Assessment 2

Part 2 Developing Design

Understand Scale and Proportion

Scale is the size of one object in relation to the other objects in a design or artwork.

Proportion refers to the size of the parts of an object in relationship to other parts of the same object.

Both proportion and scale are important aspects of good architectural design. Getting the scale right during the design phase is arguably more difficult, and takes keen experience, because it requires projecting oneself into the imagined building to know how big it is going to feel once it is built. But when managed with mastery, balanced proportions and consistent scale can create an enduringly beautiful building.

Common Scale in Architecture

Location Plan and Key Plans

1:1000

1:500

Site Plans, Sketch schemes

1:200

1:100

Plan drawings – floor plans, elevations, sections

1:100

1:50

Room plans, interior elevations

1:20

Component / detail drawings

1:10

1:5

Working out the scale

A scale is shown as a ratio, for example 1:100.
A drawing at a scale of 1:100 means that the object is 100 times smaller than in real life scale 1:1.
You could also say, 1 unit in the drawing is equal to 100 units in real life.
So, if we were drawing a table that measured 100cm wide by 200cm long at a scale of 1:50, you would draw the table 2cm wide by 4cm long on your piece of paper. This is worked out by dividing the real life size (100cm) by 50 (1:50 scale). This gives you a result of 2cm. For the length of the table we divide 200cm by 50 to get a result of 4cm.

Check Your Understanding

Miss W wishes to draw a table on a 1:200 floor plan, she measured the table to be 1.2 metres (1200 millimeters). How long will the table be on her plan drawing?

Getting Things Accurate

Working in pairs, use a tape measure to find out the exact length/width/heights of the items requested in the handout. You might want to go out the classroom to find what you need.

You will have 20 minutes to complete this task.

You should always remain in Miss W’s sight.

One person in the group is in charge of measuring, and the other person can note down the measurements.

Activity:

Map out of partial D05's floor plan in groups

Break out into small groups, map out a section of D05's floor plan in 1:50 scale. You will need to illustrate the followings for your allocated section:

1. Any openings on the wall (windows, doors)

2. Any furniture that is next to the wall.

3. Shade the remaining wall into black using a greylead, fineliner or a marker.

4. Draw a human figure in plan view next to a piece of furniture or an opening with the correct proportion.

Exercise before Site Visit

Observational Drawing Practice in Visual Diary

You have 30 minutes to sketch these drawing prompts in your Visual Diary. Please label your sketchs with numbers. These drawings are not meant to be great or exquisite, just aiming at catching the most evident features. Each sketch should take no longer than 3 minutes:

Organic light and shadows
An object that can stand on its own
Something to see through
Something only has 1 leg
A human-made pattern
A rough surface
Someone’s lips and chin
Something won’t last long
Something taller than 1.80m
Something shorter than 1.00m

Site Analysis

What is Architectural Analysis?

An architectural site analysis process will look at issues such as site location, size, topography, zoning, traffic conditions and climate. The analysis also needs to consider any future developments, or changes to the site’s surroundings, such as a change of road designations, changing cultural patterns, or other significant building developments within the area.

Why Analysing the Site?

Architecture is about engaging the local environment.
Site conditions may impact your design decisions. It is best if you can utilise the existing conditions of the site, and be environmentally and socially aware.
Subjective experiences are important for architects and can not be obtained by merely looking at images or site maps.
Watch the video below to give you a overall understanding to Site Analysis:

Site Analysis examples:

Examples of Deliverables: Nisho’s Site (New York, Long Island)

Alternative Options for Non-Attendees

Please complete the worksheet using the following links:

Site Analysis Question 1: Sun Path

https://www.suncalc.org/#/-37.8174,144.9675,10/2023.02.16/19:41/1/3

Site Analysis Question 2: Wind Direction

(Please Note Down the 5 Year Annual Average Wind Direction)

https://wind.willyweather.com.au/vic/melbourne/melbourne.html

Site Analysis Question 4, 5 Sketches: Site visit photos on 21st June 2023 link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-HWA-vMGuxAEuV24HWJqwVPnRMEhcTpr?usp=sharing

Site Analysis Question 3, 6, 7, 8: Aerial Images of the Site (25th April 2023):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RcMFEDM9J58snhISghrqCvUYXJ3LCNtD?usp=sharing

Passive Design: Melbourne’s Climate

Mild Temperature

Four distinct seasons: summer and winter exceed human comfort range; spring and autumn are ideal for human comfort
Hot to very hot summers, moderate humidity
Mild to cool winters with low humidity

Why Passive Design?

‘Passive design’ is design that works with the local climate to maintain a comfortable temperature in the home.
Good passive design should reduce or eliminate the need for additional heating or cooling depending on your location.
A passively designed home can deliver a lifetime of comfort, low energy bills, and low greenhouse gas emissions.

Passive Design: Ventilation

Utilise natural wind direction from site analysis.
Works better with narrow floor plans or open-plan layouts, or windows aligning each other.
Pay attention to locations where windows can be left open (that is, secure, quiet locations with good outdoor air quality).

Passive Design: Natural Light

Orientation

Because our sun is from north, you should always try to place living areas to the north (or east, if north is not possible). This is because north-facing rooms receive sun for the longest period of the day in winter and are easily shaded by the eaves of the roof in summer.
Orientation for warming in winter and cooling in summer aims to maximise northern exposure of walls and windows, but block solar access with appropriate eaves and other shading in summer.

Skylight

Skylights and roof windows are glazed openings on a pitched or flat roof, allowing natural light into your home, they can also allow fresh air to enter if they are openable.
Potentially useful if living spaces has to be left on the South part of the house.
Can admit more light than vertical windows of the same size, solve windowless room problems.

Passive Design: General Rule of Thumb

For Mild Temperature, the key is to balance the time of introducing daylight into the building and ventilation according to seasons.
Deciduous trees or verandahs are good on the north side of the house to block summer sun and allowing winter sun. They can also help to filter summer hot breeze.
Minimise east- and west-facing openings because they receive the strongest sun and are the most difficult to shade. Reduce the size of south windows to avoid heat loss in winter.
Align door and window openings to improve cross-ventilation paths.
Locate living areas on the north side of the home to take advantage of winter sun. Locate utility areas (laundries, bathrooms and garages) on the south or west side, where possible.
Shade your windows according to sun angles, consider eaves, or overhangs.

Introducing Assessment 2 Part 2 Developing Design

Bubble Diagrams (Planning Space Layout)

What is a Bubble Diagram?

A series of sketched circles (or“bubbles”) to represent various spaces in a building that will meet the needs listed in the program.

These bubble diagrams are intended for the architect as they think through their design.

The bubble diagramming process helps to get all their creative ideas down on paper, without worrying yet about what the final design might be.

This process can be thought of as the architectural equivalent of outlining an essay or a story you might do in a writing class.

Some common mistake to avoid for making bubble diagrams

Sketch Bubble Diagrams

of Your Design

In your visual diary, produce 3 bubble diagrams, demonstrating the distribution of space. Think about how you are going to layout each room.

You will have 3 bubble diagrams at the end. Remember: one level only, with at least 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a kitchen, a living room and a garage.

In your diagram, each bubble your sketch should:

- represent a different room or space

- be drawn quickly in a smooth freehand motion

- be roughly oval in shape

touch another bubble at an edge, to show adjacent rooms

Average Size Rooms:

Normal Bedroom: 10-14 sqm
Master Bedroom: 12-18 sqm
Bathroom: 4-8 sqm
Powder room: 2-3 sqm
Kitchen: 8-10 sqm
Living room: 18-25 sqm
Garage: 25-35 sqm

General Rule of Thumbs for Bubble Diagram:

Don’t worry too much about the exact sizes of these bubbles, but you should pay attention to the proportion of each bubble (space) and how it fits into the overall building. Is each space long and narrow or more square-like?

Label each bubble with the name of the room or space. If more than one activity happens in a single space, make a note of that.

Reflection

After you have finished all 3 bubble diagrams, conduct a Passive Design Analysis for the best one using the following reflection questions:

Room Arrangement: What considerations influenced the placement of different rooms within your bubble diagram? Discuss your decision-making on your floor plan layout. (For example: Why do I decide to put a garage on the north side of the site? Why should I put the studio next to the gallery?)

Room Sizes: Estimate the size of each room and annotate the size on each of your bubbles, do you think all the rooms are in relatively reasonable size? How did you work out the appropriate sizes for different rooms in your bubble diagram?

3. Ventilation: What strategies have you employed to ensure adequate airflow and ventilation throughout the space? (Look back to Passive Design Strategies on our website,
and talk about the quality of the natural ventilation in your house. You may proceed to make some changes to the windows and door location. )

4. Natural Light: What techniques have you used to ensure the entry of natural light into different areas of the building ?(You should also talk about the strategies to prevent overheating in summer (especially on the north and west side of the house)

Drafting Your Floor Plans

Choose 1 of the 3 bubble diagram and develop it into a draft floor plan in 1:100@A3 on a piece of graphic paper. Refine your design based on the passive design reflections from above.
Sketch a box with 350mm by width and 150mm by height on 1:100@A3.
Identify the north point and draw the compass.
Use a ruler, make sure you are using the correct architectural drawing conventions for furniture and openings.
Refer to the video below for drafting.

Technical Drawing Convention Guide for Architectural Drawings

Floor plans may address:

- overhanging roof lines

- openings including windows and doors

- stairways

- key dimensions for overall sizes, rooms, doors and windows where appropriate

- labelling; for example, rooms and key descriptive notes

- north point symbol (on plans)

- a title block including scale, date drawn, author’s name, drawing number and site address if applicable

Line conventions

In keeping with other design fields, architectural drawings also employ accepted conventions regarding the kinds of line style and width. The left table describes lines used in architectural drawings.

Representing walls

There are two main kinds of walls in buildings: exterior and interior.

Interior walls are represented differently depending on the scale of the drawing. At 1:100 they are shown as a solid, continuous line 1mm thick; at 1:50 or 1:20 they are shown as two parallel thin lines 2 mm or 5 mm apart respectively.

Exterior walls are shown as two parallel lines representing the thickness of the wall. At 1:100 the two lines create a 3mm thick line. They are usually filled in black or grey (the grey to reduce visual impact) or hatched to represent a particular material.

When working with different scales, representing the thickness of walls can become confusing. An easy way to consider the representation of walls is that the exterior wall is solid and 3 times thicker than the interior wall.

Representing doors

In the plan view, doors are shown as a thick line running perpendicular to the closed position and in the full open position of the door. A thin line arc is used to describe the swing. Sliding doors are shown as thick lines, spaced apart, as if positioned in a double or triple track, and arrows are placed parallel to the direction of slide to denote direction of movement. Refer to Table 5 for examples of door widths.

Representing windows

Windows are represented using combinations of thin lined rectangles.

In the plan view, windows are shown as a long, white rectangular gap, the same thickness as the wall in which it is placed. The glass is then shown by one or two thin continuous lines centred and parallel to the wall.

Specialised Rooms (Art Studio, Family Cinema and Gym)

Representing interior features

Environmental drawings use a consistent set of symbols to represent interior features. The emphasis is on clarity, so details are minimal and do not detract from

the purpose of a drawing. Symbols are constructed from thin continuous lines.

Stairs and ramps

In the plan view, stairs are shown as an outline. A thin continuous line is drawn through the centre of the staircase to indicate the direction of rise. In the

elevation views, a staircase is drawn as it appears from the front, rear or side, including relevant handrails. A ramp is shown in the plan view as a simple rectangle.

Final Floor Plan Drawing

Once you have finished your draft. Use a piece of tracing paper to over trace your floor plan. This will be your final presentation of the floor plan.

On this final presentation, you will need to label the dimensions of the exterior features. Please use the following guide to help you.

Labelling Dimensions

First Line: Smaller Exterior Features (Including windows, doors, verandahs, etc).
Second Line: Interior spaces (We are not doing Second Line for this Assessment).
Third Line: Overall Dimensions.

Remember to write your dimensions units in millimeters, but you don’t have to include units. The numbers are ALWAYS on the left side or on top of the dimension lines.

Dimension placement

Dimensions are constructed by referencing features in the following order:

1. The first line (close to the building) shows external features such as windows or other openings and external walls,

2. The third line shows the overall external building dimensions, corner to corner.

Projection lines are used along the dimension line to depict features of the design referenced. Projection lines are short, 3mm long and centred across the dimension line. Longer projection lines may be used at either end of an overall dimension line for clarity.

Architectural drawings do not use arrows to terminate dimensions. Dimensions in plans and elevations are terminated with short, 3 mm long 45 degree cross marks, again centred on dimension lines.

Dimensions are shown in small sans serif figures. Numbers are placed above dimension lines and centred across the space. Dimensions to denote sizes too small to fit the numbers may be placed directly adjacent the space. Dimension figures should print at 2 mm high.

All dimensions in architectural drawings are to be recorded in millimetres.

Identifying environmental drawings

A final presentation of an environmental drawing should include a title block (See example in Figure 32). Whilst the design of the title block can vary, the purpose for it and the information it contains is standard. It will include:

· drawing title

· project title

· scale

· sheet size

· north point indicator

· author’s name

· date drawn

· sheet number.

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