Saeid Zarrinmehr: March 2011

ARCH653: Project 1

Using Revit Architectural to Model "Barnsdall House"

Student: Saied Zarrinmehr

Introduction

This report summarizes the process that I went through to create the model of Barnsdall House, designed by Frank L. Wright. This project exemplifies Wright’s unique way of developing details. In this process I took advantage of two parametric models to create the volume of the building and details. While these parametric models were enormously helpful in creating the Revit model, they also imposed some challenges. I will also discuss about some of these challenges, and my strategies to resolve them.

A rendered view of the 3D model in Revit

The Bransdall House

This house is a part of a larger complex called Barnsdall Art Park which is used as an Art Park in Los Angles. Like many other buildings in 1920s the buildings of this complex were created with pre-cast concrete. However, this project is a unique example of this kind, since exposed concrete is abundantly used in every single element of the building. Nevertheless, the usage of concrete is in a very pleasant manner.

Parametric Models

1- Massing. Sloped walls are very important elements of this house. In fact, these elements may also be considered as roofs. According to the limitations of Revit in creating sloped walls directly by wall families, I decided to use a parametric mass to create these elements. With this family I was able to create the sloped elements by associating them to the mass edges. I did a shape grammar analysis to find the appropriate math family. I found that the project, although apparently very complex, but was created by combinations of one family. Figure 1 illustrates this basic element. Figure 2 shows how different combinations of this mass model were used in the design of this project. Except the slope of the wall, the rest of the parameters were considered “instant” parameter. I also developed the family in a manner that by aligning the hidden reference lines of the mass I could change their dimensions and fit them to their positions. As it is clear in Figure 2, only one of the mass families had a hole in itself. However, for the sake of simplicity I wanted to have only one mass family. Therefore, I set the void parameters in a manner that when needed the void could be pushed away so that it does not intersect with the mass body.

Figure 1: Mass Family

Figure 2: Shape Grammar of the Project

Although the shape grammar simplified the problem, later Revit imposed some difficulties. One of these difficulties was about the placement of roofs. The edges of the roofs in Revit are vertical, while their surfaces could be sloped. According to our parametric model this difficulty resulted in the intersection between the roof and the sloped walls (Figure 3). This intersection means that the materials, for example, will be counted two times. As you could see in this picture the sloped wall was not really involved with the lower level roof either.

Figure 3: The difficulties of by-face walls and roofs are clear in this section.

The only alternative which could have been accepted is reflected in figure 4, where one part of the sloped element is roof and the other part is a parapet wall.

Figure 4: My solution for using creating the model, by using mass edges.

This solution, however, was not good either. In some case I needed to edit the edges of the mass for different purposes. For example, I needed to extend the parapet wall at its intersection with fireplace chimney; or the intersection of one roof with another roof was almost impossible to create. To attach the internal walls to the roof, there was no way except editing each wall's profile.

Figure 5: The changes in the sloped elements are in some cases difficult to do.

2. Ornaments. The Ornaments that are used in this complex are fairly complicated. They are combination of different scales. It was rather difficult to find a shape grammar which could create all of them. In case of the Barnsdall House, I found that they were created by three components that are illustrated in figure 6. I would call these initial shapes, base, middle and top components. Except the base component, other components have some shapes in common, and their width and height could vary independently.

Figure 6. Three components of the ornament. Different colors represent different surfaces.

Also the placement of the ornaments was critical in parameterizing them, since they nested in the sloped edges of the volume. Therefore, I designed them in a manner that they could fit the slope. Figure 7a shows their realization of this parametric model once the parameters change. Interestingly, this type of ornament is vastly used in furnitures and other building components. The family that I created is flexible to fit most of them.

Figure 7a: The ornament family.

Figure 7b: The Original model of the ornament.
(http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/flw/hollyhock06.jpg)

Figure 7c: The application of the same ornament in the design of furniture.
(http://www.postersguide.com/posters/the-hollyhock-house-aline-barnsdall-house-hollywood-boulevard-los-angeles-frank-lloyd-wright-7180269.html)

Later, I realized that the details of the ornaments are not placed on a vertical plane. Also, to make the parametric family of the ornaments work better, I decided to use nested families. I designed the components of the ornaments as separate families and created the family which is illustrated in Figure 7d. Revit imposed challenges to make array groups in a plan which is not parallel to the ground whose angle is also a parameter. However, the complexity of ornament was not the only difficulty. After loading the family in the project file, and placing it, the project file got too heavy for further operations. Rendering was almost impossible, and the software was very likely to stop working. With spending a couple of hours, I was only able to receive the low quality renderings. Figures 8, 9, and 10 are these rendered images.