Calculating Building Area in Revit: Gross vs Rentable Area

Exploring Different Methods for Computing Area in Revit: Gross Building Area and Rentable Area Calculations

Explore the versatility of Revit in calculating areas such as the gross building area and rentable area, using exterior building envelope and rentable spaces respectively. Discover how these calculations can be used for creating schedules and presented on a sheet for final assignments.

Key Insights

  • The article highlights the ability of Revit to calculate the gross building area using the exterior building envelope as the boundary and includes the calculation of areas for various levels.
  • The content also delves into the computation of rentable area, which only includes spaces that can be rented out, distinguishing them from common areas like lobbies, restrooms, and stairwells.
  • Finally, the article underscores the utility of these calculations in creating schedules and consolidating them onto a sheet for final assignments, illustrating the comprehensive use of Revit in architectural projects.

In this lesson, we're going to go ahead and take a look at a couple different ways that we can compute area by using the tools that are available to us within Revit. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to take a look at calculating the gross building area, which is essentially going to use the exterior building envelope as our boundary and calculating the area for level one and level two. And then we can take that same area and create a schedule to display it here.

The next thing we'll do is we'll take a look at rentable area, which is going to only include the different spaces that would be considered rentable. We'll break it out from common areas like the lobby, the restroom and the stairwells. And then we'll also calculate the office areas and put it into a schedule.

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And of course, just like everything else, we're going to go ahead and finish it out by putting it on a sheet that we can include with our final assignment.

photo of Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson

Revit Instructor

Bachelor of Architecture, Registered Architect

Mike is recognized by Autodesk as one of North America’s leading Revit Certified Instructors. He has significant experience integrating Revit, 3ds Max, and Rhino and uses Revit Architecture on medium and large-scale bio and nano-tech projects. Mike has been an integral member of the VDCI team for over 15 years, offering his hard-charging, “get it done right” approach and close attention to detail. In his spare time, Mike enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife, children, and dog.

  • Autodesk Certified Instructor (ACI GOLD – 1 of 20 Awarded Globally)
  • Autodesk Certified AutoCAD Professional
  • Autodesk Certified Revit Professional
  • Revit
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