Dealing with renovations and re-modellings with a BIM software: the Dulwich Residence case study
Is it possible to use BIM software for architectural design when dealing with renovations and re-modellings of a structure? Let's take a look at the Dulwich Residence case study completely reproduced with Edificius
The owners of ‘Dulwich Residence‘, a historic home of the 1920s, turned to the naturehumaine architecture design studio with the intent to reorganize and expand the available spaces.
After a total re-think of the entire building, Dulwich Residence, located on a large plot of land towards the south coast of Montreal, was re-designed according to the owner’s requirements:
Contemporary interiors, in harmony with the existing living spaces and a strong emphasis of characteristic brick walls and used as a historic reference for the new building.
The existing home was therefore reorganized to meet the customers demands for the growing family.
The previous layout of Dulwich Residence was based on a different configuration of spaces with the entrance hall and the living room at ground floor and the children’s area located at second floor. The new project was based on the idea of having two volumes: the existing volume mainly composed of bricks which was elegantly connected to the new additional structure. This architectural choice is highlighted on the front facade by a vertical strip of transparent glass.
Double height volumes keep the warm atmosphere of the house and connect the common ground floor areas with more the reserved spaces at second floor.
Contents
Renovation and architectural distribution of “Dulwich Residence” interior spaces
The renovation works start from the brickwork that form the house’s sub-structure foundation layer serving as the support for the steel-coated architectural body.
This cantilevered section is illuminated through a large window.
A relaxation area was created onlooking the garden and also dedicated for leisure and play-area purposes for the owner’s grandchildren. This part is visually connected with the kitchen and dining area, which are on the ground floor, thanks to the fact that the entire relaxation area is connected to itself with an original looped pathway.
The new block is also built on a semi-underground floor, visible from outside and surrounded by a small cut out area that serves as a natural lighting and air source to the lower level. Finally, the main access of the house, in contrast to the basement, finds accomodation for a wooden terrace connected to the existing structure’s volume.
How to address renovation works using a BIM software for architecture
With the Edificius software for architecture, we have seamlessly reproduced the design process for the realization of Dulwich Residence thanks to the “Project Group” feature. This feature for advanced management of work variations or renovations automatically integrates two architectural BIM models.
Architectural objects (walls, windows, floors, etc.) of the ‘Surveyed BIM model‘ are labeled as EXISTING entities, while the newly designed architectural objects in the ‘Design Situation‘ become NEW BUILD entities.
Thanks to special “Tools” (demolisher, trowel and magic wand) you can demolish or rebuild architectural objects. “Project Group” handles all the information generated by even generating a dynamic comparison between the original situation and the newly designed situation.
The comparison documents are automatically added as part of the construction documents set (area plan, floor plans , cross-sections, layouts and construction details) of the two BIM models.
Here’s the complete project overview video entirely produced with the advanced real time rendering engine available with the Edificius architectural BIM design software.
