For our term project, Faisal Alghati and I are going to be
working on part of our senior design project, which is the Renovation of the
Alumni Engineering Labs Building. We are going to be converting old AutoCAD
plans and drawings of the Alumni Engineering Labs to a BIM integrated Revit
Model. The building is old and is in dire need of renovation due to poor
circulation and occupant discomfort. This project will include renovations of
the architectural, mechanical, and structural systems of the current building.
The renovations will tackle the current issue and improve the buildings
efficiency and sustainability. Newer material will be used for the building
envelope to give the building a more modern look. The HVAC systems of the
building will be improved and made more efficient by the changes made to the
envelope and also the addition of VAV systems to accommodate zone specific
temperature requirements. In addition two floors will be added to the building
to increase current square footage to accommodate for new and larger spaces.
The Revit model will consist of floor plans, 3d model, structural plans and
mechanical plans. My partner and I have already started the project and we are
currently familiarizing ourselves with Revit. I believe that this is a great idea
for us to get to learn more about Revit and applying BIM in it. The use of
schedules in the software will be utilized to help with cost estimation and
analysis. I believe that it is going to be very challenging to learn how to
utilize Revit’s complete BIM capabilities. There are certain issue with having
to import certain families from companies that provide them such as for the
HVAC units and such. But doing so will help us have a more accurate cost
analysis. I believe that having hands on
experience with BIM technology will help us better understand how such
technology will increase building performance and efficiency. In addition it
will also help minimized the buildings cost. Upon reading an article about BIM
and green design it really helped me understanding how BIM makes every aspect
of the building transparent to the other helping every sector in the building
design work in unison to create a well rounded efficient building.
Sources:
Comments:
Allison,
I found your topic to be very interesting. As an
architectural engineering major with a concentration in mechanical/HVAC I found
this topic to be very relevant to my field. I have looked into dynamic
buildings and I have seen a building on YouTube that actually has a dynamic façade
in which the exterior walls would be uncovered in the morning to allow for
natural solar heating and at night the façade would move and close the building
off making it look like a black cube to maintain the heat gain and reduce the
heating need for the building. I look forward to seeing you present and to hear
more information about this topic.
Cristian,
I 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
Mohammed-
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an awesome project, and one that really needs to be done. It is good that you are able to incorporate your senior design project into this project, because it will only increase the overall quality of your design. You project also demonstrates the need for modeling existing buildings with BIM software, because of renovations such as the alumni labs. I also liked your point about having hand on BIM experience will help you to better understand the building integration process, and I believe that that knowledge is important for everyone in the construction industry to understand. Good Post.
Mohammed,
ReplyDeleteMy point exactly, as I chose this topic as well for this term project. I spent the first several weeks on getting familiar with all aspects of Revit. Although I have made some improvements, but it is definitely challenging and time consuming, as it is quite different from traditional modeling and drafting softwares such as SketchUp and AutoCAD.
So I understand your level of difficulty since you need to convert traditional plans into Revit and renovating at the same time with this new software. But I believe it is going to be very helpful for your senior design project as we have definitely establish a firm understanding of what BIM is so far from this class.
I think the augment of the HVAC system is a very intriguing topic. Retrofitting old buildings in Drexel Campus is something that strikes me are relevant. I do wonder though how you are going to quantify how your changes will improve the building's overall performance.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting project; do you plan to drastically change the layout of AEL in addition to converting the AutoCAD drawings to Revit? What sort of new materials do you plan on replacing the existing ones with? I'd also recommend adding an elevator to your plans, as a lot of students and professors use the one in CAT to get to the third floor and proceed to walk through the walkway to Curtis to get to that level. Looking forward to seeing the final product.
ReplyDeleteMaq, this is a great project. This building been on Drexel's plans of demolition/renovation for the past years. The addition of two stories would not only alleviate the congestion that currently exists, but would also provide a better working environment for the faculty members and graduate students currently working there. The building lacks a lot of common factors such fire safety staircases and number of bathrooms, since it was not exactly built to code in 1950.
ReplyDelete