090927 Sunlight Study 02

Another sunlight study has been done.

This time I set Tower 01 at 180m in height and keep Tower 02 the same at 220m in height.







Here are the results:

In Winter:






In Summer:






They all are positive results. I will use this building height as a restrain/guide for further design development.

090926 Sunlight Study 01

I have done the first sunlight study on the proposed site. From my preliminary sketches in previous post, I proposed two towers on the east and west of the site to create a grand central axis connecting the Perth Concert Hall to the river.

The sunlight study is essential to see how high the towers can be and how the towers will impact on the site and the surrounding. Major issues would possibly be Views and Shadows.

In the first run, I have set the west tower at 300m high and the east tower at 220m high to see how much shadow they will cast around the site.









The date for lowest sun angle (winter) and highest sun angle (summer) is from the Sun Angle Calculator in Vray Rhino. It is more accurate than the 3ds max one.



In Perth, the lowest winter sun angle is on 2009-06-22 with Azimuth of 5.22113' and Altitude of 34.3702'. The highest sun angle is on 2009-12-17 with Azimuth of 18.9663' and 80.8911'. Here are the first set of results:

In Winter:




In Summer:




In winter, two towers will not cast shadow over surrounding buildings but not for the summer sun. The results show that there will be sometime that the Tower 1 (300m) will cast shadow on 1) east building of Swan Bell Tower 2) Tower 2 (220m) and 3) east building of Perth Concert Hall.

I guess it is possible to have perfect shadow if I flip the height of the two towers the other way round, i.e. Tower 2 is 300m and tower 1 is 220m.

From the sunlight study, the height of the towers can be determined. So hopefully, the result from second sunlight is positive which will be tested tomorrow.

090919 Site Model | Technical Issue + Solution

I was intended to do some sun path study but I encountered some issues in terms of the completion of the site model and also file conversion. Eventually, I managed to complete the whole site model and did a couple of renders of it.


Original model from my uni-mate built in Rhino

I was given this Rhino site model from my uni-mate and this is a pretty decent model to work on with. It took me a while to export this polysurface model into 3d max for proper sunlight study. 3d studio max just cannot read polysurface even with force 2-sided on which I will never understand why. Anyway, the problem was fixed by meshing all surfaces.


Top view of the whole model in 3D Studio Max


Detail Top View with a 300m tower located on the western side


First trial testing over-shadowing distance and coverage

Putting the model into max and modeling up a 300m tall tower locating on the western side to test the shadow overcast. It casted a long shadow during winter in the morning over-shadowing Swan Bell Tower. Then I realised that the model received from my friend does not include the pier side models. So I started to search online from 3D Warehouse to find a free-already-built-for-you model.


Quick search on Google on Swan Bell Tower


KMZ model from 3D Warehouse


Double-click on KMZ file will bring you to Google Earth with the model.

Here's where I encountered my 1st issue. The 3d warehouse only has a KMZ model but not the Sketchup model. Thanks to SketchUcation Community Forum that I managed to convert KMZ file to SKP file with the following steps. (See here, here and here)


A thread on kmz-skp conversion on SketchUcation Forum


Blender official website, free download available


Python official website, also free for download


Blender interface with imported Swan Bell Tower


Import the OBJ-ed model back to Rhino
1) Import the DAE file into Blender. (you also have to download + install python beforehand ... what a pain!)
2) Export to 3DS/OBJ file
3) Import back into Rhino, done.


Vivaty official website

I have encountered an advice on using Vivaty in the help of file conversion but I failed to do so. It just doesn't allow me to install on vista.

The next is to model the pier/harbour and some more building blocks.



Extract the CAD drawing and import into Rhino for further modeling


Using streetview to determine the building height of the surrounding buildings.


The final site model


Rendering with V-ray in Rhino


800 x 600 jpeg render

There are couple of renderers that I had come across during my research on the web. Personally I still think V-ray is the best, maybe because I'm relatively more familiar with V-ray than the others. RenderPlus 's IRender nXt is a good plug-in renderer for SketchUp, but it's not free. It does amazingly quick renders straight from the viewpoint of SketchUp. Many more features can be found via this video ad.

Kerkythea is another free external renderer platform. Quite easy to control and easy to follow interface. It is potentially a good platform for reasonable photorealistic rendering because it supports a vast range of file format by different softwares. There's also a forum page for tutorials.


Quick render from Rhino model


Changing particular object's material is not hard to do


800 x 600 render, obviously the bleed control has to be taken into account

090909 Site

Getting back to this project. The site that I have chosen is at the car park lot in front of Perth Concert Hall.

Hassell was appointed to do a feasibility study and also a proposition for the new Perth Performing Art Precinct in 2006-2007. Quote a few from the design report that they had submitted to City of Perth on the geotechnical study:

"... Worley Parsons was engaged to undertake a geotechnical study of the soil conditions within the Terrace Road car park. The investigation found that the western half of the Terrace Road car park is encumbered by a palaeochannel, which is an ancient river bed. The soil conditions over this section of the site are such that any scale of building requires piles to be driven down to the Kings Park formation, 40 metres below the existing ground level. The eastern portion of the site was found to have better soil conditions, and buildings of up to four levels could be supported without significant piling..."


Perth Performing Arts Precinct Masterplan


View from Swan River


View from Concert Hall

Basically, if the project encompasses buildings locating on the western side of the site, a minimum of 40 metres of piling has to be done in order to achieve building stability. The soil condition on the eastern side is better which can support 4-storey building without significant piling. For the project that I am doing, which is Skin as Structure in Skyscraper (SSS), I believe no matter where I put the buildings on site, the piling has to be quite significant.

The reason why I chose this site for my project because it is right at the edge of the river. Sun path is almost always on the northern side such that the shadow will only cast on the river instead of casting onto the buildings for most of the time. I will do a sun study later.

Hassell has listed several aims for the project. Their vision for the masterplan

"... is to create a world class performing arts precinct, integrated with the city fabric, providing for the ongoing needs of the state’s premier arts bodies. In this regard, the objectives are to:

— Provide for an active precinct that builds on the vitality of the City.

— Maximise locational opportunities.

— Enhance links between the City and the river foreshore.

— Provide intelligent staging and design opportunities.

— Create a safe and interesting place where people can experience all aspects of the performing arts."

It does makes sense in making the site into a new performing art precinct. But the built form and the building height is questionable. The location of the irrigation lake in the middle does makes senses in terms of connecting the river to the existing hall. However, wouldn't it be better to locate the lake on the western side since it's an ancient lake? Before answering these questions, I spotted the "landmarks" nearby the site and also modelled up the site.

The surrounding major buildings are Supreme Court, Government House, Council House and Concert Hall together with Supreme Court Garden and Stirling Garden. And of course Swan River

The site is around 120meters by 280meters.