Hey, guys. How's it going?
So today I want to walk you
through the architectural design process from start to finish, and
you can get a little sense of how we work with other professionals in the process.
If you're new here,
my name is Dami and I am an architect in beautiful Vancouver, B.C..
On this channel we talk about architecture and design, as well as some tools
and strategies
that can help us have more meaningful and fulfilling careers in architecture.
This video is sponsored by Autodesk.
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So this was a project
we did for a net zero competition called Race zero,
and our team actually won first place in the multifamily housing category.
It was a multidisciplinary team with myself and two architecture students,
a building science team, and the developer who had already purchased the site.
Every client is going to come to you with different project goals.
It can be a simple, functional goal, or maybe to maximize views or
an energy target or improving the existing conditions, whatever it is.
It's very important to understand this early on
and let this guide the process, especially for sustainability targets,
whether it's LEED or net zero or Passive House
or just like future proofing the building.
These will have a pretty big impact on the building.
So for projects like this, it's very important to get the consultants
involved earlier on in the process for an integrated design process.
Before starting any design, we need to analyze the site
to set out the constraints that our design is going to respond to.
So you're going to be looking at all the existing conditions, like
the neighboring buildings, the topography, as well as potential future conditions.
And you also want to take a look at the zoning regulations
and the maximum buildable area or setbacks, the FSR.
And actually, if you want a detailed breakdown
of how we develop a massing model from the zoning requirements,
check out the video right here.
One of the most challenging and contentious things
about building on urban sites is the parking.
Most cities have minimum parking requirements
because they don't want their streets to be littered with cars.
But parking is expensive
and it takes up a lot of space.
And in this construction climate,
it can sometimes make or break a project.
So you just want to check to see if there's any parking relaxations
for your site, which is, you know, typically dependent
on your site's proximity to transit or other amenities.
As soon as I have the site info, I start modeling things in Revit
pretty early on just to understand the relationship to the site
and develop some rough massing options for the building.
These massing models now become the basis for your site
strategy, which you develop through a process called Diagraming.
In these early schematic stages.
We iterate through a bunch of different diagrams
to help us have more high level
discussion on the direction of our design strategy.
Without going too much into detail, this process can help
you figure out the relationship between your building and the site
or the building circulation or the building's
organizational strategy.
So through the process of Diagraming, you'll probably flush out
a lot of the bad ideas and select a few ones that you or your team likes.
You can definitely have your favorites, but you still want to try
to present all of the viable options to the client.
And I think the client always appreciates being a part of the decision
making process.
As you present these massing options, you always want back it up with numbers,
whether it's
a developer or a family wanting to build their first home.
If the math doesn't work out, chances are the project isn't going to go through.
So you want to be really clear on
how much area you're providing with each option.
One of the great things about using a big modeling software
like Revit is that you can do these massive studies
and the models going to give you a pretty accurate breakdown of the areas
without you actually having to calculate it manually.
The clients are going to be running their own numbers to make the projects
make sense financially, but you are responsible for showing them
the areas and the quantity and the quality of the spaces that you're creating.
There's usually a bit of back and forth
with the client at the stage, especially if the client's a developer.
They're going to want to maximize the profits on this building,
meaning they're going to want to maximize on the number of units in most cases.
So you need to remind them of the project's goals from time to time.
In this case, for this project, the most efficient unit layout
would have been to have units on the South End and on the North End.
But one of the main goals for the project was to reach net zero
or Passive House Standard, and the building science team identified
pretty early on that if we wanted to aim for that target,
we would need to use passive heating and cooling strategies,
meaning we'd need to orient the building north, south.
This way, every unit can take advantage of the solar working from the south side
with passive ventilation through the building.
So there was quite a lot of back and forth during this process
because the premium you can charge for being a net zero building
is not quite enough to make up for an entire unit.
That's why these types of discussions on the project's
goals are really important to have early on.
Once you figure out the general direction of the building, you start to fine tune
the layout with furniture, blocks or doors or windows.
I usually print them out and overlay them with sketch, or
I bring the base drawings into Procreate and start sketching directly on there.
Once I got the layout on sketch, I bring it back into Revit
and the process usually goes back and forth between manual and digital.
You might have guessed by now drafting and 3D
modeling is a pretty integral part of my design process.
Right from the beginning, I've always used Autodesk products like AutoCAD
and riveted by just this past year, thanks to some of the collaborations
that we wouldn't doing, I've been learning a lot more about the other
creative industries that Autodesk is involved in.
They're not just leaders in the architecture or construction
industries, but also in manufacturing, media, entertainment.
And they have this goal of empowering
innovation everywhere to solve challenges of all scales.
If you want to learn more about some of the innovative projects they're part of,
I'm going to lead the link
to my visit to the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco right here.
Revit is a building information modeling software
with the ability to generate things like area calculation
pins or windows schedules or draw schedules directly from the model.
It automates a lot of the things that historically architects
would have had to do manually.
I personally think in order for architecture to move into the future,
we need to automate more and more things
so that we can focus on important things like designing and working with clients.
Honestly, I can't imagine Revit not being a part of my workflow.
If you're a student, they're financing options, meaning
with a valid education email, you can use a product for free.
They also have tons of free tutorials and resources to help you get started.
To get started with your subscription, click on the link in the description.
As architects we try to create order
and that goes for elevations as well for this project once again,
because we did have this net zero target, the building science team
gave us the maximum area of windows that we could have on both facades.
We also had requirements for overhangs with a fairly strict depth.
So working within these two constraints,
you know, as well as the interior functions,
you start to develop the elevation trees is probably the best tool
for developing rough ideas because no idea is too precious.
And you can layer ideas one on top of another.
You can start to develop the elevation by deciding what areas to highlight,
use proportions or the golden section to break up the facade.
Just like you do with the plans, you start diagrammatic clean
and then you start to build in details or ideas for materials.
Once I've got the idea, I bring it back into
Revit to get a better sense of how it works in 3D.
And once I model that in 3D, I do another printout
of these different views and I just keep developing
more and more iterations, either on paper or on my iPad.
And it's a workflow that seems to work for me.
You know that saying a picture is worth a thousand words
renderings are a very important part of the process because
no matter how good of an explanation you have your project,
if you can't inspire them about how this could be,
they're not going to shell out millions of dollars to build this thing.
The rendering is the thing that sells the project
to the client or the city or the stakeholders.
So we typically develop multiple renderings
throughout the lifespan of the project.
We do it during schematic design and as we develop the design
and everyone gets have feedback on the design like the client
or the city or the community.
And through this you refine and develop the design even more.
Now this covers the architectural design process in a very, very broad strokes,
and I haven't even touched on how your consultants could impact the design.
If you're wondering about how we actually work with consultants
and the role of each of the major engineers,
I have a video and I'll leave it right here.
And if you're curious about how to develop a concept
for a real project, I'll leave the video right here.
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I'll see you guys in the next video.