Post date: Feb 13, 2016 12:14:49 AM
Make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul. --Niccolo Machiavelli
Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. -- Daniel Burnham
Decide on what drawings you will produce.
How big will your sheet of paper be?
Let’s go with 30”x30”
What scale should you use?
How big is the site?
6000’x 3000’ district plan
At 1”=400’, the drawing of the district plan will be 15”x 7’5’
1800’ x 2000’ CS site
At 1” = 100’, the drawing will be 18”x20”
These will work ok on the 30”x30” format.
You may want to draw street plans too, at a larger scale. If you drew something 26”x26” at 1”=20’, what area of your site could you draw? How many plan match lines would you need to do the entire site?
Open a new project file in Revit
Link the site into your project file. Eventually, you may want to have the site as an integral part of your project, but for now you will want to keep updating the site file so using a linked file is better. You can at some point “bind” the site file into your project file. This will import the site file into your project file.
Make levels at some reasonable heights. There is a spot elevation tool that allows you to query the toposurface for the height at that spot. You can use this to start to figure out the elevation of the levels.
Make plans for each level.
Duplicate an appropriate plan to make a district plan. Change the scale to be 1”=400’. Set the crop boundaries to be nice and neat.
Duplicate an appropriate plan for a site plan. Set the scale to be 1”=100’. Set the crop boundaries to be appropriate.
Create district elevations and sections. Set the scale to be 1”=400’
Create site elevations and site sections. Set the scale to be 1”=100’
You can create view templates for the district drawings and site drawings and apply them to the appropriate views.
Create a sheet for the district plan and elevations.
Create a sheet for the site plan and elevations.
Put the views on the appropriate sheets. Lay them out neatly and professionally to create a pleasing graphic design.
Create a mass schedule. Create a mass floor schedule. Create a room schedule. Add appropriate parameters to each one.
Now we are ready to do an analysis.
Open the district plan. You will use the Grid tool, and Detail tools to document your analysis.
Add parameters to the Grid category so that you can label the lines the way you might do it in a sketch. You probably have major and minor lines, you have boundaries, you have axes.
You may find it easier to turn Snaps off. You can do this from the Manage menu.
You can also use Detail Lines and Detail Regions to sketch lines and shapes. They are found in the Annotate menu. For Regions, you can define fill patterns and colors.
Use Visibility/Graphics and Filters to manipulate the appearance.
In his very well known book, The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch suggests that a city’s character is determined by paths, districts, edges, nodes, and landmarks. Make a drawing that dissects your district plan into these five concepts. For example, I might suggest there are four districts: Northgate, Campus, University Mixed Use, and Residential. There are edges, such as University Drive and College Avenue. There are paths such as Church Street, sidewalks going to campus, vehicular routes from parking garages and parking lots to major vehicular arteries. There are nodes such as the intersection of University and College, the town square in Phase 1. There are landmarks such as the ET Building and Chermical Engineering Building. Others are off site, but they can be indicated by a direction. Downtown Bryan, Kyle Field.
The site analysis uses the larger scale drawing to do similar things. You can indicate land use planning with detail regions, such as a residential zone, an entertainment zone, etc.
In addition, a climate drawing can be very helpful. Duplicate the site analysis drawing. You can turn on the sun rose. Use the climate data to indicate wind direction. You may want to do multiple shadow studies (summer solstice, winter solstice, and equinox).
Sketch the urban elements with mass objects. Sketch even the streets and parks as volumes. Streets have a height and a ceiling. Parks and squares are outdoor rooms with walls, floors, and ceilings. Label the mass objects appropriately using parameters (such as a parameter for Urban element that takes on values of Building, Street, Plaza, Surface parking.) Use Filters and Visibility/Graphics to color code and reveal the order that you are creating.
Create Levels that will correspond approximately to the floor heights.
Inspect the Mass Schedule. Add parameters and parameter values to explain the ideas.
Create Mass Floor objects on the Building Masses corresponding to the appropriate Levels.
Inspect the Mass Floor Schedule and add parameters and parameter values to explain your ideas.
Create views to explain your ideas. Inspect the elevations and sections to see if they lead you to more ideas.
Edit the Room Schedule to enumerate the rooms, the target area, the target height, the target qualities, Create parameters for the actual quantities and qualities too.
After you assess this conceptual design, you can elaborate it. Add floor by face to the mass floors. Create shafts for elevators, stairs, and service shafts. Add wall by face. Create arrays of windows, curtain walls, and curtain panel patter based to make beautiful streetscapes. Add roof by face. Create subregions on the toposurface for sidewalks, streets, parking areas. Adjust the contours. Create sweeps and reveals and stacked walls to elaborate the effect. Add street furniture and planting.
Add more sheets and arrange views on the sheets. Print it every few days and save as a PNG or PDF so you have a record of the evolution.