Alternative Entrance Solution with Parametric Design
In the city of Kristianstad, southern part of Sweden, are tree multi-dwelling buildings under construction. The name of the building project is Söderbergetapp 2. These houses are industrialized concept buildings, called Skanska ModernaHus, The product name of these concept houses is Grönskär. This is towel block houses, and the height can vary between 3 to 8 floors. House 1 was constructed as the standard concept was stated, but the other two houses, house 2 and 3, have an alternative ground floor layout compared to the standard concept. This layout gives an alternative placement of the entrance street door. This was done by manually changes, since parametric alternative wasn't included in model.
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Figure 1, Building project Söderbergetapp 2
In this “Parametric Design course” exercise I have used this building project as an example of manager user requirements in an industrialized concept building process, by investigate the possibility to add this alternative as parametric CAD design. I have investigated how big impact this deviation have on the concept model and I also described needed CAD script procedures witch can switch between the standard and alternative solution. Also how the CAD user can decide placement of general rooms (such as the cleaning store room) by using parametric design, is studied.
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Figure 2, Standard concept drawing of ground floor, Entrance street door in lower external wall.
Both the standard the alternative entrance solution is included in the cad-model. All objects in the standard model are visible/enabled and all objects, and sub-objects, in the alternative entrance solution are hided/disabled.
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Figure 3, Activity Mode
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Figure 4, An alternative entrance, in upper external wall, is requested. The process starts with disabling (hiding) of “standard concept solution” components and sub components
| Number | Event |
|---|---|
| 4.01 | Disable standard bedroom interior layout in apartment 13 (incl walls, doors, interior). |
| 4.02 | Disable standard bedroom interior layout in apartment 12 (incl walls, doors, interior). |
| 4.03 | Disable part of standard bedroom interior layout in apartment 11 (part of walls). |
| 4.04 | Disable part of standard bedroom interior layout in apartment 14 (part of walls). |
| 4.05 | Disable standard “xtension of Stairwell Hall - EoSH” room. |
| 4.06 | Disable standard “erpendicular Connection to Entrance hall - PCtEh” room. |
| 4.07 | Disable standard interior in entrance hall (post boxes, electric distribution board |
| 4.08 | Disable standard street door and window, as part of W01 precast wall element. |
| 4.09 | Disable standard one window in apartment 13, as part of W02 precast wall element. |
| 4.10 | Disable standard door between entrance hall and PCtEh room, as part of V03 precast wall element. |
| 4.11 | Disable standard door between stairwell hall an EoSH room, as part of V05 precast wall element. |
| 4.12 | Disable standard opening (for street door and window), as part of W01 precast wall element. |
| 4.13 | Disable standard opening (for one window in apartment 13), as part of W02 precast wall element. |
| 4.14 | Disable standard opening (between entrance hall and PCtEh room), as part of V03 precast wall element. |
| 4.15 | Disable standard opening (between entrance hall and stairwell hall), as part of V04 precast wall element. |
| 4.16 | Disable standard opening (between stairwell hall and EoSH room), as part of V05 precast wall element. |
Table 1, “Disable” Script Events, see figure 4
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Figure 5, Continuing from previous figure. Turn “alternative entrance solution” components and sub components to an enabled (showed) status.
| Number | Event |
|---|---|
| 5.01 | Enable alternative bedroom interior layout in apartment 12 (incl walls, doors, interior). |
| 5.02 | Enable alternative bedroom interior layout in apartment 13 (incl walls, doors, interior). |
| 5.03 | Enable parts of alternative bedroom interior layout in apartment 14 (part of walls). |
| 5.04 | Enable parts of alternative bedroom interior layout in apartment 11 (part of walls). |
| 5.05 | Enable alternative “Extension of Stairwell Hall - EoSH” room. |
| 5.06 | Enable alternative “Perpendicular Connection to Entrance hall - PCtEh” room. |
| 5.07 | Enable alternative interior in entrance hall (post boxes, electric distribution board). |
| 5.08 | Enable alternative opening (for street door and window), as part of W02 precast wall element. |
| 5.09 | Enable alternative opening (for one window in apartment 12), as part of W01 precast wall element. |
| 5.10 | Enable alternative opening (between entrance hall and PCtEh room), as part of V05 precast wall element. |
| 5.11 | Enable alternative opening (between stairwell hall and EoSH room), as part of V05 precast wall element. |
| 5.12 | Enable alternative opening (between entrance hall and stairwell hall), as part of V05 precast wall element. |
| 5.13 | Enable alternative street door and window, as part of W02 precast wall element. |
| 5.14 | Enable one alternative window in apartment 12, as part of W01 precast wall element. |
| 5.15 | Enable alternative door between entrance hall and PCtEh room, as part of V06 precast wall element. |
| 5.16 | Enable alternative door between stairwell hall an EoSH room, as part of V04 precast wall element. |
| 5.17 | Change precast wall element name/number, from W01 to something unique. |
| 5.18 | Change precast wall element name/number, from W02 to something unique. |
| 5.19 | Change precast wall element name/number, from V03 to something unique. |
| 5.20 | Change precast wall element name/number, from V04 to something unique. |
| 5.21 | Change precast wall element name/number, from V05 to something unique. |
| 5.22 | Change precast wall element name/number, from V06 to something unique. |
Table 2, “Enable” and “Change element name” Script Events , see figure 5
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Figure 6, A plan drawing over with the alternative entrance solution is now done.
To finalize the model, the user most place the “Wheel chair garage - w.c.g.”, “Cleaning store room - c.s.” and Apartment storeroom in feasible spaces at ground floor and/or 2nd floor. this gives four room spaces accessible.
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Figure 7, Activity Model. Decision of placement of general rooms .
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Figure 8. Placment of wheel chair garage room (w.c.g.)
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Figure 9. Placment of cleaning store (c.s.)
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Figure 10. Apartment stores
Limitations
This course exercise example is limited to hand layout and framework objects, of course will this also effect other part of the building project such as electricity, under-roof etc.
Conclusions
- The “alternative entrance solution” example
- The benefit of an alternative entrance for the real-estate owner is very high.
- The impact on critical concept objects was relative low, and these can easily be handled by CAD-scripting
- The “Decision of placement of general room” example
- It’s can very easily be unmanageable. I only had four room spaces available, but the number of combinations gets high very anyway.
Discussion
Hello Anders, I don't mean to be critical, but I simply did not understand clearly your idea. Do you think that the parametric approach is useful in case that you have e.g. only two possible solutions ? Maybe there is some more suitable tool for project like yours?
The difference between a traditional processes compared to a concept building processes is where most part of the design work is done, e.g. in the latter processes is the most part done in a concept developing phase. Furthermore, is the general CAD model not only used as Architectural and Framework design models, e.g. input for under-roof subcontractor, material- takeoff, Life Cycle Cost, Energy performance….. (this is a very long list).
Today is a non-parametric CAD design tool used. Then an alternative solution in a specific building project is needed, must this be fixed manually. But then is also the connections to the rest gone (such as energy performance, and cost for a non-standard under-roof construction). Unconditional, this leads to restriction in managing user requirements because the all consequence cannot be foreseen, at least not easily.
I have chosen to only study one small parameter (an alternative placement of a street door) and describe the consequence of this change. As shown in figure 4 and 5 is the influence of this small change quiet big (also not only mirror-objects feasible). Of course is many other parameters of great interest and the combinations of a “product assembly solution” is never endless.
High number of combinations increase the needs of a parametric design method.
I believe that parametric design is going to be essential in future development of industrialized processes, hand-in-hand with development of modularization solutions. My interest in this course was to get an overview of how advanced and/or “easy to use” a parametric design tool (mostly used in the manufacturing industry so far) is.