Revit and Classical Architecture PDF - Chapter 1

Okay, I will convert the document/image into a structured markdown format as requested. # Chapter 1 ## Revit and Classical Architecture ### INTRODUCTION Welcome! This is the most exciting book that I have ever written. This book will look at a topic that has always held great interest for me: Cl...

Okay, I will convert the document/image into a structured markdown format as requested. # Chapter 1 ## Revit and Classical Architecture ### INTRODUCTION Welcome! This is the most exciting book that I have ever written. This book will look at a topic that has always held great interest for me: Classical Architecture. This may seem a surprising interest for someone who makes their living mastering and teaching the latest technology like Revit. Why not a book on the latest innovations in architectural form? Well, I am certain that would be an excellent subject for a book as well, but what interests me about classical form is actually perfectly well suited to tools like Revit. For starters, classical architecture is steeped in geometry, proportion, scale and rational form making. All of these are things that computers in general, and Revit in particular facilitate. This book for me is as much about finding a vehicle for learning and teaching the potentials and possibilities of Revit as it is a way to explore the specifics of a genre like classical architectural form. My first book was written about Architectural Desktop software and was published in 2001. This was right around the time that Autodesk started updating its software annually, so little did I know at the time that I would need to rewrite the book just a few short months later. I have published at least one book per year and in some years several books per year since that time. At last count I have about 27 volumes (I had to look it up) to my name. These started with Architectural Desktop, which became AutoCAD Architecture and then gave way to Revit. In its years with Autodesk, Revit has been referred to as Revit, Revit Building, Revit Architecture and now back to just "Revit" again. At an average of 800 pages per book, I am now responsible for the publication of around 22,000 pages of content on Autodesk building design software! Hard for me (and I am sure my college roommates) to believe given how much I grumbled about having to write just 50 pages for my college thesis. So why is this volume that you now hold in your hands the "most exciting" that I have written? Well, the prior 27 volumes have been essentially the same. They were how-to manuals on the tools available. Examples I used were deliberately kept simple and in most cases generic enough to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. I realize that with this book, I may immediately loose those folks who do not share my interest in classical form. While I certainly understand this possibility, I hope it will not be the case. This is also a "how-to" manual in the sense that I will provide plenty of tutorials explaining exactly how I built each of the Revit families and forms that we will be discussing. However, all the examples will be classical forms. That being said, it is my hope that even those readers who may not be particularly interested in classical form will be able to see beyond the specific example to underlying techniques. The fact is that in this book, we will look at practical examples of how to approach many common Revit challenges, such as: * Strategies to planning and building reusable family content * How to control scale and proportion reliably * How to parametrically control curves like arcs, ellipses and compound curves * Strategies for working with appropriate levels of detail * Approaches to effectively managing repetitive elements * Building rules, relationships and design intent into your content * Strategies to use two-dimensional geometry instead of 3D Reading this introduction you may also notice another point. I have decide to write this manual in the first person. I made this decision partly because of the very personal nature of the subject matter and also because so much of the content that follows is like a case study of sorts. By presenting it in first person I feel that it will convey my intent a little more; which is to share as much my journey through this process as the techniques that I settled on along the way. So if you want to know how to create a classical column family in Revit, rest assured you have come to the right place and I will walk step-by-step through the process. However, I will also share some other narrative along the way. I might share how I arrived at a particular technique, or discuss some of the issues encountered and even show the failures and half successes. I think that all of this can be a valuable learning resource. Andy Milburn in his excellent foreword (for which I am humbled and grateful) likes to say that Revit is his current "pencil of choice". Architects have always used the pencil as an extension of the brain and a way to explore ideas and understand forms and relationships. How do we understand the built environment around us? We go out with a sketchpad and draw. So even if you have no need for classical forms in your current work, I would argue that the lessons in this book are just as relevant to you as to someone who intends to create a completely faithful classically themed design. Using Revit as your pencil, and creating the forms discussed in this book will allow you that critical insight into what the masters who came before us were thinking. We can dissect the forms, understand the relationships and gain better insight into the history that binds us all together. I hope that you will join me now as we explore classical forms in Revit; our current pencil of choice. ### OBJECTIVES This chapter sets the stage. Topics in this chapter include: * A look at the goals of this book * An overview of the Revit tools that we will explore * A discussion of the strategies and approach ### UNDERSTANDING THE ORDERS I'd like to begin with a quick definition of what the classical "orders” are. If you are an Architect or have training in architecture or building design, you have no doubt some familiarity with the classical orders. Nonetheless, I could hardly skip the topic altogether now could I? At the very least you probably are curious what I think the orders are. So understanding the orders and defining a few terms is a good a place to start as any. As I began to write this passage, a very basic question popped into my head. Why are they called "orders"? So naturally I went to Google for a quick answer. Choosing to skip over the obligatory Wikipedia article that came up first, the next site is one that I have visited on many occasions: [http://theclassicalorders.com/](http://theclassicalorders.com/) The definition given on the home page of this site cut right to the chase: and order "orders" architectural form. Simple, concise. I like it. Here is the complete quote: > All classical architecture of the Greco-Roman tradition is composed, or written, in one language of forms. These elements of classical architecture include specific Moldings and assemblages of moldings called an Order. An Order is an accepted way of assembling a column (supporting element) with an entablature (spanning element) while imparting a certain character. In short, an Order orders a design. Orders are never applied after the building is designed, as they are generative. > > Over time the canon has come to include five Orders: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. > > (The Classical Orders.com n.d.) I love this definition because it touches on many of the salient points that I believe are critical to the undertaking at hand. First, the analogy to classical architecture's being a language. When you learn a language, you learn vocabulary, grammar and style. It is not enough to know just a bunch of words. You have to know how to put those words together into meaningful sentences to covey complex thoughts and ideas. When you learn a language, you learn how to communicate, not how to merely recite back some words and sentences. A simplistic way to look at classical architecture is to think of it static forms that scale proportionally based on the diameter of the column's base. But there is much more nuance to it than that. I have seen this in the development of the Revit orders that I will share with you here. By sketching them, molding them, flexing them in Revit, I have gained a much more thorough understanding than I could by simply reading about them or looking at them. I suppose we can extend the language analogy further by equating it to the differences between reading, speaking and writing. While all rely on the vocabulary and grammar, writing is a very different skill than reading or speaking. Next our definitions identifies the two dominant components in the classical vocabulary: the column and the entablature. These are our nouns and verbs. The best part of the definition however is the note that the orders are not "applied" but rather "generate" the form. The classical language is not simply wall covering and paint. It defines a methodology of form. There are rules implied in its forms and proportions. Some of these can be bent, some broken. We see this throughout history as the orders evolved and each new master made them their own. One of my favorites at this was the renaissance master Michelangelo. Michelangelo worked in the height of the renaissance where he and other masters were rediscovering and redefining the language that the ancients had left to them. Michelangelo is best known for his paintings and sculpture, but he was also a brilliant Architect. My favorite of his architectural works is the Piazza del Campidoglio. This is his reworking of the Capitoline Hill in Rome. It is a brilliant space and if you have never seen it, you should definitely look it up. **Figure 1.1** Piazza del Campidoglio by Michelangelo One of the first orders I attempted to build was an Ionic capital. With the Campidoglio being one of my favorite works, I based this capital on the ones used there. (This was actually built a few years before I started using Revit in AutoCAD Architecture. Michelangelo took some liberties with the forms, particularly at the capital in the volutes, necking and other details. I incorporated some of these nuances in the form of the horns behind the volutes, but only captured a small fraction of the subtlety. Upon closer examination, I discovered that the horns and even the volutes actually vary quite substantially from one another at different points along the façade. I did not notice this subtlety at first. It took me some long sessions of investigation to fully appreciate these nuances. The work of Michelangelo is certainly appreciated by many, and even scorned by a