Understanding Design Drawings (2024)

Architectural drawings can be difficult to comprehend. This is simply because they are two dimensionalrepresentations of a home’s parts. So let’s look at the most commondrawings to see how each is read, understood and used.

Site plan.

Plan 547-1 by Prairie Wind Architecture.The site planshows how the footprint of the home will sit on the land -- the contour lines you see hereindicate the slope: closer together mean it's steeper; farther apart: flatter. This type of drawing isimportant as a way to reveal orientation to landscape or lot features, to the sun and wind, and to outdoor living space.

Computer aided drawing (CAD).These systems have made it easier to generate perspectives and other 3D views.

(Plan 481-4 by Bud Dietrich)Thesedrawings are useful in helping you “walk through” the home before it’s constructedand visualize how interior rooms relate to each other.These drawings canalso help you visualize the exterior. In fact, there are times when thedrawing is so realistic that you don’t know if you’re looking at a photo or adrawing,as in the example below (a computer drawing).

(Plan 888-8by Nicholas Lee)

The floor plan. It identifies each room and indicates thelocations for walls, doors, windows, stairs, cabinets, appliances, plumbingfixtures, electrical devices and furniture.The rooms are labeled so weknow where each functional area is in relationship to another room.

(Design by Gregory La Vardera)And we'llbe able to see how we can get from room to room. Because windows and doors areshown, we can see how each room relates to the others. For example, we'll beable to see if doors and windows are aligned to create view corridors.You can learn more about how to read a floor plan here.

Exterior elevations.These arenext most common drawings.

(Sea Ranch Cottage Plan447-3 by William Turnbull)

Thesedrawings are two dimensional representations of what the exterior of the housewill look like. What materials are used, roof heights, window and doorlocations as well as the roof shape are all indicated. But as you look atan exterior elevation remember that you’ll never actually see the house likeit’s drawn. So while these are essential drawings to communicate thedesign intent, you’ll get a much better feel for the exterior viewing a 3Ddrawing such as a perspective.

(Flexahouse Plan by Nick Noyes)

Building section.An often overlooked yet very important drawing.

(Plan 481-1 by Bud Dietrich)This drawing, like a typical floor plan,shows a slice through thehouse. But this time the slice is vertical instead of horizontal. Asection is important because, as we read the drawings, a section gives us anunderstanding of the home’s spatial qualities. Sections answer questionsabout ceiling heights and shapes, window and door sizes and locations,structure and materials and more. Sections are so important to theoverall spatial quality of the house that I, like many other architects, spendquite a bit of time designing in section.

Detail Drawings.This thelast type of drawing that goes into a complete set.

(Design by Bud Dietrich)
The purpose of detail drawings is toshow all of the details that go intothe making of a home. How walls meet floors, exterior soffits meet roofoverhangs and so much more are all part of the details that should be drawn.Without these, much of the construction is left to chance. As thatfamous architect Mies Van der Rohe so accurately put it, “God is in thedetails.”

To see the house by Bud Dietrichillustratedat the top of this post, click onPlan 481-4.

To see all of Bud's designs, click here.