Second-year design students design,
build models for campus train station

Using ideas from three techniques that are revolutionizing the design-build arena, Texas A&M architecture students recently designed a large train passenger depot for campus, then turned the designs into models at the College of Architecture's digital fabrication facility.

"They produced spectacular work in a relatively short period of time combining ideas from building information modeling, evidence-based design and integrated project delivery," said Mark Clayton, the architecture professor who led the second-year studio.

Using Amtrak guidelines, students used Autodesk Revit to design the depot, consisting of a free-form, curvilinear canopy covering 250 feet of platform and a separate building holding a ticketing area, waiting and baggage rooms, restrooms and offices at a campus site located across Wellborn Road from the Albritton Tower.

Students then headed to the Digital Fabrication Facility, aka the Architecture Ranch, at Texas A&M's Riverside campus and learned how to use the ranch's CNC routers and software to make 1:12 models of the canopies, said Clayton.

With help from Chuck Tedrick, the ranch's digital fabrications manager, students made models from aluminum, acrylic and medium density fiberboard.

"Students also used BIM models created with Revit to study the construction cost, energy cost and construction schedule of their designs," said Clayton. "They compiled presentations consisting of plans, sections, elevations and perspectives generated with BIM to complement their models."

- Posted: May 25, 2010 -

Contact:   Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.