Session 7 Part A Revit for Urban Design Class Description Revit for Urban Design will present a methodology that can enable project teams to quickly become efficient in a coordinated spatial environment that has computable information. The class will demonstrate a developed and documented process that connects the usually disparate and disconnected pieces of the urban design and master planning puzzles. Centered on these disciplines, the class is of value to all those in the design and decision making process. About the Speaker: Lee Miller is a Vice President and the Director of BIM Services for HOK. He has worked in the AEC industry for nearly 15 years and has worked on a wide variety of projects, including commercial, health care, interiors, aviation, justice, and urban design. He travels to many of the HOK offices worldwide to provide implementation strategies as well as BIM and project management solutions. Lee is a popular speaker and has lectured at venues such as the buildingsmart Forum, Autodesk University and numerous other BIM seminars.
Why use Revit? Revit allows urban designers to shift their focus from a traditional two dimensional design approach to one that is an object-based parametric design process. It also streamlines work flows that are typically disparate and unconnected and results in the generation of rich modelling content that is accurate, reusable and graphically appealing. In practice, Urban Design is closely related to master planning on large scale projects, and architecture on the smaller scales. Urban designers also work very closely with other disciplines such as landscape architecture. For most designers, Revit provides consistent platform for interdisciplinary coordination. Common Characteristics of Urban Design Projects Urban design projects are multidisciplinary nature and include a wide array of deliverables. These deliverables include but are not limited to: Plans: from technical to rendered Diagrams: from abstract to complex 3D Representation: diagrammatic and photorealistic Calculation: carried through from preliminary to detailed, with requirements to break down The main goal for using Revit is to maximize efficiency. The utilization of a single program allows the project team to be coordinated, and information is repurposed within one central model. Goals to use Revit: To quickly repurpose information; streamline processes Coordinate data and graphics Reuse information and settings even beyond one project Payback from front-end work (setup); a body of work that can continue to evolve and generate quick results Advantages of Revit to Traditional Methods In the traditional design and production process, nearly 70 80% of labor includes managing information and working between several different applications. Although in large measure, the individual results are generally very nice, the effort is not always integrated and thereby produces a lot of repetitive work. Multiple programs and file conversions are required to deliver the full package and this inefficiency takes time away from design. Page 2 of 16
Traditional Design / Production Process Having a central Revit model reduces the number of software platforms required to produce deliverables and allows the team to collaboratively improve the design. Other benefits include: Eliminating redundant handling and recreation of project data Reducing design and drafting time Improving workflow Exploring more design alternatives Improving clarity of design intent HOK Project Examples At HOK, Revit has been utilized on urban design projects at a variety of scales. The following examples of recent projects not only exhibits the range in scale, typology and program type, but also highlights the variety of design criteria and degree of attention to different model elements. Corporate Campus-Headquarters One week proposal / feasibility exercise, located in Omaha, Nebraska. Page 3 of 16
Small Project: Less than 10 Hectares Detailed terrain and existing conditions Detailed massing Potentially more involvement with architecture/structural May involve Ecotect, solar studies, etc. Detailed Master Plan, Russia The project is located near Moscow in Russia and which consists of four residential blocks, some high-rise and special residential in the central park area, and auxiliary commercial and civic components Medium Project: 10-100 Hectares More attention to code (height / setback) Detailed area and massing calculation (gross-net / unit types) May involve Ecotect, sun studies, etc. Large Scale Urban Design, China This project is located Chongqing, Sichuan Province, China. The developable area on the hilly site is approximately 1,000 hectares and the design focused on the utilization of area plans across the entire project area. Large Project: 100-1000 Hectares Begins to address planning-scale issues Mixed of simple and detailed massing elements The size of model and number of elements may necessitate multiple linked models Page 4 of 16
Special Economic Zone, India This project in India was designed as a new city. The site is 13.5 kilometers across, and has over 1,000 parcels. Extra-Large Project: Over 1000 Hectares Significant elevation differences across design areas Widest array of building types May involve GIS or other BIM tools Residential Development, UK Residential Masterplan development on a 40 hectares site Typology of housing varies between townhouses, terraced houses, duplex units and apartments A small mixed use retail core in the center Large Scale Master plan, Middle East This was a large scale urban master plan where the London office collaborated with our Toronto and Hong Kong offices in the development of the project. The project was broken down in specific districts. These districts became the natural breaks for the three models from which each office worked. The central files for each office where named in a similar manner and each office agreed on how models would be exchanged, as well as using the HOK Firmwide collaboration folder structure to mimic each other's location. Files were replicated on a daily basis, so each office always had the most up to date information. Page 5 of 16
Residential and mixed use Master plan 530 hectares 7 districts Includes Commercial Business District, University campus, canal district, marina district, super tall tower district Typology of buildings varies strongly between villas, low apartment buildings (6 floors) and high rise apartment buildings (10-20 floors) as well as office towers (up to 40 floors) Creating the Urban Design Model The Urban Design Model, or UDM, is started by using either a predefined template or predefined project and modifying some of the settings to accommodate the individual qualities of the project. The following list describes the activity required to generate an urban design model. 1. Import 2D CAD drawings / raster images 2. Create site boundaries, road networks, and lots 3. Assign names, land uses, FAR or GFA, and phases to lots 4. Set general assumptions and standards (population, parking, unit size, etc.) 5. Generate information from lots (GFA, FAR, parking spaces, community facilities, etc.) Property Ownership Schedule 6. Create building envelopes and/or building masses 7. Assign land use, names, etc. to masses 8. Assign floor-to-floor height to different masses based on use 9. Generate area schedules from masses and area plans 10. Create design options 11. Accommodate design modifications Page 6 of 16
What s Required Templates Templates define a predictable starting point for all projects and may contain graphic standards, settings and content. Well prepared templates reduce extra effort needed at the beginning of projects. Templates should include predefined settings and views that are appropriate for most typical urban design projects. They can also be designed for project specific tasks. However, there are a few items that a template cannot save, namely worksets. Defining the Template Many considerations need to be made prior to setting up the templates. Out of the box, Revit is not set up to generate large scale urban design models, or to deal with the individual qualities of these projects. However, the settings are modifiable and with little effort a template can be produced to satisfy these needs. The following items may require customization: 1. Settings a. Line Weights b. Line Styles c. Object Styles d. Materials e. Parameters Shared and Project f. Scales 2. Views a. Floor Plans b. Elevations c. Sections d. Reference e. Naming Protocols 3. Families a. Mass Prototypes in-place based on building typologies b. Annotations i. Tags ii. Arrows iii. Symbols c. Modified Walls as roads 4. Areas c. Color Schemes Page 7 of 16
d. Area Types e. Objects 5. Schedules with pre-set parameters and formulas f. Area Land uses g. Mass h. Views 6. Levels for typical building types 7. Importing and Exporting Protocols Views Views created in the project by the template should include plan views, elevations, 3D views, drafting views legends and schedules. View naming protocols can be used to visually isolate views. As the model is designed and documented, content and reports, such as schedules and legends, are readily accessible from the Project Browser. Levels Level lines are finite horizontal planes that are used to define the levels (stories) of the urban design model and to calculate the GFA of all of the building masses. The level types, created in the template, should represent typical conditions. They offer a starting point for the development of the project and will most likely require modification to accommodate the particular project needs. Page 8 of 16
In this example, five different level types with typical floor to floor heights, display in the elevations. Office/Hotel Mixed Use A Residential Mixed Use B Parking Area Plans Also many types of Area plans, color schemes and area tags are pre-loaded in the templates. These include Car Parking, Districts, Land Uses, and Open Spaces. Drafting Elements Drafting elements are used in the production of analytical drawings. Page 9 of 16
Annotations for Mass Objects This example displays the annotations used to tag the mass. Notice that the tags are able to read different information about the same mass. Prototypical Masses Prototypical masses are defined by typical building typologies and should be set up in advance. In the project they are copied and modified to fit the plan or used as reference to create new masses. Page 10 of 16
Scheduling In Revit, a schedule is a tabular display of information, extracted from the properties of elements in a project. A schedule can list every instance of the type of element you are scheduling, or it can collapse multiple instances onto a single row, based on the schedule's grouping criteria. Schedules can be generated at any point in the design process. As revisions are made to the project the schedule automatically updates to reflect the changes. Also, they can be exported to other applications, such as excel. List of Urban Design Schedules Several schedules should be available in the template. The following list describes the schedules and their usage. Building Footprint list of a) ground floor areas; or b) area under the horizontal projection of the roof (in the case of setback and storm water calculations). Building Summary list of plot/lot number, land use, FAR, building efficiency, gross area, and net area for by building. District Summary list of plot/lot number, land use, FAR, building efficiency, gross area, and net area for by district. Land Uses list of land area, FAR, and total buildable area sorted per designated land use. Open Spaces list of area and types of spaces that are do (typically with 0 FAR). Open spaces can include but are not limited to: large municipal parks, small neighborhood parks, greenways, urban open spaces, landscape areas, etc. Parking Demand minimum requirement of number of parking spaces needed based on gross building area and parking factor. Parking Supply number of parking spaces provided. Parking supply may be calculated based on a) parking gross floor area divided by parking factor (average area per parking space and circulation, i.e. 350 m2); or b) number of parking spaces actually drawn within site area. Plot Summary a list of plot/lot number, land use, FAR, building efficiency, gross area, and net area for each plot. Property Ownership Gross land area sorted by land ownership. Roads Since road tools do not exist in Revit wall tools can be modified to allow designers to rapidly place road objects in the model. Roads can be created Page 11 of 16
from a combination of modified wall tools, floors and/or mass objects. For walkway curbs, slab edge profiles can be applied to floor objects. The modified wall tools are adequate enough to rough-in the general road layout, but it requires a bit of finesse, time and patience to create a graphically appealing look. Modified wall tools used to generate roads. Creating Building Masses Prototype building masses (in-place masses) can be pre-made in the template. Since they have parameters and materials assigned ahead of time they can be used at the beginning of the project to generate building masses. The building masses are created similarly to other Revit families. They are either created as mass families within a project (in-place mass families) or outside of a project (loaded mass families). In-place mass families are used for building forms that need to be manipulated within a project. Loaded mass families are required when the project is very large and when multiple instances of the same family are Page 12 of 16
placed the project. However, loaded masses cannot be manipulated directly in the project; they are modified within the family editor. Building Mass Types It is important to determine the appropriate strategy for generating building masses at the beginning of the project, since this will affect the efficiency of the modeling effort. There are a few ways this can be done: creating inplace mass families or loading mass families from the project library. In-Place Mass In-place mass families are used when a variety of different building types need to be shown and for cases where the masses need to be manipulated within a project. Loaded Mass Families Loaded mass families are used when the project is very large and when multiple instances of the same family needs to be placed in a project. Page 13 of 16
However, the downside of using loaded masses is that they must be modified in the family editor outside the context of the project. Simple geometry can be used to specify different building typologies. More complex geometry can be used to create interesting building types. Assign Parameters to Masses It is not always possible to have masses created in advance for every condition. In this case, parameters will need to be assigned to masses manually as they are created in the project. Mixed use mass form and the relationship to parameters. Page 14 of 16
The following information is a checklist for parameter assignments for building masses: Mass Family Types Building Function - Shared Parameter - Materials and Finishes - Instance Building Height - Shared Parameter - Dimensions - Instance Building Levels - Shared Parameter - Identity Data - Instance Mass Element Properties Extrusion End = Building Height Material = Building Function Subcategory = [Name of Building Function] Design Options When working with an urban design project, it is common to explore multiple design schemes or alternatives as the project develops. In most cases these schemes may be conceptual. When using design options in Revit, multiple design alternatives can be created within a single project file. Because all design options coexist in the project within the main model, each design option can be studied and modified and later presented for comparative analysis. The main model consists of elements not specifically assigned to a design option and is visible in all of the alternate schemes. Three design options and their respective schedules. Page 15 of 16
Phasing Many urban design projects proceed in phases, each representing a distinct time period in the life of the project. Revit tracks the phase in which views or elements are created and allows phase-specific filters to be applied to views in the way the project would appear during various stages of work. Topography Topography in Revit is possible to create, but very difficult. It is generally easier to reference this information from other sources and link it into a separate model. In the case of extreme slope changes, it is important to identify the ground level elevations of all typical building types on the terrain. Combinations of different Road strategies are used, starting with sub-regions and pads and finishing with massing for the bridges and main roads. Page 16 of 16