I decided
to link this class term project with senior design. My senior design group is researching the
development of an engineering project that will help Piura, Peru. Figure 1, is Peru’s map showing the location
of the city. There are more than 260,000 squatters in the city who live in
inappropriate homes made of improper materials.
Most of these families live in overcrowded houses where more than 4
people live in a single room. Most of
these houses do not have basic services such as electricity, water, sewage and
others. Figure 2, is a photograph Santa
Rosa Squatting family neighborhood we took in our visit to Piura. Moreover, a high number of these houses are
located in high flood risk zones that are highly vulnerable during el
Niño. For this reason, many families
lose their homes during el Niño and are obligated to restart from zero. For this reason, my senior design team is
designing a sustainable housing complex with storm water management system
located in a low risk-flooding zone. The
main goal of our project is to provide squatting families houses that will be
able to withstand el Niño recurrence [1].
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| Figure 1 - Map of Peru and Piura |
 |
| Figure 2 - Santa Rosa Neighborhood |
I am in charged of the
architectural design of the housing unit.
This is not an easy task because I have to make sure that this house is
not too different from the locality houses architecture and be sure these
families will like it. We want families
to be satisfied with this house and take care of it. Originally, I was simply going to develop 2D
AutoCAD floor plans and facades of the house.
This project is the perfect opportunity to link the “intelligent
building” concept into our project by using a software (REVIT) that is based
around this concept. I would be
developing a complete REVIT 3D model of the house. REVIT will allow me to visualize better my
house, make improvements to the floor plans, add furniture and appliances, and design the
facades. Additionally, I will possibly
be able to select the types of materials I will be using for my house (e.g.
type of floors and walls).
I have no experience with REVIT
therefore; this project main challenge will be to learn how to use REVIT. The REVIT assignment was an excellent
opportunity to be introduced into the program and now I will be expanding this
knowledge by making a more complex model.
I would have to learn how to create/modify components (e.g. doors,
windows, bathrooms, counters, etc.) of my model to the way I need them to
be. Last week I was finally able to
complete all the modifications into the 2D AutoCAD floor plans of the house,
Figure 3 is a snapshot of the AutoCAD drawings. This week I will start developing the floor
plans in Revit. I am highly motivated
and enthusiastic to complete this project.
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| Figure 3 - AutoCAD 2D model of house |
References
[1] Cumpa, Dario. (2002).
“Criterios para el planeamiento de la ciudad de Piura”. Universidad de Piura, Piura, Peru.
[2] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Piura,+Peru/@-5.1930819,-80.7368474,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x904a107c793c39b7:0x1de8948d1c01fe28
Responses
Responses
William,
I find your ‘tiny houses’ topic really interesting. I have to admit that I never heard about it
before. This is the type of housing that
I see happening in a near future, especially in overcrowded cities. I think that Tokyo is already suffering from
overcrowding and people are now leaving in really small “apartments”. Some of them are even smaller than a normal
living rooms and the bed or bedroom is the size of a closet. This new housing trend is definitely going to
change society in many aspects. I see it
will have a major influence in marriage and family size decisions. I believe people are going to consider to not
get married, not have children, or have no more than one child. I am definitely interested knowing the
results of your investigation.
Alexis,
I find your topic really interesting. I can definitely see that daylight
technologies have an immense future potential.
For my senior seminar I research sensing technologies for structural
health monitoring. My research showed
that this sensing technology is extremely useful but it can be improved. My question is: Do you know how advance this
technology is? I would like to
incorporate these daylight technologies into my senior design. Unfortunately, I am not able to do so because
its high cost will compromise costs of my houses.
Cristian,
ReplyDeleteI find your topic of redesigning local housing in undeveloped, natural disaster prone areas highly interesting. As a junior I have begun thinking of design projects and believe that I may like to study a similar topic. Given the opportunity I would like to hear more about your design plans. Is there a way to fashion stronger materials from reusable material or local resources? Is there a safer place with similar attributes that can be developed instead? How does your group plan to utilize creative design to create structures that can withstand the harsh conditions of el Nino? I look forward to hearing about the details of your project during end of term presentations.
I also thought your senior design topic is very interesting and has significant practical use. I think the use of Revit to model the homes will be a good way to visualize the final product, which seems to be of great importance to your group as the need for the building to fit in with its surroundings is important in its acceptance by the community.
ReplyDeleteCristian,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. I found your topic to be very interesting. I really like the effort you are putting into the project. I like how the buildings design is made so that it matches the architectural style of the location chosen. That is very considerate. I believe that you will learn a lot of Revit making plans for the building. I wish you best of luck
Cristian,
ReplyDeleteWhat you are doing is exactly what engineering firms need to do more often. In a world of wars, famine, and unbalanced distribution of resources, other entities must be involved to alleviate the horrendous conditions of certain places. I really enjoyed reading through your post, and I believe it's of a great importance, In light of Latin-American political issues with land distribution.
Cristian, I like your project, sounds really interesting. I found that the place you chosen is near the sea, the weather might be very humid, therefore I think that when you try to choose your building material, you might need to consider this problem. Good luck with your project!
ReplyDelete