Building Information
Torre Agbar is located in Barcelona, Spain and was completed
in 2005. In addition to being a landmark
in the area and a symbol for the growing technological industry in Barcelona,
it stands as an architectural masterpiece.
Its stunning façade is made of many thousands of windows that are lit up
in a spectacular display of red, blue, green, yellow, white, and purple LED
lights at night time. Figure 1
below shows Torre Agbar’s night time display.
Figure 1: Torre Agbar's Night Time LED
Display
Conceptual Mass
The conceptual mass was
originally going to be a series of floors that would be extruded between each
other to create the shape of the building.
I felt that this allowed the most flexibility in that the user could
modify the dimensions of each floor.
When extruded, however, there were problems with continuity of the mass,
so I had to scrap that idea. Instead, I
had to revolve a series of lines. From
looking at pictures of the structure, I could see that roughly half of the
structure was a cylinder with straight edges, which then changed into a
cylinder with slanted edges, then to a cylinder with a parabolic type shape,
and finally into a semi-spherical cap.
So, I created this combination of lines and revolved about a center
line. This created the shape that I
wanted, but it had problems when I tried to change geometric parameters. My solution to this problem was to revolve
each line individually so that there were essentially 4 separate masses sitting
on top of each other. At the same time,
I locked each set of lines to reference lines so that I could easily change geometric
parameters and have the masses adapt correctly.
Figure 2
below shows the lines used to create the mass.
Figure 2: Revolved Lines
The independent parametric values
governing the height of each part are the story heights (constant for every
floor except the first floor and the top floor), and integers that correspond
to the numbers of stories for the straight and slanted parts of the
structure. The number of stories for the
curved part is governed by the number of stories of the straight and slanted
parts and the total number of stories, set at 33. With these parameters, the height of each
part is just the number of stories times the story heights. At the bottom of Figure 2,
there is a value called “Bottom Radius”, this is the radius of the base of the
structure, and is a user defined parametric value. The bottom radius of the slanted part is the
same as the bottom radius, and the top radius of the slanted part is calculated
using a trigonometric relationship between the height of the slanted part and
the angle at which it is slanted, which is also a user-defined parametric
value. The bottom radius of the curved
part is the same as the top radius of the slanted part, and the top radius of
the curved part is a user-defined parametric value because the curved line does
not have an easily definable equation. Figure 3
below shows the revolved mass.
Figure 3: Revolved Mass
The following screenshots show
how the shape looks when the parametric values outlined above are changed. The mass in Figure
4
is the result of a changed bottom radius and radius for the cap. The mass in Figure
5
is the results of changing the number of floors for the straight and slanted
parts, 33 and 1, respectively.
Figure 4: Model When Radii are Changed
Figure 5: Model When Number of Stories is
Changed
Mass Envelope
Once the conceptual mass was made, the surfaces were divided
to incorporate the rectangular windows that are the defining feature of Torre
Agbar. The number of divisions per
floor, both horizontal and vertical, is tied to a parametric value. With these defined, the U and V grid for each
face are calculated using the number of stories for each face and the number of
divisions per floor. After these were
defined, the surface was created using rectangular curtain wall panels. The curtain panel mass is shown below, and
was edited to have a different color and to have mullions. The result is the façade below in Figure 7. Because the top of the structure is a cap,
there was a problem getting panels to work.
This will be discussed in more detail in the problems section of this
report. Figure 8
shows a changed number of curtain panels.
Figure 6:
Curtain Panel Conceptual Mass
Figure 7: Exterior Façade
Figure 8: Changed Number of Curtain Panels
Project
Once these were completed, they were loaded into a
project. At elevation view, levels were
added for each floor, in addition to levels for the roofs of each story. Once these were correctly placed, mass floors
were added, and roofs and ceilings were put into each mass floor. Then, to cover up the plenum space, walls
were placed that ran from the roof to the bottom of the floor. Figure 9
below shows the elevation view of the building.
Figure 9: Elevation View
Since there were not very precise floorplans, I had to use
some artistic integrity when I laid out my floorplan. Figure 10
below shows the 2nd level floorplan.
Figure 10: Level 2 Floorplan
The red arrow above in Figure 10
was the location for the interior rendering shown below.
Figure 11:
Interior Rendering
In addition to interior features, the topography was
modeled. Torre Agbar is located in an
urban area, but for ease of the project, I modeled the topography as if it was
located in a wooded area. Figure
12
below shows an exterior rendering of the building, complete with the
topographical features.
Figure 12: Exterior Rendering
Problems
As I stated before, the curtain panels would not appear at
the top of the structure. I think this
is because the grid lines all converge to a point at the very top, making the
materials overlap. This could possibly
be solved by having the grid lines stop before reaching the top.
When I completed the project, I did not realize that we
needed to create an envelope, so the curtain system loaded into the project is
from the project itself, not from the envelope.
Finally, I can’t change parametric values in the actual
project without having troubles with my floors, so the video will show changed
parametric values in the conceptual mass only.
