After more than a month, the time has come to announce the official winners of the 2021 BIMsmith Winter Wonderland Holiday Revit Family Competition.
The submissions this year were unmatched in creativity. Our Revit judging panel, including Benjamin Glunz, CEO of BIMsmith, Paul Aubin of Paul Aubin Consulting, and Nicolas Catellier of Revit Pure, expressed how impressive each entry was this year.
For that reason, the decision to narrow down entries to 10 semifinalists was difficult enough. However, it proved far more difficult to decide which three Revit families should take home this year's grand prizes.
In the end, the judges were able to arrive at a unanimous decision and crowned the winners of the 2021 BIMsmith Winter Wonderland Holiday Revit Family Competition.
Watch the full video below to see the announcement of winners, plus the judges' reactions to each.
On behalf of the entire BIMsmith Team, thank you to all who participated and made this year's competition the best one yet. Cheers to 2022!
Introducing the Winners of the 2021 BIMsmith Winter Wonderland Holiday Revit Family Competition
1st Place - Parametric Snowflakes
Creator: Julian Wandzilak
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This may look like your typical snowflake, but Julian Wandzilak describes it as "one family to make them all." With no visibility tricks, the snowflakes are fully parametric in size, angles, shape, and materials.
The family was built using basic parametric profiles hosted by sweep paths that share a common path. The profiles are then placed at the desired location to create the symmetrical snowflake architecture.
The parameter that drives the family’s size and pattern is easy to understand and surprisingly fun to manipulate. Watch Julian demonstrate his Revit family here.
2nd Place - Holiday Railings
Creator: Simon Yew
Company: VIA Architecture
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Simon Yew created a variety of holiday-themed ornamental railings, from trellises to candy canes and holiday figures. "I find railing doesn't get much love in Revit," Simon said in his submission.
The components made for the family are well documented under easy-to-find type selections and the compilation of the information makes for easy flexibility to get the space between your snowmen and your nutcrackers just right.
The judges were particularly impressed with the successful use of Revit railings to accomplish his vision. It's worth noting that this entry from Simon topped five other submissions of his that all were strong contenders for the finals. Well done, Simon, and thanks for showing us how to stretch Revit to the maximum! Watch Simon illustrate his family here.
3rd Place - String Lights
Creator: Manuel Brey
Company: Desarrollos KOMA, G.P.C.
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This family created by Manuel Brey repeats four lights along a wire that can vary in length and spacing between lights. Each of the lights in the family can vary in type, color, and tilt angle, giving you the option of making different patterns. Also, the materials for each glass color were custom-made in order for the lights to illuminate in the right way.
With type parameters that not only control the bulb sizes but also the color of each bulb, you can compile any combination of lights to suit your needs. Plus, with included Dynamo scripts, you can generate any lighting layout driven by a model lines selection. Watch Manuel's demonstration of his family here.
Honorable Mention - Inflatable Santa
Creator: Philip Chan
Company: SmithGroup
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After winning the second place prize in 2020, Philip Chan entered the 2021 competition with this parametric inflatable Santa Revit family, reminiscent of your local car dealership around the holidays.
The family is made as a structural column so it can be placed in a vertical or slanted position. All of the materials, arm angles, and heights are parametric.
The judges were impressed yet again with Philip's work, especially with the clever use of the slanted column tool.
Philip also gets the [unofficial] award for the most social chatter on LinkedIn surrounding his submissions, so make sure to connect with Philip and see all of the creative entries he submitted this year.
Congratulations to This Year's Winners
As we close out this year's competition, we would like to again thank everyone who participated. This competition is always the highlight of December and January for the BIMsmith Team, and we look forward to seeing what this incredible community comes up with next year.
Recap: 2021 BIMsmith Winter Wonderland Semifinalists
Advent Calendar
Creator: Allison Harper
Company: Hord Coplan Macht
Allison Harper submitted an Advent Calendar that spells out "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" on the reverse of each day of December leading up to Christmas. The judges appreciated the lack of cookies and milk on the "after" photo from December 25.
Monopoly: BIMsmith Winter Wonderland Edition
Creator: Simon Yew
Company: VIA Architecture
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With a creative take on the classic board game Monopoly, Simon Yew modeled a Monopoly Revit family that contains a traditional version and a BIMsmith Winter Wonderland version. The creativity and attention to detail are impressive, all the way down to placing one of the competition's judges (Paul Aubin) on the Jail tile.
Hanukkah
Creator: Mark Davis
Company: Alt Breeding Schwarz Architects
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Mark Davis created this Hanukkah menorah to help celebrate the festive season. Within this family, the user is able to adjust the flame, the candle base, candle height, and finish.
Jelly of the Month Certificate
Creator: John Pierson
Company: Parallax Team
With a nod to one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time, John Pierson created "the gift that keeps on giving": a scalable, fully-parametric Jelly of the Month Club Certificate Revit family. He also gave a special shoutout to Carl Storms in his own three-story version of the certificate. Very nice, Carl.
Christmas Train
Creator: Andrei Triffo
Company: O'Connell Mahon Architects
As anyone knows, a Christmas tree setup is incomplete until it has a train to go around its base. Andrei Triffo created this Christmas train Revit family, modeling it to rotate along an axis with the wheels spinning.
Holiday Garland
Creator: Rina Sahay
Company: Fishbeck
Rina Sahay created this Revit family with inspiration from the garland in her own home. This is a formula-driven parametric array of simple geometries in a Line Based Generic Model family. Brightly colored reflective materials call out the ornaments. Transparency, cutouts, and bump mapping add detail to the garlands without the need of modeling actual foliage.
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Pierre, 1/17/2022 8:31:10 AM
Hi, will there be a new edition in 2022? Thx