Architectural Drawings

Perspective Sketches. A perspective is a representation of a building or object as it ap pears from a fixed point. These sketches are usu ally drawn at a small scale, either freehand or mechanically. The lines should be lightly drawn or sketched, as strong lines will be objection able in the rendering or coloring of the drawing. The rendering may be in pencil, ink, water color, or sometimes in crayon, and prepared upon almost any kind of paper (see Fig. 5).

Competition Drawings. These are more or less preliminary sketches. As a general thing it is only occasionally that a firm enters a com petition; but if it should, let the draftsman show that he knows how to prepare such drawings. By competition drawings, we mean drawings that are submitted in a competition. The firms may be invited to submit competition designs, in which case it is called a closed competition; or the requirements may be published in some architectural paper, and anyone may submit drawings, in which case it is called an open competition. The drawings submitted for the open competition are more of the nature of sketches than in the closed competition. Usu ally, in the closed competition, each firm invited to submit drawings will be paid for their work even though unsuccessful in being the winner. There is generally a sum paid for such drawings. Thus, in a closed competition, an architect is paid for his time and can afford to get out a better class of drawings. These are usually drawn on regular drawing paper, carefully laid out to scale, and all inked in. The sheet is then water-colored and made as attractive as possible in this manner. In other words, these drawings are laid out as carefully, except at a much smaller scale, as working drawings; only the important dimensions are put on.

In the open competition, the work is usually done on tracing paper. The plans are laid out at a small scale, made very sketchy, and the pencil is allowed much freedom in the lines. With this sort of drawing, it is necessary to study the requirements, make sketches, and decide for yourself which answers the require ments the best. There will be no client to criti cise your work, but you will have to do this for yourself and submit your sketches as final sketches to the client. The first-floor plan is laid out, and the surrounding premises are also laid out. Trees and shrubbery also are put on;

and walks, drives, and gardens are shown. Since this is on tracing paper, very little water-color is used. Use the pencil to show everything, and upon your ability to use your pencil—and a soft one, too—will depend much of the success Of your drawings. After these sketches have been made, they are lettered and titled attrac tively, and then mounted on cardboard. This mounting is usually done by pasting the corners only, and not attempting to paste the whole drawing. Ordinarily, a border of some sort is placed around the card, and any other finishing touches that will make the drawing attract attention are added. Thus we see that competi tion drawings are only preliminary sketches finished a little better than for the ordinary class of work.

Should you be successful in the competition, the method of getting out the working drawings, scale details, and other drawings, is the same as for any other work.

The chances are that you will rarely have a chance to get out competition drawings; but should the opportunity come, grasp it, and do your best.

Working Drawings By working drawings we mean drawings complete in every respect, with dimensions, sizes of rooms, etc. In other words, they are the drawings giving all the necessary informa tion to completely build the structure as drawn. This division of drawings may be divided into general and detail drawings, the latter being subdivided into scale and full-size.

The architect who is mindful of his client's welfare will furnish a complete set of drawings. The clearest, simplest, and most exact working drawing is the best. Some architects feel that working drawings do not require the best work. The making of good, clear, complete drawings cannot be emphasized too strongly.

The Plan. In the plan we see an arrange ment of the rooms for the different floors that approaches the ideal as nearly as possible. The plan should present the conveniences of arrange meat. In the following description we shall consider the plan of a residence, as it will clearly set forth the logical arrangement of parts. The description, as noted, will be limited to residence work, since this class of building is likely to afford a student his first opportunity for inde pendent, original work.