Submitted For
Module 2 - Points to Ponder
Please share your comments on 3 of the following Points to Ponder questions. (Choose 3 of the 5 questions below.)
What are the primary goals of creating a building model? Who are the key stakeholders?
- The primary goal of creating a building model is sharing information with the different stakeholders involved in the project. The advantage of building models is that they can be easily updated and the information can be shared in a timely and coordinated manner. The main stakeholders are the owner/developer, architectural designer, structural designer, specialties designers and the contractor. Also, as information from different specialties is included in the model, this allows to detect interferences and prevent problems at an early stage.
- They need the information necessary to visualize, design, estimate costs and define construction sequences for the building.
- They care about the accuracy of the information included in the model, as this is key to estimate costs correctly, prevent any coordination issues and develop the project smoothly.
How much detail should you include in your building model? How do you decide?
- As we develop the initial design, we don’t need a lot of detail, just rough ideas about the distribution and sizes of different areas of the project.
- As we iterate and develop, we need to start adding more detail. When the general layout, size of spaces and location are defined, we can start thinking about more detailed characteristics, such as door & window types, finishes, etc.
- The key stages would be conceptual/preliminary stage, design stage and construction stage.
- For the conceptual/preliminary stage we don’t need a lot of detail, just a rough layout of the spaces that the building will house. For design stage we need to add detail for the model to resemble what will be built on site. As for construction stage, the model needs to be refined to include every possible detail in order to estimate construction costs and for the contractor to be able to build it accurately.
How much detail should you include about the composition (layers, materials, thicknesses) of your wall, floor, and roof assemblies at different stages of your design process?
Many door and window manufacturers provide Revit families for doors and windows that you can specify for your building design.
- The advantage for manufacturers for providing these families is that the architects now can easily include them in their designs, so it is more likely that for construction stage, the contractor will have to purchase doors & windows from that specific manufacturer. It is a form of marketing.
- The benefit for the designer is that the manufacturer has precise information about these doors & windows, such as size, weight, price, thermal insulation, etc; so the accuracy of the model is increased. The elements provided in the Revit families are of a more generic nature, so when the contractor has to purchase the doors he may have problems finding one that is equivalent.