Mesquite Heights Apartments: Sustainable Housing for Cities

Howdy! I'm Eric, a rising junior from Texas who is interested in all things CAD. Be it product, architectural, or assembly CADing, I find myself drawn to learning more and perfecting my current skills. I have used 3D modeling in many personal projects, as well as in my robotics club, where I assist with CAD design for robots. Aside from 3D modelling, I am also incredibly passionate about photography, biking, and volunteering in my community.

Sustainability is an issue I deeply care about. Since my childhood, when my parents taught me the importance of caring for nature, to today, where I help local sanctuaries spread awareness, I have always marveled at the responsibility we, as humans, have in sustaining our environment. This was one of my motivating factors in this project, and is featured later on.

This project has allowed me to showcase my skills in CAD, rendering, architectural vision, and planning. I have used it to merge some of my interests and, in doing so, created Mesquite Heights Apartments

2D CAD: Autodesk AutoCAD

3D CAD: Autodesk Inventor

3D Rendering: Twinmotion (Epic Games)

Room Planning: Planner 5D

I found out about this competition from a friend back in the second week of July. It seemed to align perfectly with my interests, so I was naturally quite interested in it.

I began by considering what issues I cared about most. The one that came to mind first was sustainability, so I decided to have an eco-friendly aspect to the project. I did not want to use a cliche idea like a solar-panel-powered or self-sustaining house, though I certainly wanted to include aspects of both.

Next, I thought about the scale of the project, and since I did not want something too small or too large, I decided on what I thought was a fair medium. I decided to make an apartment complex that wasn't too large, but which could accommodate all my ideas.

After having come up with a rough mind-map of what I wanted to do, I decided to set myself some constraints and goals, which are outlined in the next few steps.

Since Sustainability was the main concern I wanted to tackle with this project, I began with that.

I had heard a lot about green roofs before the project, so I started there. I came up with an idea for green walls, which I later found out were already a concept, though it was underused. The Idea came up when I wondered why plain walls on the sides of buildings couldn't just be used to grow plants, which would both aesthetically complement the building and introduce a green aspect to the area.

I also planned a way for the plants to be sustained, as it would be of no use if they did not last. After a bit of research, I decided that it would be watered with hydroponics. This required a layer of pipes connected to the plants, which would water the plants with nutrient-enriched water. This would make it easier for the plants to be watered all at once and make the watering system invisible. For the plants to receive proper sunlight, I also sought a location that would force the plants to be at the east and west sides of the building, in order to maximise sunlight for both sides of the building.

Another, less important idea I had was making rooms that were "adaptable" in the sense that apartment units could be made bigger or smaller based on tenant preferences.

This would allow for a larger carrying capacity in each room, which would invite a greater variety of families and individuals. In order to accomplish this mission, I came up with an unusual idea that is explained later on

While it wasn't one of the motivating factors behind this project, I later realized that the adaptability in room sizes could be used to alleviate homelessness in the chosen build area. Since families and individuals with varying numbers can be saved from the streets by implementing adaptable rooms, it is a project that can be funded by governments.

The location I chose for my project was Houston, specifically in the northeast. I chose this for two main reasons. Firstly, it is a city that is already connected to nature in many ways. They have worked to preserve the natural beauty of the area, and have many nature recluses available. Secondly, Houston is a big city with a growing population, where tenant numbers are extremely variable, for which the adaptable rooms are a strong suit.

The location itself has every basic amenity nearby, with a high school, medical center, and grocery stores at 1, 3, and 3.6 miles away, respectively. It is even quite close to Rice University, so it could also harbor college students!

Location

In researching for this project, I used two main resources, a Google Doc and a collage. I used the doc to collect information that I used throughout my project, including dimensions, rules, and regulations that I followed. In the collage, I compiled a few pictures that I was inspired by. Collage building helped me bring my ideas together, as well as to seek further inspiration from the images. Getting my ideas together led me to realize that I wanted a green wall in my project. Many of the buildings I saw had green roofs, which made me wonder why plain walls weren't used the same way.

As the initial plan involved two separate buildings, I designed a road to go between them. Featuring bike lanes and a crosswalk, it also adheres to the road dimension guidelines as established by the US Department of Transportation. In the final render, they also have streetlights on either side to better illuminate the road and sidewalk. More information about dimensions and citations can be found in the document below.

My first complete sketch, made in Autodesk AutoCAD that included the building as well as the essential surroundings.

Here are some noteworthy details:

1. Rooms: A total of 254 rooms, with 127 in each building; 41 on the 1st floor, and 43 on the 2nd and 3rd floors
2. Parkings: A total of 396 parkings, with each building having 198
3. Road: A road surrounds the building to help access parking and exits
4. Exits: 2 exits in the front and back, as well as one in the side of the building
5. Elevator: Features 1 elevator as well as a staircase, in compliance with fire exit guidelines (see doc below)
6. Laundry: A necessary amenity that is featured on each floor, with each room having 3 washers and 3 dryers
7. Apartment lobby and leasing offices: Found on the ground floor, at the main entrance

Modular rooming is an idea I had that would help apartment complexes adapt to different occupant numbers in their rooms. Instead of having fixed, permanent rooms, Mesquite Park apartments will have rooms that can be made bigger or smaller by merging them with other rooms. This allows for rooms to be made as needed by the tenants. For example, a couple might prefer Floorplan 1, while a family with 2 kids might prefer Floorplan 2. This would work by making the walls in between rooms removable (professionally, of course) and adaptable in different locations. The interior design can also be changed according to that, as shown in the next step.

I made use of Planner 5D, a free online tool, as well as Autodesk AutoCAD to visualize the apartments that would make up Mesquite Park Apartments. I started by creating the rooms in AutoCAD, which I furnished with furniture that I drew using realistic dimensions. This let me know how much space each room would have, and using it, I could see how extending one apartment into a second one would affect the available space. I was able to make the apartments much more spacious and with more facilities, like more bedrooms. I then moved to Planner 5D and copied the AutoCAD drawings, only with real furniture models.

This was the final sketch I made on AutoCAD. It includes everything from the first sketch, except much more refined.

Here are some changes made in the sketch:

1. Parking: Handicapped parking added. 2 near each exit
2. Surroundings: Boundary lawns made compact
3. Path: Added a path surrounding the apartment for ease of movement
4. Floors: 2nd and 3rd floor designs finalized

Having finalized my 2D sketch, I moved to the 3D model, which I made in Autodesk Inventor. I used the final sketch to create the model, and used dimensions that made the building spacious but compact. Notably, I only made one complex, as I imagined it would be easier to build and could be recreated if needed. I also used textures available in the Inventor library to help me differentiate faces and recognize feature locations for the final render.

After I was done with the 3D model of the Apartment complex, I rendered it using Twinmotion, a piece of software created by Epic Games. Using Twinmotion, I was able to bring my project to life, dropping humans, trees, and other buildings to fully embrace the realism.

Here is a brief overview of the images:

Img 1: The front of the building, featuring the main entrance. The image also shows the crosswalk, the sidewalk, and street lights, all in front of the green wall that will cover the wall at the front of the building.

Img 2: The back of the building, with the rear entrance. Also seen is the wide range of available parking.

Img 3: Another view of the front of the building, this time showing some of the parking available

Img 4: The side of the building, with the side entrance. Shown are the windows of individual apartments in one direction and the green wall in another.

Img 5: Side of the building showing a wider view of the parking and entrance.

Img 6: The outskirts of the Apartment complex, where mesquite trees and benches make a park for residents to relax in.

Here are all the pictures I took to document my project.

I would like to thank Autodesk, Josh Dobbs' ASTROrdinary organization, Make It Real coordinators, as well as all other staff and enablers who made this competition happen. I truly found it to be a great place to make use of my interests and show others the skills I have.

I also thank my parents and teachers, who helped me throughout this journey.

Here are some fun facts/ideas/remarks I have about the project:

1. I wasn't able to make a physical copy since I don't own a 3D printer and have no other way of constructing it.
2. The trees in the park, as seen in the render, are all honey mesquite trees, which I chose because they are native to Texas, where I'm from, and where the project's build site is.
3. I also used the Mesquie leaf as inspiration, since the neatly arranged leaves gave me one example for how to arrange the rooms in the apartment.
4. I used Autodesk AutoCAD, but I would definitely suggest Autodesk Revit for making architectural 3D modrl likr this. I would have, but I did not have access to it. Revit also lets you directly connect to Twinmotion to render images.

Since Instructables doesn't allow all filetypes, here is a Google Drive link to the remaining files:

Google Drives documentation folder