Hi, I’m Doug Pat and this is the, How to draw like an architect series Part 1, the floor plan. A floor plan is a drawing showing the layout of the building. It shows information as though a section was cut through the walls of a building at about 3 to 4 feet above the finish floor. The information it includes is varied. It’s drawn in order to show the relationship between walls, doors, windows, cabinetry, furniture, floor finishes, mechanical elements and in general, different spaces in a building.
A floor plan can include a lot of detailed information including the construction materials. In order to show this information you’ll need to know what the physical materials your walls are composed of so you can represent them accurately in a drawing. This first floor plan shows the walls without detailed material information and represents more of a presentation drawing or one that might be shown on a client and say the design development phase.
The walls are shown in dark poche. The spaces on the interior are left slightly lighter then it indicates floor finishes, in this case, hard wood and stone. The windows are shown with slightly more details set into the walls. The doors of the house are shown with a curve to show the direction they swing. The exterior profile of the entire building should always be shown in a slightly darker line to indicate very clearly the parameters of the building. This particular floor plan shows what you’ll see on later episode is a shingle style home.
As you could see for the plan, a small driveway runs right through the house. I designed the house to have quarters for domestic help, then across the driveway, the back entry, a mudroom and a large kitchen directly accessible from the driveway, a dining room off the kitchen, a generous foyer with a powder room and a stair to the second floor; a family room with a large fireplace and a study off the family room. You’ll notice that the exterior walls are drawn thicker than the interior ones. This is because the exterior walls have a stone veneer and wood framing with a plaster interior finish. This creates a condition where the walls look very substantial from the exterior.
The interior walls are drawn more narrowly at approximately 7 inches representing 2 x 6 framing with a plaster finish. You’ll also want to include furniture in the presentation drawing to get the floor plan scale and familiarity. Also notice that the furniture and floor finishes are drawn with thinner or lighter lines, whereas the walls are drawn darker. This is done to reinforce the building elements as the most critical to the viewer. I’ve also added some color to define spaces and objects both interior and exterior. This drawing was done in CAD and the lettering by hand and added in PhotoShop. The color is added in Illustrator. We’ll take a look at one of the elevations in part 2. See you next time.
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