Elective (AR5953a) Assignment 1

Assignment 1 for the elective (A5953a) is due in Monday 24th January. You will be asked to prepare a 15 minute presentation, using slides and video captures of Houdini. You need to create an A3 landscape booklet documenting your presentation. The assignment is worth 50% of the grade for the elective.

The task for this assignment is to use Houdini to create a parametric model of  10,000 m2 of residential apartment building. The parametric model will be used to automate the developmental step in the IVP design process. The model does not need to be a detailed model, but should include structural frame,  lifts, stair cores, and individual apartment units. Elements like individual stair treads and furniture inside apartments do not need to be modeled (or if they are modeled, need to be highly simplified). When modelling elements like walls, they do not need to be modeled with thickness - a single surface will be sufficient.

You need to think about how to parametrise your model. For example, parameters may include the number of floors, the size of apartment, the floor to ceiling height, the depth of the balconies, the size of the windows, .... etc. Do not just try and maximise the number of parameters - instead, try and choose a small number of parameters that produce meaningful results.

In your presentation, do not focus on one final design. Instead, describe how your parametric model works and what types of design variants it can produce. In order to do this, you need to create a developmental diagram showing the relationship between parameters and design variants. This diagram should show a series of modelling steps, and should show how each step is affected by certain parameters.