Swapping a living room and office with the garage

Project B Task 1: exchange the position of the living room and office area with the garage. The living room and office sit at the bottom right, the garage at the bottom left. Each design consideration is taken one at a time as the work proceeds, and the result is verified at the end.

The first consideration is minimal intervention. Only the living room, office and garage are being relocated, so the rest of the house should stay unchanged. Both are treated as separate modules that can be moved and edited independently. First, copy the entire plan and place it beside the original.

The copy keeps the original layout as a reference. Revit warns because dimensions and elements are attached to the original plan; since the copy is intentional, those can be acknowledged.

Copy the living room, office and garage out to the side, where each can be cleaned into its own module.

Remove the existing room tags first. Tags define the current room boundaries, and since the walls and configuration are about to change, leaving them in place would raise unnecessary warnings. Select everything, open Filter, uncheck all, tick only room tags and rooms, and delete.

Now build the modules. Align the walls extending past the intended module boundary — taking this wall as the boundary, every projecting wall needs bringing back to it. Use AL, select the reference wall, and align each one against it.

The living room and office are currently combined with the garage, so copy that portion out separately. Delete the walls extending past the living module boundary and align the projecting exterior wall with AL. The aim is a clean, independent living room footprint that moves without dragging unnecessary walls along.

With the living room module resolved, group it with GP. Grouping lets it move and be edited as one unit, and more importantly isolates the change from the rest of the house.

Prepare the garage module the same way. Remove any walls or elements that do not belong to it, leaving only the garage footprint, then align the exterior garage walls with the corresponding interior walls — the bottom wall against its reference, the top wall against the entrance wall — and group it with GP.

Before relocating either module, establish clear reference points so the new spaces align accurately within the existing house. In the original plan the living room shares a wall with the sunroom, so that sunroom wall becomes the reference for positioning the relocated garage. The bedroom and garage share a wall, so the bedroom wall becomes the reference for the living room. Using existing walls this way keeps the overall geometry rather than placing the modules arbitrarily.

Clear the walls and room tags no longer needed in these areas to make space, then bring the garage module into its new position with MV, using the shared sunroom wall as the reference.

With the garage placed, its door opens outside the house boundary — an awkward connection, since the garage should open towards the main circulation rather than beyond the house. Mirror the garage module with DM to correct the orientation, delete the earlier module, and align the mirrored version back into position against the exterior wall.

The dining room and sunroom walls now extend into the new garage space. Align the sunroom wall to the shared reference wall with AL, and remove the dining room wall, which serves no purpose in the revised arrangement.

Double-click into the garage module to edit the group — that isolates the garage while the rest of the model stays visible as a reference. Remove the shared reference wall overlapping the sunroom wall, and the garage exterior wall overlapping the house exterior. Exit the group and align the external house wall with the garage door to enclose the module.

The next consideration is circulation and spatial sequence. The original plan runs foyer to circulation to main space, and relocating the living room should preserve that, so the entrance still leads naturally into the main space. Position the living room module with MV against the shared bedroom wall.

Checking the sequence, the new position gives foyer, circulation, then the bedroom wall — the main space should come next instead. Rotate the whole living room module 90 degrees with RO, keeping the reference point consistent, then align it with the laundry room wall.

That configuration creates a transition space between the foyer and the main space, working as a gallery before the main space is entered. It keeps a circulation hierarchy similar to the original.

Clear the surrounding geometry. The laundry room wall extends into the circulation area and restricts the connection to the new gallery, so drag it back to open a clearer passage. Align the garage with the living room wall using AL.

The gallery needs enclosing, so go into the garage group and extend the exterior garage wall until it meets the living room wall, then exit the group.

Shifting the garage module has left an opening near the sunroom, so align the sunroom wall with the garage entrance wall and extend it to meet, creating an enclosed garage space.

Return to the living room module and edit the group. Remove the overlapping wall inside it that is no longer required.

Enclose the office space properly using an existing wall as the reference — right-click, Create Similar, and build the new boundary in the same wall type. Create Similar keeps a uniform language in the model rather than introducing a new type. Exit the group.

Finally align the exterior wall overlapping the relocated module with the shared reference boundary wall using AL, which gives a cleaner external edge and integrates the new living room and office module with the rest of the house.

The relocation is complete: living room and office at the bottom left, garage at the bottom right, with the overall organisation preserved by referencing existing walls. The foyer still leads to a circulation zone and then the main space, and the garage stays connected to the exterior. Because neither footprint was modified — the modules moved whole rather than being resized — their original areas are unchanged. The only new space is the gallery, measured with a room separator and tag at 163 square feet.