Why is it important to accurately model the land features of your project site with a top surface?
- What aspects of a building design are most affected by the terrain features?
It is so essential to first plan out the land features of your project site as that determines the planning, building, and just the whole construction of the house. Where your walls start, how you want to place your furniture, and how the space would be distributed would all rely heavily on the land features of the site the project is being built on. To accurately model the land features would allow for greater accuracy in the project and would also make the building process become smoother as one would not need to go back and change the land features if one realized something was off.
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
It depends on whether you are trying to replicate and model a building that already exists or if you are building something completely new. If it is the replica, then I believe that the building should adapt to the terrain as that is not something that can be altered. Small features in the replica can just be adjusted here and there for purposes of the model but the overall terrain should remain the same. On the other hand, if it is a completely new project, I believe that the architect can decide depending on the model they are trying to build. If it is a building that would capitalize on the terrain, then the architect should adapt to the terrain first. If the main focus is on the building and the intricacies of its features, then the architect should build the terrain to the building.
Describe a case when it would be worthwhile to create a new custom component in Revit… How do you decide when customize versus using readily available components?
When a component in Revit does not exactly fit the parameters of the room/space it is in, one should customize it. I often times did this with more detailed and specific furniture that I wanted to place in my house. One example is closet—I wanted the closet to fit the whole side of one wall in my room but the original size was only half of it. It was simply to just customize the closet and make it fit to the space.