Suggestion for wall strategy? interior insulated partition at existing uninsulated exterior wall

[proto]

Doing commercial tenant improvements & house renovations, this has come up multiple times, and I'm wondering what do experienced archicaders do?

There is an existing exterior uninsulated wall. We run into them as basement foundation walls or in tilt-up concrete construction or in metal buildings.

We need to place an interior insulated partition against this uninsulated shell wall and resolve windows & doors; or we need to document an existing condition where this type of assembly is already in place.

1) We could make a composite that included this full sandwich of shell + interior insulated partition & one without. Then distribute these around the perimeter as needed. This strategy seems more in tune with the parametric goal of AC. But it may run into complications as we have to split a common plane wall into multiples along its length as the condition transitions between conditioned areas & unconditioned ones. Even more complicated if the exterior finish changes too along its length.

2) I could make two sets of composite walls; allow windows to interact with the exterior one; and then cut openings for each window in the various spots at the interior composite wall. This seems easier for maintaining clarity of the systems as other wall intersections interact with this wall system.

What do you renovation architects do?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Operating system used: Mac Intel-based 14 sonoma

[Ricardo Lopez]

Hi @proto 

From what I understood in your question, I would personally document differently both renovation status: existing and new, to be able to activate or deactivate the elements as desired and also to be able to schedule them by renovation filtering criteria. Using separate layers would also help to avoid unwanted intersections.

Regards. -

[proto]

(I'm not sure how scheduling enters this, but let's set that aside for now...too much for my tiny brain right now)

With two composites available for the full exterior wall sandwich:

1) Would you set both to share a common exterior wall reference line position? Or would the interior wall composite reference the interior face of the exterior wall since that's what it follows?

2) How do you control cut line line weight in plan? Some locations will have an interior partition & some will not. Do you just accept that you will have a cut line in the middle of this doubled wall strategy? [alternately, eliminate any line weight for the cut line and just live without it?]

Thanks!

[Ricardo Lopez · Accepted solution]

Hi @proto 

1) You could choose whichever reference line you prefer. But if it is the same it could cause problems. I personally would use the inside face of the existing exterior wall as the outside face of the new one (see example image below).

2) You could change the pen of the outside line of the existing composite to be the same thickness as the inside line of the new one and make the rest thin to look like the same wall on the plans (see example image below).

[proto]

I will try this 

I appreciate your time to assist!