Pictograms are a special case. These are symbolic graphics that attempt only to convey the design idea or design variations. They must not be based on any of the drawing types referred to above and must not provide any concrete information or data about the design. The drawn form of the pictogram is very free, but generally extremely clear in graph-ical terms. They do not use any scale.

It makes sense also to show the immediate surroundings of the planned building. These can include neighbouring buildings, vegetation or infrastructure elements. Site plans often contain legends, levels (height above sea level) and arrows that indicate entrances or circulation. North is generally to the top of the sheet, a north arrow (or pointer) should ­always be used. The building should be drawn in such a way that it stands out clearly from the surrounding developments. This can be achieved by heightening the contrast, by using thicker lines, or by the use of colour or surface textures. The site boundaries are indi-cated with a dashed line.

A floor plan is a horizontal cut through a building. Architects always look down from above, that is to say, a cut is made through the building and everything that can be seen below the line of the cut is shown. This line is chosen so that all the openings and the circulation systems can be seen. The floor plan shows the arrangement of rooms on the different floors, each floor being drawn separately. Floor plans reveal spatial sequences and functions. Sketches of ground floor plans should show the nature of the surrounding area of the site.

Dark or black-coloured walls outlining white rooms are one of the principal characteristics of a floor plan sketch. They reveal the building typology, separate rooms from each other, or indicate the structural sys-tem. In the early stages of the design the floor plan sketches do not yet have these typical characteristics. In such cases, simple coloured areas may be used to indicate sequences of spaces that will eventually provide the configuration of the building. Floor plans of this type are gen-erally at a scale of 1:200. In the later planning stages floor plans must be drawn at scales of up to 1:50.

The section is made by placing a vertical section plane in the design on which everything that you see when looking in a specific horizontal direction is then depicted. The section plane should be chosen in such a way that all the important room heights, the way the structure works and the circulation of the building can be read. What lies close to the section plane is drawn clearly; building parts that are further away can be drawn more lightly in elevation.

The elevation (or view) is a planar drawing that shows one external face of a building. It could be regarded as a sectional drawing in which, however, the section plane is not inside the building but outside and ­directly in front of it. The elevation depicts the proportions of a design or reveals the relationship of the planned building to its surroundings (neigh-bouring buildings, nature etc.). The relief of a building (facade, windows, projections) should also be visible and can be shown by means of shad-ows. This gives an essentially planar drawing such an elevation a certain depth. Building parts in the background are, as in the section, drawn more faintly and with separated lines.

During architectural design the elevation can be sketched directly beside, above, or below a plan drawing, as the lengths required are ­already given. It is important that the ground line on which the building stands be emphasized, and that the planned building be clearly distinguished in the drawing from the neighboring buildings.

If you wish to define the construction or materials of a building precisely, you must proceed to drawing at a smaller scale. What are called the details of the building are shown in section, elevation or perspective drawings. Particularly important are detail sketches of those places where the different parts of the building are pieced together, where materials meet, where construction meets design. The term “detail drawing” can cover drawings made at very different scales. A very detailed depiction at the scale of 1:1 to 1:5 is clearly a detail, but so is the depiction of a facade at the scale of 1:50, as this offers far more detailed ­information than the scale normally used for an elevation drawing.

In detail sketches it may be necessary to define certain materials precisely. There are standards that lay down the kind of hatching or lines used to depict materials. In a large scale section the cut building parts are indicated by thicker lines. To allow visual checks to be made frequently, a part of the relevant internal and external elevation and a floor plan are drawn alongside the detail section drawing (vertical or horizontal section).

Axonometric projections combine the advantages of planar and three-dimensional drawings as they combine both kinds of depictions: in some kinds of axonometric projections, the depths and heights of rooms can be measured from the drawing. These drawings are frequently used in the architect’s daily life to depict simple spatial relationships. They are often based on existing drawings and in such cases adopt the scales of these drawings. The three simplest and most common axonometric projections used in architectural design are the floor plan axonometric, the elevation axonometric, and the isometric projection.

A perspective drawing differs in one important point from the floor plan, elevation, section and axonometric: it has one or more vanishing points. That is to say parallel edges, building parts or buildings are not drawn parallel to each other but meet at a vanishing point. Perspectives are particularly suitable for making a building understandable in a clear, communicative way that lay people can grasp. Such perspectives are of-ten drawn from the eye level of someone passing by a building, as the aim is to depict spatial impressions realistically. In addition to the outer spatial configuration, the perspective also shows particularly clearly the form and proportions of a building and how it is integrated in urban ­design.

On the sheet the perspective is constructed from bottom to top. Near the bottom edge of the sheet is the station point (SP). Now the floor plan must be positioned in such a way that the desired perspective can be drawn. The distance to the station point must be determined, and the floor plan must be swivelled until an interesting view is found. The eleva-tion is placed above the floor plan, not centrally but to the left or right of the floor plan. The perspective is created alongside the elevation and above the floor plan. The picture plane (PP) is drawn through the floor plan as a horizontal line, parallel to the ground line of the elevation. Its position determines the size of the final perspective. Ideally it should be positioned so that it cuts at least one important corner or edge of the building. In the elevation drawing the vertical position of the horizon (HO) is chosen. It is drawn parallel to the ground line of the elevation and to the picture plane in the upper part of the sheet.

This preparatory work should be carried out before constructing the perspective. Now the vanishing points needed are constructed. To do this lines are drawn parallel to the orthogonal outside edges of the floor plan and are extended to meet the picture plane. At each of the points where they meet this plane a vertical line is drawn up to the horizon. These two new points are the two vanishing points.