Multi-Use Buildings

[Robert Platt]

Good morning,

I have just sent an email comment about BUA and GFA from your support page, which I probably should have posted here. I think your response to that comment will be useful to all Forum users.

This post is about a different topic:

We frequently have a situation where there are multiple uses in a single building - for example apartments over retail. This situation also occurs with basement or ground floor parking under offices or apartments (which you have partially covered in a different discussion).

At the early stages of the planning process we can use a percentage parameter to distinguish the different uses in the building. For example, a ten floor building with one level of retail equates to a 10% retail factor. This can be calculated by extracting your data to Excel and manipulating it, but it would also be useful if we could include a percentage parameter in the building data within Modelur, so that we can get a constant update on the various uses by referring to the Urban Control section of the Survey Tab.

I also just want to say that I think you have taken on a mountain of a task, and that what you have already achieved is pretty amazing. I'd like to agree with one of the other postings that this extension to SketchUp provides planners with a tool that the main stream CAD systems cannot emulate.

Regards,

Robert

[Nejc Vidmar]

Dear Robert,

thank you very much for your feedback. We are aware of this limitation. In fact, the Modelur Pre-beta 1 & 2 already had what you propose (defining mixed use building by specifying percentaga), but we decided it is even more important to have dynamic Land Use system, which enables you to add your own Land Uses. This meant a huge rewrite of the code, and a collateral damage to temporarily loose mixed use buildings.

We will solve this issue in one of the next releases of Modelur, but we first want to improve Parametric Maps and maybe add Spatial Units (which will divide Whole Plot to smaller plots, each with its own FSI, GFA, etc. calculation). But maybe, we will not re-prioritize our tasks and add Mixed Use funcionality prior to Spatial Units, what do you vote for?

Thanks,
Jernej

[Robert Platt]

Good afternoon
Some time back we discussed mixed use buildings, and various planning definitions.(see below). At the time (and I can't believe it was a month ago!) I promised to send you some planning definitions and terminologies that are in general use in places I have worked. I'm conscious that these won't apply everywhere, but you can see from these that your current use of the words gross floor area and built up area can be quite confusing for some of us. What you refer to as built up area is what we would call coverage (see attachment), while built up are is actually the complete building. Keep up the great work. I'm still figuring out how I could use the parametric map idea, but I'm working on it. One thought would be to create a JPG from a land use CAD plan, bring that into SketchUp as a parametric map and thereby instantly generate land uses for all the buildings. You asked me about mixed use buildings - I think if this parametric map idea works we could possibly generate the information automatically using the land use colours. Kind regards, Robert

[Nejc Vidmar]

Dear Robert,

yes, the time really flies. Thank you for your terminology dictionary, we highly appreciate your input.

For our next release, we will rename "Build-up Area Factor" to "Lot Coverage". As for the Building's Built-up Area, please let me know if this is correct:

As for the Gross Floor Area, your specification is very detailed. Since with Modelur you can create only Buildings that are simple volumes with floors, this kind of definition is not applicable. I think your definition is usable for architectural projects, where one creates detailed plans of buildings, with all the elements you have specified as included or excluded. This is why we provide net floor area calculation based on percentage of Gross Floor Area, which is actually an estimate of usable floor area.

Thank you also for some other definitions, which are currently not implemented in Modelur (e.g. setbacks), but we might add them sometime in the future... :-)

Best,
Jernej

[Robert Platt]

Hello Jernej

Appreciate your feedback!

Plot (Lot) coverage is actually the pink area of your image, and the yellow area is the Built-up area.

I agree with you about the details I supplied, they were just there to add some details. For planning work we typically would use percentages as you have noted. Built up area is a percentage of gross floor area, which in turn is a percentage of nett floor area.

The coverage factor will dictate how much of the lot is allowed to be covered, while the floor space index (or floor area ratio) dictates how much building is allowed (GFA).

You are doing such a good job with this project it seems a shame to get stuck with all these different definitions.

Good luck.

Regards

----------------------------------------------------------------

Dr Robert Platt

+97150 475 8324

Sent from my iPad

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[Nejc Vidmar]

Hello Robert,

now I am totaly confused :-) But I am sure we will work it out sucessfully.
Yellow is the 3D building, what does it have to do with built-up area?

If I understand correctly, Plot (lot) coverage referes to the sum of all of the building's built-up areas on one plot (parcel). It is measured in absolute dimensions (eg. m2 or ft2). How do we call its relative value (% of how much of the plot is occupied by the buildings)?

Thank you very much,
Jernej

PS: if you find some free time, we might want to setup an e-conference to solve all the dilemmas you have exposed?

On Tuesday, November 11, 2014 9:44:06 PM UTC+1, Robert Platt wrote:

Hello Jernej

Appreciate your feedback!

Plot (Lot) coverage is actually the pink area of your image, and the yellow area is the Built-up area.

I agree with you about the details I supplied, they were just there to add some details. For planning work we typically would use percentages as you have noted. Built up area is a percentage of gross floor area, which in turn is a percentage of nett floor area.

The coverage factor will dictate how much of the lot is allowed to be covered, while the floor space index (or floor area ratio) dictates how much building is allowed (GFA).

You are doing such a good job with this project it seems a shame to get stuck with all these different definitions.

Good luck.

Regards

----------------------------------------------------------------

Dr Robert Platt

+97150 475 8324

Sent from my iPad

[Robert Platt]

Good morning!

I will draw some pictures. That will make it easier.

Regards

----------------------------------------------------------------

Dr Robert Platt

+97150 475 8324

Sent from my iPad

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[Nejc Vidmar]

Dear Robert,

that would be great, thank you!

Best regards,
Jernej