What are Architectural Drawings: Its Relevance?

Architectural drawings are technical drawings that are created to represent the external and internal architectural design of a building. It provides an overall idea about the various parameters of the building. These drawings serve as the starting point of the design of a building and serve as an input for the structural and MEP design of the building.

Every country has its own set of established codes and standards that need to be followed while designing a building. The architectural construction drawing is generated in accordance with these codes and standards. These drawings are made according to certain norms, which include particular views, sheet sizes, units of measurement and scales, annotation and cross-referencing that are specific to a project or a requirement.

An Architectural building drawing consists of different views that give the designer a comprehensive view of the actual design. The standard views that are used in architectural drawing are

• Floor Plan: A Floor Plan drawing is the most fundamental Architectural Building drawing. It is the view from the top showing the arrangement of spaces in the building at a particular level. Technically, it is made by cutting a section horizontally through a building with 3ft from the floor showing features such as door and window openings, walls, stairs, fittings etc. Objects above the plan level are shown as dashed lines.
• Elevation: An elevation represents the drawing of a building façade from one direction. This view describes the external appearance of the building. Elevations are created from different geographical directions and are labeled in relation to the compass direction.
• Section: Sections are created by cutting a building. Cutting lines on a sectional plane are denoted by bold and dotted line, often with a solid fill to show objects that are cut through, and anything is seen beyond generally shown in a thinner line.
• Site Plan: Site plan is a specific type of a plan that represents the comprehensive design of a site i.e. it can be individual buildings, group of buildings, colony, residential complex, city design etc. by including road, lane, space between buildings, boundaries etc.
• Detail Drawings: Detail drawings are created to show small parts of the construction at a larger scale and are used show small details such as complex junctions, small surface details, etc.

Architectural drawing sets often called as Construction Drawings, are fundamental to any design of a building. It enables architects to visualize the building from all directions and sections thereby improving design accuracy. They serve as a starting point for the structural and MEP design of a building. A 3D model can be created with the help of these drawings. With the advent of BIM, it has become simpler to visualize the design and generate 2D Architectural Construction Drawings that are then used on site for the purpose of construction.