The Mad Scientist's Lair
This is an outline of a fictitious project that could focus some efforts if enough people think it's interesting.
The basic premise is that a compact project which can re-use existing designs and assets could test the interoperability of software and stress test their capability in many ways. The reason I think a mad scientist lair could be fun and useful is that it can include the technical disciplines in a way most small projects don't. An underground lair will need power, lighting, ventilation, temperature control and all sorts of other technical solutions which other small projects - even real world ones are not going to need at a small scale.
This project could be fun, complex, modular and look great!
Here are some more specific aspects:
- A mountainside location on the side of a slope over a lake
- The residence can be a small 'summer house' style in some picture book style showing off the detail possible with our software. Perhaps a traditional hut with wooden carving.
- The transport aspect can be a road below the house by the lake, and a train above the house going into a tunnel (maybe an underground secret railway station could be fun)
- The steel aspect of the project for FEM could be a bridge just before the house, or a helicopter pad or hanger doors in the mountainside (like Thunderbirds) where the anti-grav plane shoots out (plenty of models of them we could get permission to use)
- The underground lair would of course need an elevator and all MEP disciplines, and can be expanded with additional functions to showcase different software.
- Documentation: parts of the project can be documented diagramatically and via model views. Some parts of the project should be chosen for full detailing and calculation.
Modularity
- Each aspect of the project can be modelled in the best suited software and assembled in a federated hosted IFC based model. Coordination between disciplines can be via a hosted BCF solution.
- Much is possible but nothing needs to be done in a hurry. Once a site is modelled/chosen and an outline proposal is made then each discipline can work on their area without a huge need for constant coordination and design compromise.
- If someone want to make different type of house - no problem. We could start with the Farnsworth House model if someone wants (not well suited to mountain climate). We just make a variation of the site with space for that house. The access and other disciplines can stay where they are. We just need to keep some good space between each aspect so they don't collide with each other.
I'd love to make a sketch but I've got to do some other things first.
If you see merit in this idea then let's make a wiki page where we organize a project outline and workflow where we can start adding the software we expect to use. Just doing this would help people see what software we think works. Making a good outline of the workflow can make sure we don't skip some steps just because we can, costing and siteworks for example.
Comments
I agree very much with the idea of a demo project to help people see the value of the available software and workflows.
This is certainly missing right now and would be ideal as a showcase.
However, I also believe there is a danger of missing many real world considerations when picking something not based in reality.
For instance, much of the design and decision making in real world projects stem from:
... etc.
You're totally right @globalcitizen . Part of this project would be choosing (maybe by combining) a real site with real bylaws and constraints. We have terrain models available and weather data from many countries we could choose from.
But I don't think this project is about architectural design. It's a technology showcase. Architectural design & decision making is a whole creative process independent of software. So I think it's okay to avoid it until we get a real world project. Hopefully @yorik or @theoryshaw will get a commission or we'll find a collaboration with a non-profit. But anyway a real project is never going to need all the processes we want to showcase. Who does FEM or windflow simulations for a real world little house anyway? Just to give another example, we want to showcase that there are free software solutions to costing. That the price might be hopelessly high and measured in a now non-existent currency like French francs I don't see as important. Does this make sense?
@Lars hi there. I was wondering if you might have a site that could be suitable for the project here? I need to find out who here has GIS/landscape experience so I can get their help, but maybe you also have some suggestions for a site or how we can find one.
Yes, was thinking of potentially this project, that we 'just' started, could be a good candidate. We're still, however, working out the details with the client.
I think we're planning on modeling it mostly in BlenderBIM and possiblity FreeCAD.
More, TBD.
@baswein - you're a landscape architect! Any chance you'd like to help find a site for this crazy demonstration project?
Do you know if anyone here has experience with GRASS GIS? Maybe someone would like to reach out to them? It'd be cool if the project could start with GIS analysis. https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title=GRASS_GIS
Of course!
Also I use QGIS (and GRASS though QGIS) so would be happy to do the GIS analysis as well. I attached a couple of posters that we worked on for a design contest that has some site selection analysis. I think the first step is to create a list of mad scientist site criteria. Normally I would do this sort of collaborative editing in google docs is there an open source tool we could use instead?
This guy is a mad scientist isn't he? :)
Sorry I know the theme is crazy guy in Scandinavian mountain but I saw this beautiful little drawing online and couldn't resist:
For those who haven't seen the movie, this old guy decides to tie 99 red balloons to his house and converts it into an houseplane and flies off to distant lands with a talking dog and colourful ostrich. His house looks like this.
Turns out somebody built it in Utah and didn't get sued either.
Anyway I built it in Blender as a very simplified concept model:
Ground and level 1:
Here's a test incomplete ground floor plan (notice the bug where it also draws the 2D annotation of the doors of the floor above - this is because right now the 2D IFC doesn't do any collision tests - a work in progress)
Check out the repo. I stole the survey in DXF format from @theoryshaw 's repo.
gotta run, time for windsurfing. @baswein heres a place to collaborate: https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title=The_Mad_Scientists_Lair
if you want something more dynamic I suggest NextCloud, @Cyril has one where I have an account. So I've started a public document there. @baswein or someone please check if it's publically editable. https://courantlibre.biminsight.ch/index.php/s/Y3NwtgPi2ZRDWyS
( @Cyril is that going to work okay for you? Can we do rollbacks if it's vandalised? )
Currently it is not publicly editable. Share is password protected. You can remove password or send a pm with password to people which want to edit.
You can check previous versions in sidebar. Etherpad has a more readable history : https://mensuel.framapad.org/p/osarch---the-mad-scientist39s-lair-9ihx?lang=en
For a more sustainable solution I would recommend git. Each tool has its own advantages and drawbacks :
@Cyril if we want a shared space with more flexibility than etherpad and more user friendly than git, can we have a Shared Folder with public documents? So anyone with the link can edit, but they can't create or delete files? That would make sense to me and make it easy for anyone curious to contribute.
Sorry for late answer on this topic. When you press share button you have multiple options (it should be in english or system language on your computer, if not change it in settings) :
To test behavior for others, you can follow link in a browser private session (eg. firefox).
2 sample folders :
@Cyril been a bit busy and distracted. That looks like it could work. Thanks.