Starting the Revit Model of the High End Residence
As I continued developing the conceptual design of the residential project, I decided to into Revit and begin the BIM modeling process. There were several strong ideas embedded in the sectional sketch that I developed and I know that the overall design will be refined through the modeling process. Seeing this sketch come to life in 3 dimensions will allow me to continue modifying the design of the residential project. Check out the progress that I made on the model this week.
Determining approximate dimensions of the site
Once I made the decision to start the Revit model of the residential project, I researched the parcel on the county’s GIS system, which provided the shape and boundary lines of the site. After importing this image in Revit, I searched for the site on Google Maps and measured the dimension of an adjacent house. Using this dimension, I scaled the image and began outlining the parcel using detail lines in Revit. This became the basis for designing the residential house within Revit.
Developing the Revit model from the sketch
Using the hand sketch that I developed last week as a reference, I setup a basic grid of 20 foot squares to organize the design of the house. Once the grid was in place, I started modeling the concrete walls to reflect the hand sketched section. When the shell of the house was complete, I modeled the generic form of the floors on both the basement and ground floor levels. On the exterior of the house, these two floor slabs are connected by a cast in place concrete staircase with glass railings.
After these generic components were placed in the model, I started adding different types of windows along the exterior façade facing the courtyard. This helped me refine the type of window that would be ideal for both the aesthetic of the house and explore the potential of passive cooling. The windows evolved from a fixed window, to a series of sliding doors, to a sliding window, and finally casement windows. These casement windows will rotate out to capture the primary winds coming from the southwest of Buffalo, NY in the spring and summer time.
Next Steps
Throughout the upcoming week, I’ll be focusing on finalizing the exterior form of the house before continuing to explore other elements of the building. I’d like to avoid the potential of wasting time due to focusing on specific aspects of the house like windows, interior partitions, and doors because these can all be affected by a sudden change in the exterior form. I’m excited to continue refining this Revit model and my goal is to complete the schematic design of the house by next week!
