Journal Entry For
Module 6 - Evaluate Your Alternatives
Link to Student
Base Rotation | Base Radius | Top Rotation | Top Radius | Top Height | Gross Floor Area | Gross Surface Area | Gross Volume | Economic Cost | Directness Value | FVR | FSR |
Degrees | ft | Degrees | ft | ft | ft2 | ft2 | ft3 | $ | - | - | ft |
0 | 140 | 90 | 150 | 500 | 2,619,490.92 | 487,493.01 | 26,045,645.16 | 1,706,163,791.86 | 24.0026 | 9.94 | 49.89 |
0 | 140 | 90 | 150 | 510 | 2,671,597.66 | 495,485.05 | 26,566,540.17 | 1,706,163,791.86 | 24.0024 | 9.94 | 50.88 |
0 | 140 | 90 | 150 | 520 | 2,723,704.86 | 503,481.44 | 27,087,479.04 | 1,748,326,729.96 | 24.0021 | 9.95 | 51.88 |
0 | 140 | 90 | 150 | 530 | 2,775,810.27 | 511,481.60 | 27,608,411.21 | 1,790,810,953.86 | 24.0020 | 9.95 | 52.87 |
0 | 140 | 90 | 150 | 540 | 2,827,916.61 | 519,485.44 | 28,129,296.40 | 1,833,614,557.10 | 24.0018 | 9.95 | 53.86 |
0 | 140 | 90 | 150 | 550 | 2,880,025.22 | 527,492.89 | 28,650,240.93 | 1,876,740,005.84 | 24.0017 | 9.95 | 54.85 |
0 | 140 | 90 | 150 | 560 | 2,932,133.78 | 535,503.59 | 29,171,148.40 | 1,920,187,531.64 | 24.0016 | 9.95 | 55.85 |
0 | 140 | 90 | 150 | 570 | 2,984,239.20 | 543,517.46 | 29,692,081.97 | 1,963,955,419.11 | 24.0016 | 9.95 | 56.84 |
0 | 140 | 90 | 150 | 580 | 3,036,345.60 | 551,534.42 | 30,213,010.34 | 2,008,041,868.80 | 24.0015 | 9.95 | 57.83 |
Evaluator Node 1: Economic Analysis
- An economic analysis is performed by calculating the cost of each floor in a Revit massing model based on floor area and a height-dependent cost equation. It begins by extracting mass floor elements and retrieving their areas using the “Floor Area” parameter. Two input values define the unit cost per square foot at the base and top of the building. A Python script linearly interpolates the unit cost for each floor based on its relative position and multiplies it by the corresponding floor area to compute individual floor costs. These are then summed to produce the total estimated building cost.
Evaluator Node 2: Directness Study
- This Dynamo script evaluates how directly a building’s wall panels face a target object. It begins by updating input parameters of a Revit mass element using Element.SetParameterByName. Then, it divides the form into wall panels and uses Panels.ComputeDirectnessToObject to calculate a directness score. This custom node computes panel normals and centroids, generates vectors to the object of interest, and uses dot products to measure alignment. The values are normalized, summed, and output as a single metric representing overall directness.
Evaluator Node 3: FSR and FVR
- This Dynamo script updates parameters of a Revit building form element, retrieves updated values, and computes two key metrics: FVR (Floor-to-Volume Ratio) and FSR (Floor Area Ratio). The script retrieves the gross floor area and gross volume to calculate FVR as their ratio. Simultaneously, it filters mass floor elements to isolate the first floor by ID and category, then extracts its floor area. FSR is computed by dividing the first floor area by the gross floor area, with both FVR and FSR.
- The ratio of external surface area to enclosed volume is important as lower values generally lead to better thermal performance. Whereas, FSR (Floor Area Ratio) is important because it directly connects a building’s design potential to zoning regulations and urban form. Cities use FSR to control density and regulate urban scale. FSR also determines the degree of rentable area and describes the urban skyline.