Architectural Drawings: A Builder's Guide

An architectural drawing is a technical portrayal of a house or other building that represents the finished product and a tool for engineers, contractors, designers, and builders to carry out the construction.

These architectural drawings Hamilton are used by architects to turn their design ideas into a proposal and to explain design thoughts. The drawings will depict the home's general appearance—both inside and out—as well as its orientation on a construction site and the layout of its living quarters. Some of the drawings are more conceptual, used to describe the house's style and feel, while others are more technical, used to dictate how the building is built.

The architecture plan is the first set of design drawings that engineers use to map out the house's mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems. The architectural drawings, which include details and elevations, come first in a set of blueprints, followed by the structural drawings generated by all of the engineers involved. The blueprint package is made up of a group of drawings that are used together.

The architectural drawings are used by builders, contractors, and trades to design a structure that meets the architectural intent, structural performance, and occupant experience requirements.

For decades, architects have created comprehensive technical drawings for projects, starting with hand-drawn designs utilizing a compass, ruler, and French curve template. Many architects now produce computer-aided designs using sophisticated tools. By instantly syncing to team members' blueprints, these digital tools help architects reduce formerly labor-intensive operations. Importantly, constructors no longer have to handle their blueprint packages by physically rolling out reams of paper.

 HOW TO READ ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS

SCALE

Construction drawings and architectural drawings are produced so that a tiny increment of measurement symbolizes a more prominent increment to fit all of the information about a layer of a building onto a page. The blueprints are designed “to scale,” which means they are accurate.

The complexity of scales ranges from simple (1 inch = 1 foot) to sophisticated (3/16 inch = 1 foot). The symbols are also rendered to scale to see how different aspects of a room are arranged in the room.

The scale is always displayed on the same page as the drawing, either beneath the title or beneath a single drawing. Because scales might differ from page to page in a set of architectural prints, double-check each page and use an architectural scale, or a scaled ruler, to ensure you're reading the print correctly. If you don't already have one, it's a must-have tool for architects, engineers, and builders that you should invest in right away.

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Because there are so many details to put in a complete set of blueprints, architects limit the information on the drawings to a set of standardized abbreviations to make them easier to read and less crowded. These are given in a set of notes with the architectural drawings Mississauga.

NOTES AND SYMBOLS

Architects also incorporate conventional symbols so that anyone looking at the drawing can recognize a fireplace, window, kitchen table, and bathroom. Every set of architectural drawings contains a symbol legend for reference. You can look up a symbol in the legend if you don't know what it means.