In some of my earliest memory of my childhood, I recall that my grandfather always invite me to
his construction site to visit different projects constructed by his company. Not only that, but my
parents also bought me Lego sets, and they build them with me. After the influence of my family,
I want to become a construction engineer since I was young. Starting from my freshmen year, I
was deeply interested and enrolled in an architectural design class offered by our school. In my
first year of learning architectural design, we were required to learn to draw items from different
perspectives and learn to draw the layout of the house on the computer by using an app named
“AutoCad”. One of my most memorable experiences in freshmen year was gained while
participating in an after-school digital architectural program called ACE. It is always easier to
indulge in pursuit out of pure interest, rather than to engage in something that requires
comprehensive research and analysis. During the second semester when I started on my final
project of the year, all students were forced to transfer to distance learning, and I only had the
chance to finish the layout.
After returning to school in junior year, I had the chance to continue learning and start designing
my house. Of all types of building styles, the modern style is my favorite and all of the projects I
built involved modern style elements. When I first started to design and construct it into a
3-dimensional model I faced many difficulties, but it is meaningful and I solved many obstacles
through this design. I enjoy designing houses and I’d like to share the steps and some of the
techniques I used.
1. First started to make the rough shape of the house by making a 2-dimensional drawing
on the computer that guide us through the later processes.
2. Then, we can start constructing the house by putting floors and walls together to map out
the basic shape.
Laying out the basic shape of the house is the easiest step of the building and in the later steps,
all of the existing parts need to be broken down into smaller components to construct all the
details. Since I was constructing this house through Solid Work, the software school provided,
most of the panel textures are not included in this application.
3. To add different textures to the wall, we need to duplicate the wall we use for the outline,
then edit the setting of the wall. For glass panels, we only need to search on Solid Work,
then it would show different styles of glass panels for you to select. One of the unique
features of Solid Work is we can sample the textures online and design your panel.
Other than glass, I added dark green wood, brick floor, and birch wood textures into this
build.
4. For different textures to show on the wall, we need to remove the walls for the outline
and replace the walls with textures each time when they are needed.
5. Add texture to all walls and extrude openings for doors and stairs. Doors can be easily
found in the component inventory that Solid Work provided, and when placing stairs, the
arrow on the stair will point to the next level of the floorplan (from the first floor to the
second floor).
6. Next, I added a terrain below the second floor to fill the emptiness. Creating blocks of
stone is one of the most difficult steps. However, I break up the block of stone, the stairs
at the door, and the ramp. For the stairs, I stacked four walls together, two 10-foot walls
and two 9-foot walls. Then the ramp can be created through the component that the
software includes.
7. Make a roof that extends a foot out from each side of the wall, but it will be removed
when decorating the inner details and adding furniture.
8. Add furniture for different rooms
9. Lastly, add lawns and plants around to decorate the house.
This house is the first project that I completed with Solid Work, and I was not familiar with the
features and how to use this new software. Even if it’s not the best build I designed, but for sure
it is the most memorable house I constructed. After three years of learning and adapting
different software, I mastered many skills and I completed the class with a modern-style house
as the final project. This knowledge may not be enough for my future career, but I would not
stop working towards my goal to become a construction engineer.
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