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AUTODESK REVIT ARCHITECTURE 2011

Conceptual Design andAnalysis in Autodesk RevitArchitecture 2011In this white paper, CASE Design, a design technology

consultancy based in New York City, describes how

Autodesk

Revit

Architecture can be used to createmassing designs; explore design alternatives based

on qualitative and quantitative feedback; and help

address various environmental, constructability,

and aesthetic concerns that can arise during

project realization.

In the early stages o a design, visualizing a concept in 3D enhances a designers ability to

communicate ideas. Analyzing these ideas yields the ability to predict and optimize thereal-world perormance o the built project. These attributes orm a core value o the buildinginormation modeling (BIM) process, which Revit Architecture sotware is purpose-built to support.

In Revit Architecture , users have access to a robust collection o easy-to-use modelingtools that acilitate design conceptualization, visualization, and communication. This releasesupports several new modeling operations, including adaptive, component-driven geometry,robust UV grid manipulation, and increased schedule unctionality through reporting param-eters. In addition, Revit users on Autodesk Subscription can now access tools that enablethem to better assess the impact o their early design decisions on energy consumption andcarbon emissions without leaving the Revit environment.

In order to clearly illustrate a complete workow using the conceptual design and analysistools, and to address the new eatures introduced with this release, this white paper has

been divided into our sections. The Project Requirements section outlines the criteriathat will drive the building design. The Parametric Massing Design section describes thesteps taken to explore massing design alternatives inormed by qualitative and quantitativeeedback. The Site and Environmental Analysis section addresses the impact o buildingmass and orientation on energy consumption and overshadowing. The Custom Panelizationsection uses the mass design options generated in the rst section as the basis or inormedpanelization studies.

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. Project Requirements

While approach and attitude about design may dier rom rm to rm, most designerswould agree that iterative design can lead to more optimal solutions. However, severalconcerns arise, such as: How does a designer nd the best solution or any given project?How can design criteria be used more eectively to evaluate possible design solutions?

And nally, how can technology help make this exploration and discovery process moreinormative and efcient?

With regard to the specic project explored in this white paper, several key constraintsaected the outcome o the design.

1.1 Site and Context RequirementsThe site or the tower is located on the edge o a high-rise business district, adjacent to alow-rise residential district near a waterront. The site is an undeveloped triangular parcelbordered by two major streets. An existing secondary street to the north o the site willbe closed and incorporated into the buildable ootprint o the parcel.

1.2 Programmatic and Planning Requirements

The tower will be a mixed-use building. The lower portion will be a hotel (approximately7, square meters) with residential units above (approximately 9, square meters).

The unusual shape and context o the site present challenging planning requirements. The

design must meet the stated programmatic requirements within a tight ootprint o 9square meters, while not exceeding 5 meters in height. Furthermore, the design shouldminimize the impact o overshadowing on the adjacent buildings and streets.

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Project site

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1.3 Environmental RequirementsAnother challenge requires thebuilding's lie cycle energy costs and overall carbon emissionsto be minimized.

. Parametric Massing Design

The conceptual mass environment supports both surace and solid modeling workows.The solid modeling workow maintains the benets o working with mass amilies, suchas the use o the Add Edge tools. It also provides access to the new adaptive componentamily, which signicantly enhances the ability to create iterative design models.

With these tools, suraces can be created and manipulated, or they can be thickened tocreate solid masses. Both suraces and solid aces can serve as the basis or custom panelamilies. This white paper ocuses primarily on the parametric solid modeling workowthe most appropriate technique or a volumetric designand demonstrates how thesemasses can be incorporated into a Revit Architecture project.

2.1 Maximizing Buildable VolumeTo visualize the extents o the maximum buildable volume, the ull parcel is extruded to themaximum height (5 meters) using the Create Form button.

This conceptual mass amily is placed into a Revit Architecture project containing the siteand surrounding context. Levels are then used to create mass oors rom the maximumbuildable volume and a mass oor schedule is generated showing a total buildable area o46,6 square meters.

Although these results might be ideal or the project developer, they leave much to bedesired rom both urban and aesthetic perspectives. In addition, city planning ofcialswould likely have concerns about the impact o the tower on overshadowing. However,by utilizing the new conceptual mass tools in Revit Architecture, these design issuescan be readily addressed.

Conceptual mass in project Mass foor schedule

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2.2 Creating a Parametrically Controlled MassIn order to maximize the tower models exibility, it is built as an in-place mass rom a systemo parametrically related reerence planes and lines. Dimensional parameters, t-valueparameters, and points hosted to intersects are all utilized to construct an adjustable rame-work. As the tower amilys shared instance parameters are adjusted rom within the project,

the corresponding tower mass updates instantly.

Conceptual Design and Analysis in Autodesk Revit Architecture

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Modiying tower mass using shared parameters

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3. Analysis: Adapting to Physical Constraints

3.1 Minimizing the Impact o ShadowsReducing the bulk o the tower and the impact o its shadows on neighboring buildings andstreets is the primary concern at this stage o the design process. By enabling the interactiveSun Path and Shadow tools within Revit Architecture, the design team can more quickly

identiy troublesome areas. Team members can set the location o the project via a graphicalmap interace and use the resulting latitude and longitude be used or shadow calculationsand downstream analysis, shown below. Ater the building envelope is imported into theproject environment as a mass, sun path studies reveal that the proposed envelope castslarge shadows onto existing buildings to the west. By modiying the mass directly, thewestern ace o the proposed envelope is narrowed. In addition, the top edge o the westernace is shited in, urther reducing overshadowing and creating a more sculptural mass. Withthese simple actions, the project team can reduce the eects o overshadowing, create amore iconic design, and evaluate whether the modications meet program targets.

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Project location interace and shadow analysis

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Interactive sun path

3.2 Minimizing Energy ConsumptionNow that the tower mass has been rened based on bulk regulations and overshadowing,the team can begin to study design options that will reduce the projects overall energyconsumption. Using the new Conceptual Energy Analysis tools, the team is able to quicklyand easily generate an analytical model rom the parametric mass. This model can then

be uploaded to a cloud-based analysis engine to generate graphical building perormanceresults. The Energy Settings dialog box allows the project team to speciy the deault buildingtype, project weather location, basic thermal zones, conceptual material assemblies,percentage o glazing, solar shades, operating schedule, and HVAC system. These settingscan then be overridden at the space or surace levels in order to rene the model.

The energy model is kept in sync with the massing model, so changes to the building ormare automatically propagated to the energy model, helping to save the team a great deal otime and eort. By running an analysis on the initial orm and then making changes to theoverall mass, increasing the insulation in the exterior walls and roo, increasing the SHGCo the windows and reducing the percentage o glazing rom 4 to percent, the teamcan reduce the overall carbon emissions and lie cycle energy costs by percent. By adding.5-meter-deep solar shades on the south-acing windows, the team can shave another percent o o CO and liecycle energy costs. On a project o this scale, these potential

energy savings over the project liecycle could be in the millions o dollars.

Energy settings, analysis model, and annual carbon emissions reports.

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4. Custom Panelization

4.1 Creating the Custom PanelThe new adaptive component amily can be utilized in conjunction with reporting param-eters through the curtain panel pattern-based system, which automates the placement ocontext-aware panel amilies onto patterned mass aces. The result is a simplication o a

once complex technique, now making it more accessible to all building designers. The teamidentied two key requirements or the design o custom panels or the tower project:

Cost and Constructability

The designer should use precise material takeos and surace area calculations to assist indetermining the easibility o dierent panelization designs. Additionally, with respect to theconstruction process, a decision should be made as to whether o-site or on-site abricationis the more cost-eective and appropriate solution.

Aesthetics

The panel pattern should be iteratively studied and aesthetically related to the geometry othe mass, ultimately contributing to the iconic qualities o the tower design.

4.2 Defning the PatternIn order to more quickly test dierent paneling options, the Divide Surace tool is used onthe aces o the conceptual mass. Initially, the isocurves (UV) o the suraces are displayedbased on either the number or spacing specied in the Options bar.

These curves and their intersections orm the basis o various predened patterning optionsselected rom the Change Element Type drop-down list.

Visibility o these patterns is toggled using the Pattern Visibility button. Spacing, rotation,and justication o the pattern are easily controlled by directly interacting with the modeland receiving visual eedback.

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Standard Revit patterns applied

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Conceptual Design and Analysis in Autodesk Revit Architecture

Revit Architecture now includes several pattern-dening tools within the divide suraceinterace that give users extensive command over curtain pattern spacing and ace matching.The Intersects Lists tool now allows the user to dene UV grid placement based on oorlevel and reerence plane, while the Intersects tool allows sketched reerence lines to driveplacement. U spacing can be maintained across building aces by speciying the same oors

through Intersects Lists, while V spacing can be blended across nonuniorm corner conditionsby speciying common corner proles in the Intersects tool so that adjacent building acesshare curtain panel seams.

4.3 Customizing the Square PanelWithin the custom panel amily environment, a square pattern is used as the basis or anew panel amily.

The depth o the rame is controlled using an interactive dimensional parameter, whilethe width is modulated as a line-hosted point t-value. The t-value parameter is controlledby a reporting instance parameter, which measures the width o each panel and runs itthrough a simple exponential equation. The result is a mullion width that is dependenton the panel width. This allows the project team to vary the density o the panel basedon constructability and aesthetic considerations.

Finally, the aces and the rames are dimensioned and converted to reporting parameterswhich allows areas to be calculated rom the project schedule once panels are applied.

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Custom patterns utilizing reerence lines

Custom square panel

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Conceptual Design and Analysis in Autodesk Revit Architecture

4.4 Customizing the Rhomboid PanelAnother custom panel amily is created to host a glazing spider element using the rhomboidpattern. The depth o the elements projection can be controlled using an interactive dimen-sional parameter. Like the square panel, reporting parameters are applied to dimensions,making it possible to schedule surace areas ater the panels have been populated.

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Custom rhomboid panel

4.5 Populating the Panels onto the Building FormWith two panel amilies created and loaded into the conceptual mass model, new panel

amilies are chosen rom the Curtain Panel Properties drop-down list, making it possibleto apply panels to each ace o the mass. Individual modications are then made to thepanels based on aesthetic requirements. This is done by selecting the appropriate panelsand switching between the dierent amily versions that were created.

Custom square and rhomboid panels applied to tower mass

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Conceptual Design and Analysis in Autodesk Revit Architecture

4.6 Using Quantitative Data to Inform Final Design

Now that the panelization approach or each mass has been determined, scheduling toolsare used within the Revit Architecture project to quickly calculate the number o panels andthe surace area o each material used. Although masses are hosted by both adaptive- andpattern-based component systems, the masses remain schedulable as curtain systems due

to their nesting hierarchy. These capabilities are extended by the ability o reporting parametersto pass context-based amily inormation into project schedules. The unique dimensionso each panel are linked to a panel schedule with reporting parameters and then used tocalculate the surace area o glazing and cladding.

Since the underlying masses are controlled parametrically, the project team can continueto update and rene the design based on this inormation, incorporating real-time eedbackand modications, until a solution that meets the project requirements is reached.

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5. Conclusion

This white paper and speculative project demonstrate some o the potential uses o the newconceptual design and analysis tools available in Autodesk Revit Architecture sotware.The enhanced conceptual design environment helps give designers a notable advantage

through the pairing o robust parametric modeling tools or early concept development withsimple and direct energy analysis tools, all within an already comprehensive and mature BIMplatorm. The result is a natural extension o the Revit Architecture design environment intoa highly capable conceptual design solution or sophisticated orm exploration, early-stagebuilding perormance analysis and visualization, and custom panelization and reporting.

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Autodesk and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks o Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or afliates in the USA and/orother countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right toalter product and services oerings, and specications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible or typographical orgraphical errors that may appear in this document.

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6. About the Authors

CASE is a virtual design and construction (VDC) and integrated-practice consultancy basedin New York City. We provide strategic advising to building design proessionals, contractors,and owners seeking to supplant traditional project delivery methods through technology-driven process innovation. We help clients identiy, implement, and manage the technologiesand business practices that enable more eective coordination, communication, andcollaboration throughout all phases o the building liecycle. For more inormation, visit usonline at www.case-inc.com.