AECCafe Voice 
Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More » Wujin Council Offices comes out a winner with GenerativeComponents for building analysisApril 8th, 2014 by Susan Smith
Tim Fowler, LAB Architecture with SIADR, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China, talked about the award-winning Wujin Council Building project west of Shanghai at the Year in Infrastructure Be Inspired Conference 2013. Wujin was the Be Inspired Award Winner in the category “Innovation in Generative Design” for 2013.
The AUD 29 million Wujin Council Building in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China, incorporates a five-star hotel with meeting and conference space as well as restaurant and support facilities. The building earned Two Stars in China’s Three-Star Green Building Evaluation Standard. GenerativeComponents enabled the development of an integrated sustainable design strategy.
GenerativeComponents was instrumental in adjusting, evaluating, and optimized the building’s solar performance in less time than would have been possible using conventional building analysis tools. The result was an irregular self-shaded form with horizontal louvers and variable façade panel system that significantly reduced peak heat loads and energy costs. Cost savings achieved using parametric design were channeled into design details that would not have been possible under the initial budget.
The area surrounding the building is predominately landscape, fairly isolated, and makes true massing of building difficult to measure. The building itself is only 5 stories high. Crystalline geometry of metal and glass presents differently throughout the day depending on the quality of light and viewing time. The structure has an ephemeral nature to it and how it sits on the landscape. Separated into two buildings, the building is essentially two laminated together; on the right is the hotel complex and on the left are council buildings and chambers. They put turf on the floor, because of the golfers. “We’ve had a strong interest in environmental and sustainable design by the very nature of its form,” said Fowler. “The building form shades itself .” The design for the building, completed three years ago, was born in late 2010 when SIADR was invited to participate in a design competition for a new council building. “In China they don’t worry about mixing building types together,” said Fowler. The council was to be a flagship building which had to meet a star rating of 2. The client demanded a long thin building. with the whole building inclined to the south, to maximize the parkland. This opened up the possibility of self-shading form, so they had a legitimate excuse to design a cantilever.” The firm designed 14-faceted model, that generated its own floor plates. “We also modeled in all the interior voids, tied to the facade in relationship and were given opportunity to self adjust, so within limits we were always hitting GFA.” They used Generative Components and Bentley Architecture. A shell model was used for clash detection, and standard drawing extraction from Bentley Architecture and final drawings were completed in MicroStation. They said they were able to avoid using EcoTect until the end of the project. Tags: ae, AEC, Bentley Architecture, Bentley Systems, BIM, building information modeling, China, EcoTect, Generative Components, MicroStation, Wujin Council Building Categories: AEC, architecture, Bentley Systems, BIM, building information modeling, Cloud, construction, engineering, infrastructure, integrated project delivery |
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