Floor Plans & Elevations

Floor plans are accurate representations of space. They show the size, shape and location of all parts of a house. They are basic to interior design and architecture, as well as many careers in the field of housing. They serve many purposes such as aiding in determining the measurements of a room/structure, the best possible flow of traffic for a room, the best furniture placement, scale of furniture for a room, and even electrical and plumbing design for a building or room. They are a bird’s-eye-view of a room with no ceilings.

Well-designed spaces are essential within the home. Rooms should be placed for convenience and noise control. For example, kitchens should be located near the garage for convenient unloading of groceries.

Scales are a designated small measure used to reflect the real world larger measure. A building can not fit on a piece of paper unless it is drawn in a smaller scale. Scale is often represented with ½ inch, ¼ inch, 1/8 inch and 1/16 inch used to indicate 1 foot.

In other words, if you choose the one-quarter inch equals one foot reduction scale on the ruler, a twelve foot wall would be drawn as twelve-quarters of an inch, and appear on your drawing as three inches long. If you decide this scale is too small to work with, you could use ½ inch equals 1 foot and the line you draw would then be 6 inches long.

Commonly used abbreviations are “ = inches and ‘ = feet for instance six feet and 3 inches could be abbreviated as 6’3”.

The BIG INCH activity

Architectural Symbols are used as representations of objects. Example: tubs, toilets, dishwashers, ceiling fans, etc.

ARCHITECTURAL SYMBOLS ACTIVITY

Architectural Tools

·  Architect’s Scale 3 sided ruler with 11 ◦different scales on the ruler. There are 2 scales per side. Some of the scales are read from left to right while others are read from right to left. An architects’ scale always should be read away from the zero mark on the scale to be used.

·  Triangle- used to create straight edges and 450 angles

·  Protractors- half moon shaped template used to accurately create angles.

·  T-Square – assists in creating straight lines both horizontally and vertically

·  Templates – are either metal or plastic pieces with cutout areas that accurately represent the scale size of the appliance or furniture. Peel and stick template sets are also available.

·  Steel measuring tape – used to accurately measure room sizes

·  Graph Paper – scale paper (usually ¼”) used to draw a room to size. Each block on the graph paper equals 1 square foot of space. The templates’ scale should match the scale of graph paper. In other words, use ¼” templates with ¼” graph paper.

·  Pencils- are the best writing tool because they are erasable.

LEARNING TO DRAW A FLOOR PLAN ACTIVITY

Clearance Spaces: The amount of traffic room needed around an object or appliance. This space needs to not be excessive or too constricting. Architects and designers follow recommended clearance guidelines. For example the space necessary between a couch and a coffee table is 1’ – 1.5’; the space needed between a bathtub and the opposite wall is 2.5’

Interior and Exterior Doors –it is most common for doors to be located near a wall and to open into a room or into the home. The door is drawn to scale as a straight line. A curved line 1/4th of a circle connects the door to the wall. This curved line shows the door clearance.

Draw a door and door swing here!

STANDARD CLEARANCE SPACES FOR A BEDROOM ACTIVITY

Traffic patterns are invisible walkways between furniture and rooms. Adequate space should be left for walkways that do not cross conversation areas. Another factor to consider is rooms should not be placed so you would have to walk through one room to get to another. For instance, it would not be good if you had to go through a bedroom to get to the living room or through a home office/library to get to a bedroom.

TRAFFIC PATTERN GUIDELINES WORKSHEET

Each home has 4 Zones. The zones are public, private, service and transition.

·  Public/social zones are the areas in a home that are open to everyone including visitors. These areas are used for activities and entertainment. Areas such as a living room, game room or patio/deck are public. Floor plans should provide space between public zones and private zones for noise control.

·  Private/quiet zones are the areas you would invite someone into, such as your bedroom, bathroom, home office or your closet.

·  Service zones are the areas of the home where the work is done. These areas contain the appliances such as the kitchen, laundry, hot water heater, HVAC system, or house large objects like the garage, etc.

·  Transition/circulation zones are used for circulation and flow of traffic between the major zones. Transitional zones include entryways, exits, hallways and designated passageways within the space.

FLOOR PLAN EVALUATION ACTIVITY

Adequate Space - Homes need to be large enough to accommodate the number of family members in a home. It is generally said that a minimum of 300 square feet should be allow per family member to provide adequate space. As more family members are added the space required by each person may decrease slightly. If a home includes spaces which can be used for various purposes, the total space needed may decrease as well. A good rule of thumb for the amount of storage space needed is 10% of the total square footage of a home should be storage.

DRAW A ROOM WITH GLUE DOWN TEMPLATES ACTIVITY

Elevation: a graphic representation of an interior or an exterior wall of a building or room. In other words it is a straight on view of a house or building. The drawing represents windows, doors, furniture and other features on the wall, even the orientation of the wall (north, south, east or west.)

COLOR THE FOUR SIDED BOX ACTIVITY

Color the 4 Zones in the house.

·  Yellow for Public/social areas

·  Blue for Private/Quiet areas

·  Green for Service areas

·  Red for Transition areas