CAD/BIM Tips & Tricks
Brilliant BIM Series
BIM’s Funny Funnel: The Alto Tower, Paris
2 May 2023
The next time you’re in Paris, strolling around with a fresh croissant and a coffee, head over to the financial district, La Défense. If you need to ask for directions, simply ask how to get to the landmark Alto Tower.
On arrival, however, don’t expect to find a typical financial institution. The unusual architecture of the Alto Tower is singularly pleasing: It’s one part glass and steel and two parts Dolly Parton. You’ll know what we mean by that when you see it because the Alto Tower is decidedly top-heavy. But it’s kind of genius and a feather in the cap for BIM.
It’s one part glass and steel and two parts Dolly Parton.
We have been unable to definitively establish which BIM platform was used for its design, but based on the fact that the engineering and construction companies involved worked in partnership with Autodesk®, it’s probably reasonably safe to assume that Revit® was the BIM platform of choice, so we’re also going to take a look at some Revit tools that can help users save an enormous amount of time on their BIM projects. Allons-y! (That’s French for “Let’s go!”)
Engineered to Overcome Limitations
At its base, the Alto Tower has a footprint of 6,450 square feet (600 square meters). Ride the elevator to the top floor though, and you’ll step out into 19,400 square feet (1,800 square meters) of airy, well-lit office space. Floor by floor, the tower literally triples in size over its 38 floors, creating something akin to a funnel or an inverted pyramid — only it’s more conical than something the Egyptians might have whipped up — and more fluidly rounded and curvaceous. (Echoes of Dolly?) But how was this achieved?
A simple — yet incredibly smart — mathematical equation made the engineering possible.
A simple — yet incredibly smart — mathematical equation made the engineering possible. The edge beam on each floor was extended by 4.7 inches (12 centimeters) over the floor below — which meant the facade structure expanded too — resulting in a building that smoothly grows incrementally in size as it rises almost 500 feet (150 meters) above the streets of Paris.
It's a decidedly innovative approach to achieve in excess of half a million square feet (548,949.43 square feet or 51,000 square meters to be precise) of office space in only 38 stories with a footprint that is less than 2% of the total square footage. Had it been a standard vertical design rising straight up from its footprint, the total square footage would have been less than half of what was achieved.
BIM made it possible for the architects and engineers to rely on parametric design while offering easy collaboration between all the contractors involved in the tower’s 3D design evolution.
A light-filled office with views that go on forever? Yes, please!
Impressive “Skin”
The Alto Tower is clad in 230,350 square feet (21,400 square meters) of glass in the form of 3,700 custom glass and steel panels — sometimes referred to as “scales” — in 1,700 different sizes.
Not just a pretty face, the insulating double-skin facade means Alto Tower also has an excellent energy rating. HQE® (a rating for sustainable construction) certified the building as Exceptional. The tower is also the first high-rise building to be recognized by BREEAM® (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) as Outstanding, a first in France. Additionally, it earned a platinum certification from WiredScore, a certification that recognizes best-in-class digitally connected buildings globally.
Images clearly show how light and airy the interior is and, combined with the unique visual of the exterior, the Alto Tower is a stellar example of what can be achieved with BIM.
Is Revit a Rocket Ride?
Revit can be a rocket ride, but like any CAD or BIM platform, it’s not without its quirks, right? Things like getting Word data (and Excel and even PDFs) into Revit can be a little tricky, especially in an editable and searchable format. How handy would it be to have your Word data perfectly formatted in your detail groups as Revit elements? If you’re nodding, thinking, “Yeah, that would be a big help,” we’ve got news for you: You can have exactly that with Office Importer™ for Revit.
And families? We know what a pain searching for families and editing them can be. How about a way to reduce the amount of time spent searching? How about expanding Revit’s search capabilities? How about searching for and listing only the families that match your search instead of everything the project browser throws at you? With Family Studio™ for Revit, you get all this and more!
And if you don’t want to pick favorites, you don’t have to, because, with Productivity Toolkit™ for Revit, we’ve bundled them together for you!
If you don’t want to pick favorites, you don’t have to...
If you have questions about your specific situation, call 727-442-7774 to pick the brain of a knowledgeable Service Consultant. Alternatively, you can check out our Revit pages here.
We don’t know if we’ll ever be able to eat another ice cream cone without thinking about the Alto Tower and Dolly. Let us know if you have the same problem!
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