Project Details

Over the past few weeks I've been testing out Arckit as an architectural construction teaching tool to model building assemblies and building structure. It has worked out pretty well and I regret not having documented my experiences but, at the same time, I was able to work much quicker not having to worry about the film rolling. Today I present Arckit Model 29, a Mixed Use Office Building test prototype. Built at a 1:100 scale the base Arckit unit represents 8 feet or 2.4 meters making the height between each floor 16 feet. I began building this model by lying out the floor tiles to create the base. From here, I outlined the perimeter extents of the building with more floor tiles to create a sheared "H" shaped floor plan symmetrical through rotation. This outlined perimeter is later taken apart and replaced with walls when finalized. This allows for the building to be effectively divided up into three separate sections. As just a building facade and skin representation, all floor plans are open with no detail to focus on the building envelope. 

There are three cores to this building each housing a staircase and elevator shaft. One positioned in the center of the building and the other two in the far opposite extremes. As shown in the video documentation, I built all three of these cores up three stories high. Where the entrance to the stairs would be, I extended the floor plate out to have a connection point. From here I filled in the space between along my planned perimeter with walls and built up each floor. On the second floor, I extended the reach of the floor tiles one unit to allow for the placement of an exterior facade/skin once the model was complete. When building exterior facades in Arckit, plan ahead and try and merge the exterior and interior with the same floor plate. This makes it really easy to mount exterior objects as its difficult to mount tiles to finished walls without extra reinforcement. 

After finishing all the wall on the third floor, I raised the central core up by one story to create a rooftop patio space. On the extents on the building, I raised the wall up another 8 feet with an Arckit half wall section component to allow for a butterfly roof accent encapsulating the rooftop patio. Finishing up the model, I created a garden terrace using the Arckit (3.02) Window Corner Components chained together and curved under the roof. Finally I made 4 vertical garden facades which rest up against the exterior walls of the building.

Overall this model was great practice for testing out office building design and experimenting with different facade systems. I hope to use this building as a base plate to develop other variations.

Photo Gallery

Video Documentation

Notes

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, We would love to hear from you in the comments section below or through email at rikysongsu@gmail.com.