Revit: Revit Parametric Modelling of Hanoi Museum, Vietnam

Hanoi Museum

This blog chronicles the the journey of modelling Hanoi Museum building located in n Hanoi, Vietnam. The main attraction of the museum is its structure which is been shaped like a inverted pyramid.

This design won 1st prize in Competition 2005. It is designed by gmp – von Gerkan, Marg and Partners

Hanoi Museum

Modelling Thought Process

As the dimensions of the building were not available a mixture of parametric flexing and dimensions from the scaled autocad model was used to arrive at approximate dimensions. The modelling of this project was done in a conceptual mass environment with the preliminary dimensions obtained from autocad model developed using images and scaling it known dimensions
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As the structure had 5 level(4 floors) a flexing model was conceived where individual floor heights could be changed in the project environment.

As parametric modelling, a relationship between the slope of the building and the width of the building was thought to be related by parameters. Slope of the building here is defined "as an angle of an imaginary line ,in the elevation view ,connecting the vertex of the lowest level to the vertex of the top level". If the slope is changed then the building width would increase/decrease such that, the outer faces would would stretch/ contract themselves to reach the now slope. A decrease in slope would increase the building width.

Modelling : Actual Process

A series of rectangles were drawn at each level (5 in number). Dimensions were acquired from the autocad file. Since it is a parametric model , dimensions are not important, but , still an attempt was made to get best possible dimensions so that the structure could be felt better and an intuitive understanding could be developed . The rectangles were extruded by creating form . At the same time a new parameter was created to each floor height with the levels . The top surface of the extruded face was locked to the respective levels, thereby creating a model whose different floor heights could be flexed.

The key parameters for this mass was slope, which would vary the width of the building. Hence a slope parameter was created. A trigonometric relationship between the slope and width was developed. As mentioned before, from the autocad drawing it was assumed that every level had an offset of 8m. This inherent symmetry was used as an advantage in parametric modelling.

Reference plane were drawn at extreme face of the each of the extruded masses. The faces were locked to the the reference planes. Aligned annotation was used to create an equality constraint among the all the faces. A new parameter x was created which would have the value of width of the first offset. This parameter x was related by using trigonometric relation x= Floor 1 / (tan(SLope)). Where Floor 1 is the height parameter of the floor 1.

Creating Curtain Wall Pattern using Generic Modelling Environment

Careful observation of the the outer curtain wall of the Hanoi building would reveal a very different type of curtain wall pattern. The design is very intricate and hence the regular curtain wall by pattern family could not be used. Hence an attempt was made to use the generic modelling environment .
Generic model pattern based family was used to develop as near as possible to the present pattern at Hanoi building.

Keeping in mind the project environment, 4 Parameters were created in the Generic model pattern based family. Radius of the outer material (Rout), Radius of the inner material (R). Material of the outer frame(Material Out) and Material of the inside frame (Material In) were created.
These parameters can be changed in the conceptual mass or in project to suit project needs.
New constraints were developed using aligned tool so that the elements created in this step could adjust themselves when grid spacing would change.
The figures below are for a horizontal spacing of 2m and vertical spacing of 5 m(floor height)

Panel with Reference Line

Panel with solid form

Parameters for Materials

Massing Floors, Roof and Columns.

In the mass family, the faces of extrusion was selected to divide the surface. The surfaces were divided to make a grids of 5m x 2m . Instead of grid lines, distance was used, so that the panel created in the last step could easily fit into it .

After the surface is divided and the curtain panel loaded, the mass family is loaded into project.

First the floor levels are created (5 levels). Then floor massing is done. After that flooring is done using Floor Wood Joist Ceramic Flooring family.

For the roof a Basic Generic 12'' roof is selected. Then roof is extended to look like the exact building. It is extended by using 14' offset. Finally the topography of the site is created.

Careful examination of the original buildings show that the structural column are used to enhance the look of the building. Hence grid lines are created to place structural columns.

Renderings are produced for the final project as follows.