This is a reflection of a short project completed as part of the Noroff course in Technical Design with CAD 2D/3D.

This project was given a time allocation of only two days, and intended to provide a platform to develop a more creative workflow in Autodesk Revit.

The task was to design and model a small private house according to given specifications, with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 hallway and a living space. The design is of free choice, but the overall Gross Floor Area is to be within 120m²​ and the walls and floors are to be of a set specification.

The brief also requires that detailed section drawings are produced for the exterior wall/floor joint, and if possible wall/roof, using the drawing annotations panel in Revit.

Design Concept and Development

As a reference project, I picked out Norderhov Cabin by Atelier Oslo, ​particularly the plan form and exterior treatment. After reviewing various sources I sketched up a rough plan concept based on the layout at Norderhov, with the two bedrooms placed at the end of two fingers, and the living room in the crossing point with a fireplace in the centre. That plan was then modelled and developed further in Revit, with converging wall lines and acute angles. The thinking behind this was to escape from conventional construction and extend to a more creative use of Revit in design workflow.

Though Revit is offering me a more creative platform now as I become more familiar with it, I doubt there is anything which can beat sketching an idea with pen and paper, however rough it may be!

The room schedule was implemented early on in the design process to ensure a Gross Floor Area of 120m²​, achieved with precision by this method. The brief stated a floor area of less than this total, but in this case I chose to maximise the floor area by adjusting the layout according to the schedule.

During the preceding practical project, drawing Kilden Barnehage, I researched the technique of modelling roofs from mass forms to achieve an irregular form. The following tutorial video was also helpful in discovering how to achieve these shapes: ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTmBA4mMKK8&t=107s

I wanted to implement this new knowledge in the design of the roof, so created a mass within a maximum/minimum roof level. It took a little time to learn the massing technique using reference lines and hosts, but this could easily be edited afterwards allowing for adjustments further along in the design process. The only problem I encountered was that the roof geometry had to be divided into various sections to complete the model without an error message.

Detailing

Constructing the detail in Revit was approached with the aim of producing a convincing looking drawing, rather than a thoroughly researched piece of detailed design. I attempted this for both floor and roof junctions as part of the additional tasks, laying them out together on a single sheet together with other relevant cross sections.

That the detailing isn’t more refined was largely due to time constraints, and the development of material choices having not necessarily been finalised in the design process. At this stage, being able to produce this type of document was the sole focus of the task.

Understanding and adapting to the Norwegian regulations is an important part of my reason for choosing to study. This was a useful introduction to designing within those regulations and some of the key points were considered from the start. This is not an exhaustive list, but some of the regulations specifically observed were:

• The annotated plan has been marked with a turning circle diameter of 1500mm for wheelchair users in key locations, including main entrance, bathroom and bedrooms within the furnishing zones.
• Minimum ceiling height is achieved at 2400mm, as per section 12-7. In this instance as a leisure home (hytte), it could have been 2200mm, and with the design of the ceiling the corners could even have been lower.
• Storage space was included at the minimum of 5.0m2​ ​as per Section 12-10.
• All internal doors are 8 x 21 M giving the minimum clearance width of 0.76m and height of 2.0m, as per Section 12-13.

Enscape

Though not required, I couldn’t resist creating quick visualisations using Enscape 3D. It is a plugin which gives real time rendering capabilities, enabling the designer to see the quality of the space and check for defects. It is also capable of creating some fairly reasonable renderings using a selection of drop-in furnishings/planting (I love that the trees are animated!). As with the previous project, I found this to be a fantastic way to present a project to a client; it is possible to export a walk-around model (compatible with VR devices) to give a guided tour of the project. Here is an export for web browsers, where you can explore the project for yourselves: