Sketchup is a great visual tool that helps flat, plan views come to life in three dimensions. Clients often have a difficult time understanding plan views, so this a highly effective tool that allows individuals to get a feel of spaces within the site. Google sketchup is compatible with autocad so plans can be imported and extruded to 3D.
Shadows and scale figures give proposed designs a more human-scale feel to them.
Using the Harvard standard color code for land uses easily allows someone to know what each building use is in a sketchup model. This culinary and agriculture institute has education buildings (blue), mixed-use buildings (orange), residential buildings (yellow), and entertainment (red) on the campus with a central courtyard thats use will be influenced by the adjacent buildings.
This aerial view shows the interior of the culinary and agricultural campus. The focal point is the massive vertical farming structure that spreads its radial design into the other spaces within the courtyard. A sunken plaza for students is on the right, while to the bottom left is a deck attached to the restaurant that features produce grown and cooked by the students, which overlooks the farming operation.
