Sunday, April 5, 2015

How To Read An Architectural Plan

By Aimee Schwartz


When first faced with having to read an architectural plan, many people panic and are unable to proceed further from there. However, it is generally easy to read such plans if you start by taking a good look at how the house is drawn. You want to first focus on the rooms and the walls, then proceed through the architectural planning drawing and work your way down to the smaller scale. This includes room names, doors, and windows.

Once you have managed to do that, proceed with looking at the notes from the architect. These notes could include the specific dimension for the house or the materials used. Unless you are able to find these notes and read them, you will not be able to understand what the architect is planning to build on your property. Most architects use this process on a daily basis in order to design residential housing developments.

The next thing you are looking to do is find out what the symbols drawn by the architect mean. You can do this by taking a look at the symbol index that is usually found on the cover sheet. By doing that, you now have reference points to guide you as to what each symbol means. This is a technique that many architects use in order to convey a large amount of information without making the drawing too clustered.

With the use of such plans, building planners are able to convey their initial design so that every person can understand the drawings. When you read these plans, you want to start from the big to the smaller picture, then rewind and look at the big picture again. By using this method, you will find it easier to know what their plans and intentions are.

Building consultants follow this technique on all their designs because it is generally recommended to double line the walls in their drawings. There are also several other conventions that they use, but they can be tricky to understand. You should stick to learning the basics about architectural designs to understand the intentions of building designers.

The next thing in the architectural drawing that you want to check includes the detail call outs. These are usually shown as circles or numbers enclosed within one or more circles. This way, the information is conveyed in an organized manner and there are proper links between all areas of the plan. Such details could include sections, elevations, and details.

The links described above allow the reader to follow a specific direction set by the architect, in order to navigate to a certain area of the plan. You could look at the drawing for the second floor and find details regarding the sheet and detail number. This type of information can help you pinpoint the correct area that you want to learn more about.

Architectural plans also offer more information than that mentioned above. They can inform you of the type of wood used on the floor of the house, or any other material that you might want to know about. These plans can be used for bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, basically any room in the house. By linking together, these drawings will convey the initial design of the planner accurately.




About the Author:



No comments: