Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Affordable House - Revit Drawings

Project Description:
We took our floor plan sketches and created our house in revit. We then had to make cover, elevation, floor plan, sections, and schedules sheets.

Cover Sheet


Elevation Sheet

Floor Plan Sheet

Sections Sheet

Schedules

Reflection:
I enjoyed this step in the affordable housing project because I was able to see my floor plans turn into an 3-dimensional house. However, there were a few problems that I ran into such as not knowing where certain buttons are and how to do different things. I am starting to get the hang of the Autodesk Revit program.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Affordable House - Floor Plan

Project Description
In this project, we had to evaluate the needs of a "client" in our class and create two different floor plans for them to choose one from.

Bubble Diagram and Floor Plan of NOT Chosen Plan



Bubble Diagram and Floor Plan of CHOSEN Plan

Reflection
I enjoyed seeing the floor plan come together and seeing what the layout of the house was going to end up being. One of the things I had trouble with was dimensioning the house and trying to figure out how big each rooms should be without being too big or too small.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Shed Activity - Revit

Project Description:
In this project, I made a utility shed in Revit. We also created a drawing of the shed and identified different parts of it.

Drawing:

Reflection:
During this project, I learned some of the basic tools in Revit. There were some things that were challenging in Revit such as finding certain buttons that the instructions referenced and learning the user interface of the program. This project is relevant to me because I will create more projects with Revit.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Roof Project Reflection

Project Description:
In this project, each group chose a style of roof and created a model of it using popsicle sticks, hot glue, and a tissue box.  The roof style that my group chose was hip.  Also, we had to create a fact sheet describing the style of roof that we chose.

Picture:



Fact Sheet:
  
A hip roof is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a small slope. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. A hip roof usually has four faces. They almost always have the same slope, which makes them symmetrical about the center point.
One advantage of a hip roof is that it is resistant to weather erosion because water/rain and snow tent to roll/slide down the angled roof towards the ground instead of accumulating on the roof and causing water damage. Another advantage is that all areas around the house are shaded (on a roof with overhang), keeping the house cooler and reducing cooling costs.
A disadvantage is that there is less space inside of the roof itself, so would not allow for an attic. It is also harder to do maintenance on it.
Hipped roofs are most popular for ranch homes and cottages as they help give them a more accentuated horizontal design. 
 
Reflection:
During this project, I learned about the different parts of a hip roof and what the layers are that go under the roof.  I enjoyed building the roof and seeing how it turned out.  I disliked how it was difficult to piece it all together and make it look good.  If I were to do the project over again, I would make each individual part of the roof easier to see.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Design Charrette

In the Design Charrette project, we formed groups of six and took on a scenario in which we had to design a solution.  Each group member picked a stakeholder role and was responsible for presenting their ideas and constraints for the project.  Our scenario was that a bridge was needed to be built to go through a wetland area to cut out excess driving time in hopes that this would bring tourists to the location.

 Here is our preliminary plan:











Here are our notes:

Date/Time:
10/4/11 1:19-2:02 pm

Participants:
Dan: Health/Safety Engineer
Mark: Environmental Engineer
Collin: Cost Estimator
Trip: Structural Engineer
Blake: Architectural Engineer

Dan's concerns:
Everything we use is safe for the environment
Materials
Site must be safe at all times

Trip's concerns:
Has to be pleasing to the eye
Withstand tornadoes/hurricanes/earthquakes/river

Collin's concerns:
Stay within budget

Blake's concerns:
Design and construction of bridge

Mark's concerns:
Must not pollute air/water

Design Plan:
Build a bridge with a series of arches.  For the boating dock, build a simple runway to drop off boats and also create another building for people to throw away waste since the boat dock will create a lot of human traffic.

Ideas:
Possibly use steel instead of concrete for costs reasons
Use concrete so it will hold up better to weather conditions, since the bridge is going to be located in the wetlands.
Boad dock: create small for fishing and other small vessells
Make public facilities for waste and other various uses
Possible public facilities:
Rest stop
Bait Shop
McDonald's/Burger King/Wendy's
Public Restrooms - city planner says no using only McDonald's restrooms

Trip and Blake are currently working on the sketches

Here is my concept map:












Reflection:
From this project, I learned about what happens during a charrette and how civil engineers and architects come together to figure out what they want to include in the design and what constraints there are.  I liked the group work and how each person had different ideas for the project.  I disliked how at times, it was a bit unorganized.  If I were to do this project again, I would have more structure in the charrette discussions.

Architecture Styles Project

In this project, each student researched a different architecture style and created a Prezi or PowerPoint presentation using the information they found.  I researched Spanish Colonial Revival architecture.

Here is an example of this style from http://decortoadore.blogspot.com/2008/09/spanish-colonial-architecture.html


Here is the Prezi that I created: