November 23, 2007—Autodesk, Inc. has announced that its architecture and design visualization solutions have recently facilitated the design of several green projects around the world, including the Wuhan Blue Sky Prototype for China. Autodesk software allows designers to better understand and leverage how a building’s design can reduce the amount of resources it will consume, says the company.
“Our solutions help architects and designers plan and visualize buildings that provide increased energy efficiency, use less fresh water and improve air quality,” said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “Our solutions also allow for reductions in material waste, efficient specification management and more accurate evaluation of project lifecycles.”
Architecture firm Anderson Anderson Architecture used Autodesk solutions to design and visualize its Wuhan Blue Sky Prototype project for a 12-story housing and mixed-use development in China. To design the project, the firm relied on AutoCAD software, Revit Architecture and Revit MEP software for building information modeling, as well as Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya modeling, animation and rendering software.
The shape of the Wuhan Blue Sky Prototype building was significantly influenced by sun, shadow and wind direction analysis conducted through Revit, in conjunction with IES software for building performance assessment. The building was designed to provide shade and capture wind in the summer, and to attract the sun and provide shelter from the wind in winter.
Revit was also used to quantify and optimize the structure’s ability to capture rain water. This water would be filtered and used as non-potable household water, as well as for irrigation of the building’s extensive plantings, which are important to its shading strategies. The parametric features in Revit allowed the architects and designers to balance their desires for all of these elements in real time as they experimented with different configurations of the building’s form.
During the design phase, Autodesk Maya was also used to model the structure’s more fluid and sculptural forms, such as the vertical circulation of the stairs. The sections modeled in Maya were then completely merged into the Revit model, so that they could be included in parametric modeling. Once the design was finalized, the Revit model was brought into 3ds Max to create various high-quality renderings and animations, which helped communicate the building’s design intent and highlighted key green elements of the design.
Autodesk’s software for architects includes AutoCAD Architecture for efficient architectural design and documentation; Revit Architecture for the coordination, quality and process benefits of building information modeling (BIM); as well as 3ds Max and Autodesk VIZ 3D visualization software packages that can be used to extend the capabilities of AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture and Revit Architecture software products for conceptual exploration, design validation and visual communication. For more on the company, see the Web site or visit the ad on FMLink .
