Thursday, January 28, 2016

B4: Group B - Alex Palma



For my term project, I am working with Danielle Beynon and Dianna Vogel to create a Revit model of the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois. By making a Revit model incorporating all primary building systems, including architectural, structural, and mechanical, we can expand our knowledge in both Revit and BIM. All members of the group are of a structural concentration, and prior to this, we have only had significant experience with creating architectural models in Revit.

A short piece about the project topic itself; the Farnsworth House was designed by Mies van der Rohe. It was constructed in Plano, Illinois in 1951, as a weekend retreat for Edith Farnsworth, and has since changed ownership to the National Trust for Historic Preservation1. The structure is a simplistic design using steel framing elevated off the ground through extended columns, along with large glass panels for a lightweight façade and appearance. Van der Rohe attempted to make the structure appear as one large, uninterrupted piece, and as such, he attempts to keep consist structural member sizing throughout, even if over-designing. 

We have had the opportunity in class to read and discuss the concept of “Intelligent” building design, and as such, we chose a project that gives us the opportunity to use software based around this. Instead of simply drafting plans, elevations, and relevant documents in a drafting software such as AutoCAD, we can use Revit to model systems throughout the building and how they operate in conjunction with one another. For this project, my goal is to learn more about how to model mechanical systems in Revit and how Revit recognizes clashes and conflicts between separate systems, as well as resolution techniques for common clashes.

Outside of implementing the various systems into our model, our design will have to accommodate multiple components not stocked in the Revit libraries. Connections between members, such as the beam, column, or corner connections, all include components which are unique to the design and will need to be created for this instance. To do this, we will have to develop our knowledge of families in Revit, which we have learned in the past assignment, and use it to accurately model these components.

References:
1) http://farnsworthhouse.org/ 




Comments

Cathlene,
3D printed structural material is still coming along, so hopefully you'll be able to find enough research about it! I'd be interested in seeing, as you mentioned, the anisotropy of concrete formed in layers, and how significant the effect would be. I'm sure it would have to do with the type of concrete and more importantly the time between pouring layers, and there's probably research already done on this topic since it's integral to the structural performance.

Bryan,
Nice topic! A lot different than most of the other topics from the class. Using Matlab is likely a good choice for a project like this; I'd be interested in seeing how you model a sensor (or rather, sensor-like behavior) in Matlab. Depending on the parameters you establish, it might also be difficult to create a numerical or programmed "value" for these properties, so I really look forward to your end product.
 

1 comment:

  1. Alex,
    I think your group has taken a very interesting approach to the term project. I am wondering how much detail you intend to employ in your model. I have never worked with non-architectural systems while working with Revit and since you have not this will likely be a main challenge of your project. However it will also provide you with a more developed skill set than many of your peers and is likely to be an important tool in senior design should you choose to design a building. How detailed does your group plan on making systems? Do you plan on modelling a variety of different system types and then run an interference analysis? I am looking forward to hearing your reflections on this process.

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