Maxwell Richardson

Stage 1 Part 1 - Flying Chevron

image
Trial Number
Top Height
Square Footage
Surface Area
1
600
2486047.4425787786
1251443.1344301272
2
630
2504042.280346101
1256378.8487284034
3
660
2552684.454688211
1261099.2144967732
4
690
2568547.75496453
1265605.3722594795
5
720
2600544.775813636
1269900.633046898
6
750
2620869.454922236
1273987.0736917816

Stage 1 Part 2 Custom Tower

image
Trial Number
Top Height
Square Footage
Surface Area
1
550
2596569.403940492
766419.293832444
2
580
2643889.3816892887
777310.4021351638
3
610
2646090.8924224963
788203.1351135541
4
640
2693328.8732489566
799097.087382526
5
670
2740451.8594688755
809992.59569099
6
700
2742465.8887269176
820889.4761689736

Stage 2

image
Trial Number
Base Length
Base Width
Mid Radius
Mid Height
Top Radius
Top Number of Sides
Top Height
Floor Height
Square Footage
Surface Area
Volume
1
500
300
150
350
100
5
550
10
4970377
605100
48835089
2
500
300
150
350
100
5
565
11
4545420
613967
49136417
3
500
300
150
350
100
5
580
12
4203249
623173
49488371
4
500
300
150
350
100
5
595
13
3905804
632643
49880466
5
500
300
150
350
100
5
610
14
3666817
642316
50304395
6
500
300
150
350
100
5
625
15
3454961
652147
50753512
7
500
300
150
350
100
5
640
16
3288469
662100
51222459
8
500
300
150
350
100
5
655
17
3116327
672146
51706874
9
500
300
150
350
100
5
670
18
2982188
622621
52203181
10
500
300
150
350
100
5
685
19
2860092
692426
52708428
11
500
300
150
350
100
5
700
20
2748213
702628
53220159
12
500
300
150
350
100
5
715
21
2645020
752851
53736323
image

Stage 1 Part 1

For this part I simply followed the instructions on canvas. I decided to use the flying chevron which had a unique challenge in being that the bottom was a circle, therefore the radius could be no larger than 164 feet which made me have to get a little creative as I was trying to reach 2.5 million square feet.

I flexed the top height of the mass by a factor of 30 which resulted in the table above, where only at the lowest height did it not meet the project’s requirements.

Stage 1 Part 2

I used triangles for my custom model that I created in revits family editor and imported in. I lofted the three triangle with different height using the template in the project brief.

After putting running my flex tests using the nodes I system in part 1 I was able to get that table listed above. I once again flexed the top height by steps of 30 from 550’, this time able to get all points withiin the projects goals.

Stage 2

For stage 2 I took what I think is a unique approach where I tried to meld as many unique shapes as possible to create the building’s envelope. I used a rectangle for the base, a circle for the mid-level, and an adujustable polygon for the top. While it didnt make much sense to rotate the circle, you are able to parametrically rotate the top polygon.

For my tests I adjusted both the story height and the top height in a converse relationship and found that when decreasing the story height by 1 foot increasing the top height by 15 feet, the gross square footage continues to grow a lot, which surprised me as I thought it would stay roughly the same.

I used a combination of the canvas instructions as well as some of my own nodes in the middle to get this result.

Points to Ponder

Point to Ponder 1

I don’t have excel so I was only able to extract to a CSV file. From my perspective it was not that much more difficult, as I would extract them to differenct CSV files and copy them into a scread sheet. But I can imagine it would be much more simple to simply have them imported to the spreadsheet. I know that BOTH these method are much better than copying them by hand, because that is what I did for stage 2.

Point to Ponder 2

In my tests I found that you could very easilly and rapidly decrease surface area and volume while increasing square footage by lowering the floor height. This to me not only showed that floor height was more important for square footage than top height but was overall just a very essential parameter.