Why is it important to accurately model the land features of your project site with a toposurface?
- What aspects of a building design are most affected by the terrain features?
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
The building should ideally adapt to the terrain until it becomes too impractical. While retaining walls hold rather well they are not always an easy solution to maintain. If your house is place in a lower terrain then window placement is really important in order to get as much lighting as possible. Features like this should all be heavily considered when designing houses. Also consideration for weather patterns and how they behave on the surface can prevent things like future flooding.
What considerations affect a project team's decision-making when deciding the floor-to-floor height to use in a multi-story building?
- From a real estate developer's perspective?
- From a designer's perspective?
- From an engineer's perspective?
- From a builder's perspective?
- From an owner's perspective?
What are the advantages of stacking the levels of a multi-story building vertically?
- Can you share an interesting example of a building that doesn’t vertically stack (where the floor plates change their shaped radically between the floor levels)?
- What were the advantages or reasons for non-vertical stacking?
The advantages for stacking the levels of a multi-story building vertically is that it allows for some cost saving measures while also creating a more structurally sound building. If a multi-story building is stacked then all of the stairs can be in the same location and bathrooms and their plumbing can be placed on top of each other. These are just some examples of advantages. An example of building that doesn’t stack vertically are the Dwellings in Carablanchle. The advantages are their beauty but also allows for different lighting solutions and floor plans that suit all different types of tenants.
Why do stairs follow specific proportions with a set relationship between the tread length and riser height?
- How can building modeling help prevent the mistakes that often occur when designing and installing stairs?
Stairs follow specific proportions with a set relationship if anything as a safety measure. Things like standard step lengths prevent people from falling. Building modeling can help prevent the mistakes that often occur when designing and installing stairs because it removes a level of error. For example the railings have a lot of potential for mistakes and if modeled properly then the sizing of them can be done accurately before hand. It also gives a better idea of where the stairs should be installed and how they align with each other from floor to floor.