Project: 2010 Richmond Olympic Oval
Architect: Cannon Design
Engineering : StructureCraft
Construction: StructureCraft

So… there has been a great conversation on the DesignReform forum about the use of Revit and Inventor to further the direct to fabrication work flow.  The conversation started with Santiago from StructureCraft posting a few images of the 2010 Richmond Olympic Oval project.  Below is the text posted on the forum and some more images from the StructureCraft website.

Inventor screen capture for part of the Olympic Oval project

Follow along and /or contribute to the  Autodesk Inventor for architecture forum post here

From the forum: We design, fabricate and erect structures which are mostly composed of wood. We use Inventor for making the concept model, final model, construction documents and shop drawings. For some projects, such as the Richmond Olympic Oval for the 2010 games, I also used the model to indirectly drive the automated production of roof panels by producing and sending fabrication data from the model to PLC machinery which we had custom-designed for this project. We also use Inventor for creating material take-offs and determining information about the design, such as center of gravity, total area of material, etc.

From the forum:The roof panels vary in design and overall dimensions, depending on their location, for several reasons. These panels are designed acoustically, and the pattern of wood material in each panel is based on that, as well as on structural performance, and also the architectural aesthetic quality required, which involved creating an overall pillow effect, while describing the shape of feathers of a Heron, which is the official bird for the city of Richmond.

From the forum:There’s lots more to write about this project in particular, but the main reason why I thought it would be a neat idea to share this on this forum was because I’m convinced that other have used Inventor for these kind of projects, and I’m curious to meet them and learn about how they’ve used this software, or programs somewhat similar like Digital Project for example.

picture from earlier this year

Follow along and /or contribute to the  Autodesk Inventor for architecture forum post here

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Here are some updated images from SHoP’s 290 Mulberry project. If you have not see the project you can see more images at http://290mulberry.com

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Since all the software conversation is really no fun unless we put it to use to build things. I figured I should post some of the latest images of the precast panels from the 290 Mulberry Project (Project description PDF) by SHoP Architects’ (just in case, that’s where i work).

The real reason this project is applicable on this site is the explorations done in parametric modeling and BIM. As i said in an earlier post this was SHoP Architects Revit pilot project. Even though SHoP has been 3d modeling their projects for a while now this was the first time the drawing sets were integrally tied to the 3d model. The building was modeled in Revit 9.0 (now in 2008), the model was used for DD and CD and is now being used full time for CA.

Through out SD and DD various modeling packages were used 3ds Max, Rhino, Generative Components, Digital Project, and Revit (a some good old fashion Autocad). 3ds Max was used early to experiment with the affect of the brick, then again much later in the process to create photo real marketing imagery; Rhino has been used though out the process for explicit modeling as well as scripting the placement of the bricks in the model (this would have been tough without RhinoScript); Generative Components and Digital Project where used to explore the patterning of the brick; Revit was used to model the building (including the panels) and critical part of the MEP systems.

Generative Components Model

Digital project model

Precast Panel

The Precast panels on the project were explored through the use of parametric modeling software, in this case Digital Project and Generative components. Thinking about the problem more like digital prototyping, the team was able to test the limits of undulating the brick. The fabricators provided the material constraints of casting brick into panels, the team then built models to find the maximum amount of projection per panel.

Revit Model

The Revit model was used to resolve issues at the building level, from showing the MTA where the buildings pilings would be located to in relation to the subway to coordinating systems coordination as well as producing the drawing set.

This post is meant to be a very (VERY!) brief over view of how BIM was used on this project. More on this project will be available though up coming publications and an eventual SHoP blog (in the works). Please feel free to post questions and I will try to answer what i can.

All Images in this post are a Copyright of SHoP Architects, PC. and should be credited as such

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