Managing Constraints

On a commercial high-rise tower project located in Hong Kong, the design team was challenged to make a facade that would beneficial to tenants with a panoramic view yet also harmonise with the surrounding itself. The design team comes up with a facade design which includes four bespoke conical corner facade, with a total of more than 600 units; and over 3000 shading fins with eight profile. The complexity of this project requires a more intuitive cross-platform information model to facilitate data transfer.

This paper describes a design, modelling and documentation process used to realise the 2TP tower with a cross-platform information model that extend between various tools, streamlines the early-stage design iterations, visualisation, documentation, cost estimation and fabrication. Designs processes are working our way through constraints, and they are managed within the cross-platform information model, such as limiting any oversized units to ensure at least three different manufacturers would be capable of producing cost of fabricating the units through geometrical optimisation of individual units from conical to cylindrical with an acceptable aesthetic appearance; or even software limits how the precise geometry can be modelled and document. Every constraint would be carefully included and informs the design through a quick visualisation evaluation on aesthetic and shows up on the documentation.

Through this model, which bridges between design, BIM management and construction documents, a small team is able to create, manage and produce adequate documentation that is faithful and highly precise to the design.