How to design public spaces and achieve outstanding results

Do you need to design outdoor spaces, gardens or green areas? Are you a designer keen to provide a complete design project also including appurtenances? Find out how to carry out your project professionally, with exciting results that will amaze your clients

If you are involved in designing outdoor spaces (gardens, green areas, parks, outdoor public spaces, etc.), you undoubtedly also need a working tool to support your professional skills and abilities.

In fact, the graphic representation of design ideas, through photorealistic renderings, video presentations and virtual tours in the 3D model, is now indispensable to tell your design choices to the client.

If you are looking for an easy, intuitive and powerful garden and landscape design software with which to achieve professional results quickly follow the directions I am about to give you.

Terrain modelling

When planning a public space project, the first step to consider is terrain modelling.

I’ll show you how easy it is to model the terrain in a project current situation or design stage with Edificius.

You can operate in two ways:

using topographic surveys in DXF or DWG formats, (raster images) or satellite photos and building your terrain digital model by defining its perimeter with the LAND [perimeter] object and the elevations, with Contour lines, the Elevation node or Topographic Contour Plan
importing the terrain from Google Maps™ with the specific command to identify the area to survey and automatically recreate the elevation profile.

How to design public spaces with Edificius

Once you have defined the terrain of the current situation you can start working on your design plan.

You can model the terrain with specific objects enabling height modelling through contour lines or the elevation plan.

You can simulate the terrain modelling by means of excavation and earthworks of all shapes and types with the Earthworks and Fixed section cutobjects.

The terrain model automatically adapts to the profile of the inserted objects by creating different types of escarpments and slopes.

To add different dynamic grass, you can use the Land area object and apply different textures to visually distinguish the different configurations of the modelled terrain (soil, grass, rocks, etc).

You can even enrich your project by inserting objects from both 2D and 3D views:

streets
yards
stairs
ramps
railings
walls
flowerbeds
swimming pools
canopies
plants
reflecting pools.

At this point, you can instantly view the objects that you have inserted and edit them in both 2D or 3D views.

3D BIM objects Library

Every element of the public area contributes to the identity of the place, including sculpture, lighting, railings, litter bins, paving, fountains and street furniture.

To insert the 3D objects, you can:

export them directly from the extensive collection of the Edificius online library
import them in .skp, .3ds, .obj, ifc, etc formats.

The Edificius Library contains tens of thousands of free resources (textures, CAD blocks, 3D models) to help you design better and faster. You can download all the resources you need and, with a simple click, import them in your model or even publish your own model objects. Click here to find out more about the Edificius online library.

You can also customise objects according to your needs or create new ones, taking advantage of Edificius’ integration with:

SketchUp®
Blender
Rhino/Grasshopper
Revit.

Drawing Models

Once the BIM model is complete, you can obtain all the project drawings automatically: plans, floor plans, cross-sections, axonometries, etc.

You can easily produce them with a simple drag&drop to load each single drawing in the working drawings. You can enrich your drawings with photos of the current situation, maps and project renderings.

Finally, you can print out the drawings or export them in PDF, DXF/DWG formats.

Cost estimating

When it comes to cost estimating, you can obtain your cost estimate automatically from the model. In fact, to each project variation, both BoQ and the amounts are updated.

The dynamic cost estimating provides detailed information with regards to earthworks, escavations and fills (with comparisons between the various solutions and project levels) and the elements present in the project (roads, yards, ramps, canopies, trees, furniture, etc.).

In this way, you’ll easily produce all the necessary documents for your client’s presentation or to obtain a building permit, landscape authorisation, etc.

Project presentation

Edificius offers you all the tools you need to communicate your design choices when presenting your project:

photorealistic static renderings that you can obtain in a matter of minutes
photo-matching and photo-editing tools
Real-Time rendering, the functionality that allows you to navigate in real time in the rendered model and create project videos and photos
BIM Video Studio, the video editing tool to create project video presentations
BIM voyager, to share your 3D models online with anybody through a simple link to view and navigate the model from any device and without having to download external applications
immersive virtual reality (iVR), which allows you to ‘live’ the project before it is actually built.

Urban green areas| Render produced with Edificius

Designing with virtual reality

With Edificius and the use of a VR viewer, you can take a virtual tour of the model and live a true experience of the project. Users could interact with objects as if they were real.

In fact, Edifcius allows you to take the best out of the dynamic integration between BIM model and Virtual Reality. The result will offer your client an immersive expercience along with the chance to apply modifications straight from the virtual reality environment.

Virtual reality thus becomes a tool to support the designer in:

presenting the project to your client – present the project in a clearer and more engaging way offering clients extraordinary immersive, dynamic and interactive experiences. You can modify the model in real time, following your client’s requests;
verifying design choices – explore your project as if it were already built and modify it live and in real time, with a more realistic perception of spaces, lights and materials.

Designing outdoor spaces with virtual reality

Examples of public space and garden design

Garden and landscape design

Urban park design

Urban open space design

Public space design