The Design of a New Tourist House in Kwau village of Arfak mountains

I am now in the process of designing a simple tourist house for Kwau village. This current tourist house is far from the main road making it very difficult for elderly travelers to reach it. As a solution, I and the villagers in the village are now trying to build another guesthouse for tourists which is closer to the road.
As a naval architect, I am more familiar with Delftship. When I was asked by Samuel Mandacan and Hans Mandacan, two leaders of Kwau village, to help them design the guesthouse, I had to start learning Google Sketchup. As a matter of fact there is another BIM software that I was familiar with. It was Archicad.

Although Archicad is more suitable for home design, I choose Google Sketchup because it is lighter. I am now trying to master it. The following is the unfinished 3D presentation of the tourist house. It will be constructed with wood and concrete materials. This timber frame house will be constructed at a slope of Kwau village area. The lower part will be made of concrete whereas the upper part - the wooden planks and blocks. In Indonesia, this type of construction is called rumah semi permanen (semi permanent house). It is not fully a wooden house or concrete house.

I am thinking of designing several other types with different floor plans. However because of budget constraints, I cannot dream a tourist house that looks like a luxurious resort in the mountains. In this design, the kitchen and toilet will be separated from the main building. So, the right term for this house should be a garden house.
Tourists will stay for 3 to 14 days in this simple guesthouse. I have been promoting Kwau village for 2 years now. It is a nice area for travelers who are interested in learning Papuan traditional medicines and herbs, hiking and birdwatching. by Charles Roring

Migrating from Archicad to Sketchup

Architects now can design any 3D objects using various software such as Archicad, Revit, Rhino and Google Sketchup. Personally, I used to discuss a number of articles that are related to the design of floor plan for a small house using Archicad. This is really a great product from Graphisoft. Even though it is a very good BIM software for architectural design, it consumes a lot of disk space in my notebook PC. For more complicated designs, my computer runs slow. So, I was thinking of using smaller software that can be used to design 3D objects without consuming much of the memory inside my computer. For designing simple objects such as windows, doors, or a wooden bench, a light but powerful solution such as Google Sketch up is more suitable. I am now learning how to use this software. My first object that I have just designed is a wooden bench. I hope that within a few weeks, I will be able to create more complicated designs such as a house or even a boat. If I am able to do that, I will present them in this blog.

Google does not own sketchup anymore. Now it belongs to Trimble. If we open sketchup.com, we will notice the change in its logo. So, from now on we should not call it Google Sketchup but Sketchup only. 

The learning curve of Sketchup is low. Anybody can master it in less than two weeks. So, instead of learning 2D CAD software, I encourage you to learn this versatile 3D modelling software. by Charles Roring

Earthquake resistant houses

Most home builders in Manokwari city of West Papua must take into account earthquake resistant structures when constructing houses. The use of steel profiles or steel rods for pillars for multi-story buildings is highly recommended. Although metal buildings are strong and suitable for earthquake region, they are not fully popular due to aesthetics consideration. Home owners in Indonesia still prefer wooden framed houses with concrete walls as the most affordable and beautiful constructions.  The department of public works (called DPU or Departement Pekerjaan Umum) stipulate that all houses with two floors and above must have structural strength calculations done by architects and civil engineers who design the buildings when submitting their works to the department for obtaining their approval.
For small one floor homes, the use of hard wood for house frames is a common practice in this city. To hold the concrete walls, the construction workers hammer big nails along the wooden pillars and girders along the sides where the bricks of the concrete walls will be built. When earthquake hits the city, these nails will hold the walls from falling onto the ground and hit the occupants of the houses. The distance of the pillars has also been reduced to a maximum of 4 meters for family homes with two or three bedrooms.

Building materials for the foundation of the houses are granite stones or hard corals that are mined from the mountains. The mining of corals from the coastal area has been banned due to its destructive impact on the marine environment.
Although Papua is rich of timber, some home buyers in Manokwari still orders prefab building or wooden houses from Woloan village in North Sulawesi. These earthquake resistant wooden house of Minahasa, after being dismantled and shipped to Papua, will be reassembled and constructed on sites that have been cleared for them.

For Papua and Indonesian islands in general, wooden houses or concrete houses whose pillars are made of wood are the most recommended constructions. The use of wood is cheaper than steel frames. To prevent the wooden blocks and planks from deteriorating or decaying due to the changing weather, anti termite and base paints have to be applied on their surfaces. These kind of coatings will protect the wood for tens or even hundreds of years to come.
I used to study Archicad, a BIM modeling software for architects and home designers. This is a very powerful software for designing homes and big buildings. Although it has the ability of calculating the number of materials needed by the designed houses, it lacks features for strength calculation that is very important for houses that will be built in earthquake region such as Indonesia. Architects still need other software such as SAP 2000 to do the structural strength analysis. by Charles Roring
Also read:
Tropical wooden houses
Archicad and Home Design
Houses in earthquake zone
How to design roof with Archicad

Wooden house design of Losmen Amberimasi

The wooden house that you see below is located in Amberimasi village of Numfor island, the Republic of Indonesia. This small house has three bedrooms, with one kitchen at the back of the house. I stayed in this losmen (or you might call hostel) from 23 to 24 November 2010. I really like its surrounding area which is still covered with green vegetation. The house is supported by wood pillars to protect the whole construction from wet ground. Because it is just a stone throw away from the beach, the ground where the house is built will always be wet from the intrusion of sea water. I don't know who designed the house but the architect or the home designer of this losmen probably did not use sophisticated BIM software such as Archicad and Revit.

I think he designed this house manually by drawing some sketches of the floor plans and then drafting one of the best floor plans into a final blue print. The house builder in Numfor island did not use teak wood which are mostly used by contractors in Java. Here in Papua, the most famous wood or timber for home construction is merbau. House made of wood such as what you see in the photograph is quite cool during a hot sunny day. Wooden house is the most recommended home construction in tropical island of Papua whose climate is hot and whose land is regularly hit by strong earthquakes.
Although today's architects have used Archicad and home design solution in modeling their design ideas into a 3D model, architects living in a small island such as Numfor still manually use pencil and sketch pad to visualize the house which they have imagined into a 2D concept house on a piece of paper.

Adding Doors and Windows in Archicad Home Design

Archicad of Graphisoft is a great tool for house design. Architects who have mastered it will definitely recommend it to their friends. This Building Information Modeling software (BIM) is easy to be operated. In addition, Archicad provides various construction elements which home designers can use to accelerate their work. One of the elements is door.

In Archicad, doors and windows have similar behavior and handling properties. Before we add doors or windows to the floor plan drawing, we must remember that we can only use them if we have drawn walls for them. When we put a door or a window into the wall, Archicad will cut or create an opening into the wall.

To add a door into a wall, click the Door in the ToolBox. Then click the Door Default Settings located below the Toolbar to choose the type of door and to modify it. You can select the types of the doors, change its material or its color.

On the following floorplan view, I have added 4 doors and 7 windows into the walls of the drawing. This is a small house with one bed room, one living room and one toilet room. You can see the floor plan of the house which I have made using Archicad below.

To visualize the design in 3 Dimensional view, just press Ctrl + F5. The floor plan which I have created is then presented in the following 3D view presentation:

It seems that the doors are closed. To change them to be in Open representation, with the doors on the floor plan selected, click again the Door Default Settings. Then click open the Parameters. Activate the 3D representation and change the Opening Angle in 3D to 80 degrees.

After you have clicked the OK button, press F3. The 3D representation of the small house is now showing that the doors are open as you can see in the first picture above. by Charles Roring

Units and Drawing Scale in Archicad

Archicad is a very powerful Building Information Modeling (BIM) Software from Graphisoft. It is increasingly being used by architects around the world. In this article I am going to explain a little about how to set units and scale prior to designing a house or a building.

If you are an Architect who lives in India, you will use SI units as project preferences for your design. But if you live in the United States, you might prefer to keep the default settings which are in Imperial Units. As a new Archicad user, you might be confused about how to change the units from the Imperial System to the International System. If this is your case, don't worry. Take a look at my following explanation:

With the Archicad BIM software running on your computer screen, locate the Option menu. After you have found and clicked it, you will see such list as Element Attributes, Element Snap, Auto Intersection, Magic Want Settings, Add-on Manager, Project Preferences and Work Environment.

Click the Project Preferences, you will see Working Units and Levels, Dimensions, Calculation Units, Construction Elements, Zones, Layout, Miscellaneous. Click Each of them to set your desired units of measurements.

After setting the SI units, you can continue to setting the drawing scale. It is very easy. Click the Document menu and then the Floor Plan Scale… You can change the scale of the drawing which is suitable for your design project and the printer or plotter size.

Archicad and Home Design

The following articles discuss Archicad tutorials and home design for architects and interior designers. At the moment the latest release from Graphisoft is Archicad 13. It is introduced with Graphisoft BIM Server to support model based team collaboration. As the number of users of this home modeling software is going up, there is a need or demand for information on how to use it. What I provide below are not meant to replace the official explanation presented by Graphisoft - the official company which has created the Archicad rather they are my personal journals which contain stories of how I study this great software.

I hope that by sharing some of the following articles, new Archicad users especially on the introductory level may find them useful for their own personal studies. I am not sure if I am able to provide more step by step Archicad tutorials in the future.

I write about anything in this blog from earthquake resistant wooden house to how to protect our tropical rainforest which is facing rapid deforestation. So, when you come again in this blog and find out that there are no new articles about Archicad then I suggest that you visit the official website of graphisoft.com There, you will find various information that is more suitable to your needs.

If after reading the following posts, you find that there are some mistakes, then please use the comment form to write some of your opinions which are very important for the corrections or improvements of these tutorials.

Before I finish this post, I would like to recommend other similar products created by Autodesk which many architects from around the world use in their home or building design projects. They are Revit Architecture, Revit MEP and REVIT Structure. Because the three BIM softwares are made by one company, they are more compatible for one another. As every software has its advantages and disadvantages, every new user of REVIT or Archicad must consult his or her needs with experienced users of each of the software to assess the right solution for his or her design needs.

ArchiCAD and Autocad

Archicad a powerful home design software

Drawing Scale and Units in Archicad

Adding Doors and Windows in Archicad Home Design

How to design roof with Archicad
The number of Archicad users is rising in Indonesia
Designing round wall room with Archicad
Designing simple bedroom with Archicad
How to draw floor plan with Archicad of Graphisoft
How to add column and beam to a house using Archicad
Dimensioning of round wall in Archicad of Graphisoft
Creating a rounded corner wall with archicad 12

Archicad and revit for house design

Archicad promotion in indonesia
Archicad 12 the best choice software for architects and interior designer

The Ceiling and Windows of a Wooden House

When designing a ceiling whether manually or automatically using such software as Revit Architecture or Archicad of Graphisoft, an architect must think both the function and aesthetic appearance of the ceiling. Ceiling is an integrated part of every house.

It can be made of wood, metal sheets or composite and other fiber material. On the ceiling, we have lamps, fan, loudspeaker and fire fighting equipment. The following pictures are ceiling of a wooden house. The surface of the ceiling is not flat. It is made of many smaller wooden boards that are artistically arranged.

To balance the dark color of the wood, the surrounding side of the ceiling and the walls are painted with leaving the contrast look of the house. The exterior of the house is also similar to the interior one. The ceiling and the windows are made of wood. The owner of the house does not apply brighter painting to them. Instead, he painted the wall white to balance the dark brown color of the wood.

To protect the house from theft, steel frames are installed at the window openings separating the interior and exterior of the house without blocking the sunlight from entering the interior. This house was designed and constructed by the owner alone in Manokwari of West Papua following the typical design of the Minahasan wooden house in North Sulawesi.

The use of wood as the main material of a house will not threat the tropical rainforest as long as the practice is done in sustainable way. It means that after cutting the trees, people have to replant them with new trees. Tropical rainforest is important not only for the animals living inside it but also for human beings who need clean air and water as well as coral reef that lies deeper under the sea. by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia Also read:

The number of Archicad users is rising in Indonesia

Archicad is an easy to use and powerful Building Information Modelling (BIM) tools that is getting more popular these days in Indonesia. This architectural software is especially produced by Graphisoft for architects or building designers. The latest release, Archicad 12, has many new features which are useful in accelerating the design process of a house or building. Features such as curtain wall, hotlink module management, and 3D document can be found in the latest release.

These features make Archicad more attractive compared to other similar BIM tools software. More students who study architecture in Indonesia learn Archicad. In addition, the representative of Graphisoft in Indonesia has opened training centers for those who want to study Archicad in many universities in Indonesia.

I often visit a home design consulting firm. Its name is Flexika. The company is located at the back of my house. Architects there have been using Autocad 2007 for years but they are now beginning to learn Archicad under the guidance of their senior home designer Mr. Eddy Rachmat. He has used Archicad for years. In his opinion, he can design houses and buildings fast. The process of the designing 2D and 3D documents can be done simultaneously with relatively free of errors.

The increasing number of Archicad users is also caused by the availability of Archicad books in many bookstores around the country. The architects who currently use Archicad hope that in the near future Graphisoft can add new features such as Archicad MEP and Archicad Structure in the next release of the software.

Indonesia is a country that is located in the path of "ring of fire". It is an imaginary ring that signifies the meeting of earth layers around the Pacific region. There are many volcanoes in the ring of fire. As a result, Indonesia and many other countries in the ring of fire often face tectonic and volcanic earthquakes. Architects in Indonesia must seriously analyze the structure of the building which they design to prevent structural failures after the building has been built. Also read: How to add column and beam to a house using Archicad of Graphisoft

How to add column and beam to a house using Archicad

Earthquake has been the major natural disaster that causes many damages to man made structures. Concrete house which is not strengthen with columns and beams can be vulnerable to earthquakes. Archicad of Graphisoft is very robust software. It has features that can be used to design columns and beams. Their sizes can also be customized for an earthquake resistant house. In Archicad, we can set the size and height of columns and beams as well as their color and material.

To design an earthquake resistant house, first, we need to know its technical requirements. When earthquake occurs, it moves the house on reciprocating horizontal direction. The concrete structure of the house has to withstand such movement. Concrete material can withstand great pressure but cannot with stand tensile stress. Architects need to stiffen and reinforce concrete walls with beams and columns which are reinforced inside with steel frames or reinforced bars and rods. I am not going to discuss in detail about how to determine the size and number of the steel bars but I only want to show how to add column and beams to strengthen the walls of the designed house using Archicad of Graphisoft.

After launching the Archicad, open a file or make a rectangular room such as the one below:

Usually, home designer add columns to every corner of the house. Click column in the toolbox of your Archicad to activate the tool. You may probably need to set certain parameters of the column, to do that, double click the column tool. A window will show up. You can adjust the size, and height of the column as well as the material it composed of. Look at the following floor plan drawing above. The columns have to be tied to the steel structures of the house foundation.

After installing or adding the columns to every corner of the house, you can then add beams on horizontal direction above the walls. Similar to the column tool, if you want to do some adjustment to beam's size, location and material, you will need to double click the beam tool. Then, draw or trace the beams along the top edge of the walls. Your designed house or room should look like this on South Elevation.

You must remember that an earthquake resistant house has got various design factors which we have to adhere to. Some of them are the type of the foundation, composition of the mortar, bricks and sand; the size and depth of columns, the beam; and the joints of walls with the columns and beams of the house. Steel rood and wire mesh can be used to tie the walls with columns and beams in order to prevent it from collapse during earthquake. Latest innovation in earthquake proof building is the application of rubber dampers that can significantly reduce shocks. These rubber dampers are installed under the structure of the house or building. 

After adding column and beam to your house in Archicad, you can see it in 3D view by right clicking your mouse and select the photo rendering projection option. Your design should look like this.

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

Also read:

• Birding in Minahasa
• Nature Tour in North Sulawesi
• Birdwatching and Butterflywatching in Sonder town of Minahasa Highland
• Minahasa Beach and Great-billed Kingfisher
• Lake Tondano
• Yellow-billed Malkoha
• Birding in North Sulawesi
• Knobbed Hornbill in North Sulawesi
• Birds in the Highland of Minahasa
• ArchiCAD and AutocadArchicad a powerful home design software
• How to design roof with Archicad
• The number of Archicad users is rising in Indonesia
• Designing round wall room with Archicad
• Designing simple bedroom with Archicad
• How to draw floor plan with Archicad of Graphisoft
• How to add column and beam to a house using Archicad
• Dimensioning of round wall in Archicad of Graphisoft
• Creating a rounded corner wall with archicad 12
• Archicad and revit for house design
• Archicad promotion in indonesia
• Archicad 12 the best choice software for architects and interior designer

Designing simple bedroom with Archicad

Archicad is a building information modeling software that is getting more and more famous at the moment. It is created by Graphisoft for Architects around the world. Designing a house or a building using Archicad is easy and fast yet many people still do not know many of the powerful features of Archicad.

In today's article, I am going to tell you about how to design a bedroom using wall tools and objects of Archicad. First, launch the Archicad from your desktop or laptop. If you do not have the software, go to Graphisoft.com and download the trial full version or the free educational version and install it on your computer. On your window screen, after launching the Archicad, create a new document. Then you have to locate the Wall tool located in the tool box. Draw a bedroom with the size of 5 meters by 5 meters as shown in the following picture.

When you have finished drawing the walls, you can continue by adding door and windows to the bedroom. You can select various kinds of objects provided in the Object tool.

Because it is a bedroom, you need to put a bed, a cupboard and some chairs and a table. All of them can be taken from the object library in the Object tool. When you can the objects, you might find that the position of the objects is not right. If you want to rotate it, right click your mouse and select the Move and then Rotate. Click the object which you want to rotate and rotate it.

Now, you have designed the bedroom using Wall and Object tools of Archicad. You can see the 3D view of your bedroom by right clicking your mouse and select View all in 3D. The inside of the bedroom should look like this.

You need to study more features of Archicad if you want to design a better finishing for the bedroom.

This Archicad Basic Tutorial is written by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

Creating a rounded corner wall with Archicad 12

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

Graphisoft's new release of Archicad 12 has been a great tool for architects who find that this software has helped them a lot in their daily works. Archicad 12 provides various new features such as curtain wall, hotlink module management and 3D document and etc. Anyone who has studied the fundamentals of building technology can design their own house using this software.

In this article, I am going to explain how to create a rounded corner wall with Archicad 12. Home owners some time ask their designers to round one of the wall corners of their new house which is usually the front one. To design a rounded corner, make two walls by clicking the wall tools on the tool box located on the left of your window screen. Then, one the working sheet, draw a vertical wall and a horizontal wall.

After drawing vertical and horizontal walls that form a corner wall, then proceed to drawing the round wall by clicking the use three points rounded wall, click and the outer ends of the walls. When you have clicked the two ends, Archicad will show a circle with a radius showing how the rounded corner wall will look like.

You need to make adjustments to the length and radius of the rounded wall so that you can connect the two horizontal and vertical walls. When you have finished making the adjustments, then you can press enter. Archicad wil show you an image similar to the one below. Make sure that the corner radius is not larger or smaller than it should be. You can see the final image of your wall in 3D if you select the view in 3D feature provided by Archicad 12 in view menu.

Archicad 12 is a great tool that accelerates the design process of a building. It is a BIM application software which I would like to recommend to anybody who is interested in learning how to design a house or a building in a fast yet accurate way.

Archicad promotion in Indonesia

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

In my last article I said that I am learning to use Archicad 12, the software that is made by Graphisoft to design home, building, and interior. Archicad has been around for tens of years but I just knew about it for a couple of weeks. Many architects and engineers say that the software is really suitable for those who want to design houses. Besides it is fast, it has many features which can help architect to create a three-dimensional building model to be presented to home owners.

Architects who design homes or buildings using Archicad 12 can enhance the appearance of their designs by using Artlantis or 3D Max. They are popular rendering softwares.

I also visited the website of Graphisoft Indonesia. There, I read about a special promotion month for people who are interested in buying original Archicad software. The original price of the software is around 30 million rupiahs. Now, during the promotional month, we can buy it for around 18 million rupiahs.

If I had enough money, I would buy an original copy. Besides it is offered in full version, it is also shipped with manual and GDL script books that are really important for those who are serious in learning how to use Archicad 12. Archicad can increase our productivity.

I like Archicad because when I encountered with it for the first time. I found that it was easy to use. I just need some one or two months to get more familiar with the software.