B4 - Project Description

For the AE 510 term project, I will be working with a friend in the class, Nick Maloney, designing a building model. AE 391 (Junior Design) requires the development of a mixed-use building on Drexel’s campus to house the CAEE and COMAD departments. We will be using our project as a vehicle to extend our current knowledge of BIM software. This will include a comprehensive building model (above and beyond the very basic project requirements) as well as an exploration into the use of Dynamo visual programming to expedite and automate aspects of the design process.

For this project, a focal point we have kept in mind is to not just use the basic design requirements for AE 391, but to enhance the project to go above and beyond, utilizing techniques and technologies learned in AE 510 to augment the building design. To document our progress throughout the term we have been keeping a journal of our progress as per Professor Mitchell’s suggestion. This will help keep us on track to ensure that we are reaching our goals and document our struggles, breakthroughs, and insights throughout the lifetime of the project.

As of now, the architectural system of the building has been designed to completion, with only minor changes being made to its form and aesthetic. This process took several weeks of hard work and was completed in Formit, AutoCAD, and, primarily, Revit. Currently, we are working on the structural design of the building, utilizing RAM to frame the building. We have also begun delving into Dynamo, a technology introduced to us in AE 510. As of now, we have a functioning script that will automatically insert dimensions between gridlines dynamically and we are continuously looking for ways to incorporate Dynamo in both our design, as well as documentation processes to increase our efficiency. If anyone reading this has experience with using Dynamo for a building design project and has suggestions as to areas it can be implemented to increase efficiency, please let me or Nick know, as this is an area that I see the most room for potential difficulties due to our lack of experience with the program.

Comments on Other Projects:

Alec: I find your topic really interesting. While we did delve into robotics and their use in the construction management sector a bit, I feel as though we did not go very in depth into the subject, likely because they are still a ways away from being fully integrated into this industry. Coming from a Mechanical Engineering background, it will certainly be interesting to hear your take and insight into the field of robotics, ways they are being utilized today, and perhaps areas of growth within the next 5-10 years. Best of luck on this project.


Christian: Wow, augmented reality in the CAE industry--how exciting! While to me, it seems like something out of a science fiction movie, it really is the natural next step to the building design interface. As you mentioned AR could vastly improve how we see conflicts and potential areas of concern in design as well as improve communication between the various stakeholders of a building. Imagine the mistakes that commonly happen during construction that could be prevented before construction begins due to a more complete picture of the design being seen by the designer and construction management team. I think this is a really cool topic and I hope that there is enough information online about this topic, but if the speaker last week said this was already being researched and experimented with in the field, then I am sure that sources of information will not be a problem.


Ren: As someone who has no experience in the healthcare field, the idea of building design within the field, and how many critical interchanging parts there are within a single building never really crossed my mind until I read your project description. At my previous co-op, I was designing small row-homes of wood construction, only using AutoCAD because of how simple the designs were--Revit simply wasn’t required. Structures within healthcare seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum--they are so much more complex that Revit is actually critical to account for all details and aspects of a particular building. My only potential area of concern might be that this is too general--even within healthcare aren’t there a wide range of facility types and needs? Perhaps delving into the different types of buildings within the healthcare industry and their specific needs, could be a good idea. Just a thought. Really great stuff though, best of luck.