worry about the impact on presented results. If the values are then used in further calculations in excel or say a MATLAB or python script that pulls from the excel files, the computed values thus can also be automatically updated without further modification.
Design Methodology:
The first part used pre-constructed conceptual mass. The properties were added as a parameter, and mass floors were created to construct the overall building, with updating floors based on height. A script in dynamo allowed for iteration through parameter values, and evaluation of the three metrics, gross floor area, gross surface area, and gross volume. These were exported into Excel with the sheet title “Stage 1 Part 1”. A similar iterative process and data export was done for Part 2, with the element in the dynamo script changed to the one shown in Part 2 above. This element was created by lofting 3 surfaces within a pre-constructed template. The shape shown (a teardrop with the corner cut out) was constructed as a mass family in revit. The shape chosen was intended to create a fluid, aesthetic, rounded design, with a central cut to provide views and intrigue.
Stage 2
Example 1 - 100 Base Radius, 10 Degree Rotation at Top
Example 2 - 150 Base Radius, 30 Degree Rotation at Top
Point to Ponder:
The base radius has a larger impact on gross floor area, gross volume, and gross surface area, which makes sense because this parameter more dramatically changes the size and dimensions of the structure as opposed to the relationship between levels.
Design Methodology:
Here, the building height and mid height were fixed to ensure square area for all test cases remained inside the desired range. However, base, mid, and top radius were customizable to allow for changing of the structure forms and loft. Number of sides of the polygon, angle of twist, and story height were also changeable parameters. Two metrics, base size and top twist, were chosen for iterative testing. The maximum base size was limited to ensure compliance with site conditions and chosen to be altered because maximizing green space around the building may be beneficial for occupant enjoyment and well-being. The outputs of floor area, surface area, and volume were exported for all test cases, as they were the metrics being evaluated. Using export to excel allowed for easy value updates given varying design changes or runs.
Stage 3
Point to Ponder:
The goal of the project is to minimize surface area of the building. Here, we see the overall lowest surface area and ratio of floor area to surface area is at a base radius of 100 ft and top rotation of 30 degrees. In general, maximizing the top level twist appears to minimize the surface area, which is the goal of the project scope according to the brief.
Design Methodology:
Here, the only part that was added was a custom node to calculate the ratio of floor area of the building to surface area of the building. The inputs chosen were the column numbers of the desired parameter calculations, though in theory this could be changed within the node to provide calculation of a different metric.