Chapter 23

Revit in the Classroom

Using Revit in the classroom involves unique challenges that differ from using Revit in an architectural design and production environment. First, the design exercises are often deliberately more contrived than they would be in a real design firm, because it's important that individual students be exposed to complex design issues that in practice would be resolved by an entire team of people.

Second, the design process needs to be more gestural and discovery based. It needs to be paced and to show process in order to give the jury points of discussion and response. Students need to get to a point of design and then stop and build consensus rather than go beyond the intention of a particular exercise. Although at first this approach can be frustrating, in time they learn there's little value in racing to do something twice.

Third, it's often difficult for students to look to outside influences for both technical inspiration and techniques. They feel that if the idea didn't “originate” with them that it can't be valid or as valuable as an idea that was without external influences. This can't be further from the truth, and it's important for students to realize that architecture is often an expression of aggregate ideas—and that one often excels by rigorous observation to get at the important principle at the core of a particular design expression.

But overall, design studio is a highly competitive environment. Seeing the work of others can be inspiring and threatening. The important thing is that this culture forces students to try harder, to work smarter, and to be prepared to do more than they thought possible at the beginning of another semester in the studio.

That's what this chapter is all about! If you're a student learning to use Revit for the first time or looking for ideas and inspiration to help you push your Revit skill beyond where you thought possible, this chapter is just what you need.

In this chapter, you'll learn to:

• Develop a workflow for Revit
• Create a strategy to take you from design through documentation