A simple architectural drawing shows a square floor plan above two elevation views labeled South Elevation with a door and North Elevation as a plain square, over a light green background.
The image is completely blank with a plain white background and no visible objects, text, or features.
The image is completely blank with a plain white background and no visible objects, text, or features.
The image is completely blank with a plain white background and no visible objects, text, or features.
The image is completely blank with a plain white background and no visible objects, text, or features.
The image is completely blank with a plain white background and no visible objects, text, or features.

Plans and
Elevations.

VCD 2024

Architectural
thinking
in 2D.

This page explains two-dimensional drawing for Environmental design. Plans and elevations are a means of displaying buildings and human-made environments in separate two-dimensional views. The Australian Standards Association sets a series of rules and processes for planning and Elevations. Visual Communication Design follows these rules. Architects, theatre set designers and landscape designers use plans and elevations.

Takeaways

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Plans & elevations

Plans and elevations are two-dimensional drawings used in environmental design to show buildings' layout (plan) and external or internal sides (elevations) from different viewpoints.

Plans = Top View, Elevations = Side View:
A plan shows a building from above, as if the roof were sliced off at 1100 mm height; an elevation shows the side or face of the building, like standing in front of it.

Used by many designers
Architects, designers, builders, and clients use plans and elevations to visualise space, pitch ideas, and guide construction accurately.

Drawn to scale
Depending on the purpose, different scales (like 1:50 or 1:100) are used—larger drawings show more detail, while smaller ones show more area.

Special symbols and line Conventions
Standard symbols (for doors, windows, furniture) and consistent line types are used so everyone can understand the drawings clearly.

Labelled and organised
Every drawing includes clear labels, a north point, dimensions, and a title block with details like scale, name, and date to help with reading and interpreting the design.

Model answer

Below is a set of drawings that might be created as part of a Year 12 SAT communication need. Starting with a site plan, moving into Plans and Elevations then concluding with an interior detail elevation. Each drawing is at a scale appropriate for its purpose.
Architectural plans for a small modern house, shown in four quadrants: side and front elevations, a floor plan, a site plan with landscaping, and a roof plan with gridlines and dimensions.

INTRODUCTION TO plans and elevations

This page will teach students about making Plans and Elevations. This is the name given to two-dimensional technical drawings used in Environmental Design. Plans and elevations in Visual Communication Design are made manually and with digital-based methods using the media of vector-based and/ or CAD programs.

The purpose of Plans and Elevations

Plans and elevations are used for a wide set of purposes, including promoting, advertising, informing and depicting the built environment. Two-dimensional drawings in Environmental design function in many ways and are constructed accordingly. The simpler forms of plans and elevations are used to illustrate and depict interiors in broad strokes. These kinds of drawings are known as concept sketches or schematics and are used to pitch an idea to a client or advertise a house or apartment to a prospective buyer. They are necessarily simple to illustrate only the space, flow, function and aspect of a building. Town planning drawings include more details such as dimensions, surrounding buildings, plotted shadow diagrams and setbacks, etc. These will often be presented on a number of sheets, each one depicting a different aspect of the proposed building. Construction drawings are done on large, often A1 sheets, and include a huge amount of detailed information. Several scales are used, ranging from 1:200 for site plans to 1:10 for construction process details. These drawings also contain references to additional documentation set by engineers and other specialists.

Students in Visual Communication Design are exposed to a fairly narrow introduction to plans and elevations and deal only with the fundamental concepts of depictions of form in two dimensions, conventions for lines and viewpoints that create plans and elevations and dimensioning. As such, students are required only to produce schematic or concept Plans and Elevations of the type that would normally be used to pitch ideas to a client or promote them to prospective purchasers.

Architectural floor plan for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment. Features include a kitchen, living/dining area, and a large terrace. Apartment details and a location key are shown on the left side and top right corner.
A concept plan for advertising an apartment to prospective purchasers. (Image: Little Projects).
Architectural kitchen elevation drawing labeled Kitchen Elevation 01, showing detailed measurements, cabinetry, appliances, and a reference photo of a kitchen drawer in the bottom right corner. Mossa Architecture logo top right.
Details of an Elevation of kitchen joinery. Mossa Architecture and Interiors.

WHO USES THEM, AND WHAT ARE THEY FOR?

Plans and elevations are read by a wide range of people, including prospective purchasers, designers and their clients, engineers, builders and other tradespeople. They are drawn to promote ideas about space and amenities and to support the accurate construction of a building.
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Making Plans and elevations
Plans
Representing walls
Line conventions
Line conventions
Symbols for plans and elevations
Labels and dimensions
Labels
Dimensions
Putting it together
Elevations
Site Plans
Title Block

Making Plans and Elevations

In this section, we will explore each kind of plan and elevation. The requirements for each drawing/ sheet are influenced by the purpose or function, the target audience and context, the size of the building and consequently, the scale to be used. It is assumed that students creating Plans and Elevations have a basic understanding of how to make third-angle orthogonal drawings. Many concepts and understandings used for third-angle Orthogonal are used in plans and elevations. This page will build on those concepts and highlight the differences.

Multiple Sheet presentation

As shown in the ‘model answer’ above, plans and elevations are often presented in multiple sheets. Each sheet functions to present a different aspect of the building. Often, a range of appropriate scales is used for the same building, as different aspects are presented differently. A range of different presentation sheets and the appropriate scales are shown below:

Scales for environmental design

Drawing function

Scale

Site plan
1:200, 1:500
Floor plans
1:50, 1:100
Elevations
1:50, 1:100
Interior details
1:10, 1:20

Plans

What is a Plan?

A plan is essentially a bird 's-eye view of a building. However, one will note it is not as seen from the outside. The actual definition of a plan is a cross-section taken at a height of 1100 mm above the floor. What this means is it is as if a building has been sliced in half at just over a metre from the floor and the upper section removed, revealing all the details up to 1100 high (this includes kitchens, toilets, furniture, desks, etc.,) and the thickness of the walls and windows. Unlike a third-angle orthogonal drawing, where dashed lines indicate hidden features, dashed lines in plans and elevations are used to show features of the building above the cutting plane for the Plan. This includes interior bulkheads, roves and eave lines.

Setting out a Plan

A Plan is a picture of the floor of a building or landscape. It is drawn accurately with right angles and parallel lines to represent the actual shape of a building.

Representing walls

A Plan reveals the thickness of walls in scale. An exterior wall is different from an interior wall. Students in VCE VCD usually show exterior walls as solid bars filled in black and interior walls filled in white. The width and the fill given to walls vary depending on whether they are interior or exterior and the scale at which they are drawn.

Circles in Planometric drawings are sometimes elliptical and sometimes actual circles. Those found on the left and right sides of a form are elliptical, and those found on the top of forms are shown as actual circles. Spheres are also shown as actual circles.

Walls
A floor plan section showing a kitchen with a fridge, cupboard, and sink, and a tiled bathroom with a toilet, sink, and shower; doors separate each room.
Demonstration example at 1:50
Black and white floor plan showing a bedroom with a double bed, a wardrobe, and two round nightstands. Adjacent are two bathrooms, each with a sink, toilet, and bathtub or shower; a space marked “WM” (washing machine) is also visible.
Advertising plan. Scale not given.
Architectural floor plan showing a bedroom, bathroom, sitting room, kitchen, and courtyard. Rooms are labeled with notes on new flooring, tiles, windows, and doors, with detailed measurements and construction instructions.
Floor Plan at 1:50
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task

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1.1 Understand purpose and function
Research 4 or 5 different-looking Plans and Elevations on the internet. Try to find drawings that have been created for the widest range of purposes and audiences. Be innovative in your search. Look around the world at different estate agents, for example. Collect the images and describe the purpose and audience for each one.
1.2 Sketch plan
Make a sketch Plan of the room you are in now. Use the conventions for walls, doors and windows shown on this page. Don't worry about the scale for this task. It is intended to help you understand what should appear on a Plan and how it might be shown.
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Line conventions

Drawing plans and elevations uses several different lines. The line weights and types must be used consistently to avoid confusion when the drawings are read. The line weights and types for VCE Visual Communication Design are shown here.
A chart showing different line types used in technical drawings, such as thick continuous, thin dashed, and thick chain, with their uses in packaging net, 3rd angle orthogonal, and plans and elevations.
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Scale

Drawings for environmental design are made at a range of scales. As noted in the page linked here, the scale chosen depends on;

  1. The size of the building being depicted
  2. The function and purpose of the drawing
  3. The sheet size that will be used for printing

A more detailed examination of scale is shown on the page linked below.

The scale used in a drawing is nominated in the Title Block. To find out how to draw accurately in scale, explore the page on Scale, linked below.

Two people holding signs: one holds an A3 sheet with a large yellow car at a 1:20 scale, the other holds an A4 sheet with a smaller yellow car at a 1:50 scale.
For further information on the Scale click the link at right.
Illustration of a person holding a sign with a yellow SUV and the ratio 1:10, indicating a scale model, against a light green circular background.
Scale

task

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2.1 Visualise scale

Find five objects around you. Find 3 with dimensions smaller than yourself and 2 with dimensions bigger than you.

Grab a ruler or tape measure and measure the height, width and depth of each object. Write these dimensions down in a table.

Convert the dimensions for each object to sizes in millimetres for each of the following scales:

  • 2:1
  • 1:5
  • 1:10
  • 1:50
  • 1:100

2.2 use scale
Take a sheet of A4 paper (landscape). Measure the room that you sketched in exercise 1.2 above. Choose the largest scale from 1:100, 1:50 or 1:20 and find out which one will fit on the page (297 mm x 210 mm). Draw your room Plan to scale on the sheet.
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Symbols in Plans and elevations

North Point

The North Point shows the orientation of a plan. It is the equivalent of a symbol in the 3rd Angle Orthogonal drawing in that it provides the key to how to read the drawing. The names of elevations on the attached sheets are derived from the plan's orientation. It is not essential that North is at the top of a sheet. A building plan should be oriented to fit best on a page layout. However, the North point should be rotated so that it indicates the direction of North relative to the aspect of the Plan.
Image
North Points come in many different styles.
(https://cad-block.com/uploads/posts/2018-07/1531080901_north-arrow.jpg)

Door and Window symbols

When drawing plans, a group of symbols communicates information about objects inside rooms. These symbols have consistent forms and are drawn at scale.
Symbols in plan
Diagram showing a circle with a thick black line on the left labeled HEAVY LINE FOR DOOR and an arc on the right labeled ARC CUT FROM CIRCLE. The diameter is marked as 16mm at 1:100 scale.
A door swing arc cut from a circle.
Diagram showing architectural symbols: an interior wall, a sliding door represented by a heavy line, an 8mm door width, a 1mm track width, and an arrow indicating the sliding direction with open-ended leader.
Sliding door symbol.
Symbols in plan
Symbols in Elevation
A diagram showing a white-filled rectangle with the same width as a wall, labeled as 2mm @ 1:100. Notes say glass is represented by a single or double line at this scale. Spelling error: represted instead of represented.
A window symbol.
A diagram of a door symbol in a floor plan. A heavy line outlines the door, and a thin dashed line shows the direction of the door swing. The dimension 8mm @ 1:100 is labeled below the door outline.
A Door in Elevation.
A rectangular window symbol with a double heavy border labeled DOUBLE HEAVY LINE FOR WINDOW FRAME and thin dashed lines forming a V labeled THIN DASHED LINE SHOWS DIRECTION OF OPENING.
A Window in Elevation.

Furniture and fixtures symbols

Dining tables, chairs, stools, wash basins, sinks, toilets, beds, etc., are shown as simplified geometric line drawings made at the correct scale. When drawing symbols, students must measure objects carefully and divide the dimensions by the scale used. An example of how to draw furniture as a simplified graphic at scale is shown here.
Example plan
Black and white architectural floor plan of a small house, showing a carpeted main room, kitchen area, bathroom with shower, and an outdoor deck. Measurements and labels for each section are included.
An example of a Plan drawn at the scale of 1:50.

task

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3.1 Door and window symbols
Find and print images of architectural door and window symbols. Walk around your house or school and locate four doors or windows that are shown as symbols. Take a photo of each. Print and place the photo in a visual diary and neatly draw the symbol next to it using a scale of 1:50. (measure the real object for this).
3.2 Furniture and fixture symbols
Locate images of architectural furniture and fixture symbols. Choose three symbols for which there are real examples around you. These could be a kitchen sink, a couch or a table and chairs, for example. Measure the real objects and draw the three symbols in your visual diary at 1:20, 1:50 and 1:100 scale.
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Labels and dimensions

In this step, students will learn how to finish their plans and elevations with labels, dimensions and a title box.

Labels

Environmental design drawings are labelled PLAN and (direction) ELEVATION. Elevations are named by their orientation. One interesting point to note is that the name of an Elevation refers to the side of the building it is on and the direction one is facing when viewing that side. For example, if North is heading up the page on a plan, then the elevation on the lower side of the plan is South elevation, yet a viewer would be looking North to see that side of the building. For clarification, see the images below.

In addition, many drawings are also known as SECTIONS. A section is a slice across a building. However, sections are not a required part of VCE VCD. When one view is shown on one sheet, for example, a floor plan at 1:50 may take up a whole A1 sheet, then the name of the view is written in the title box. When more than one view is shown on a sheet, the names of the views are written below each view.

The type used for labelling is fundamentally the same as that used for third-angle orthogonal. Details for setting out labels are shown here.

Labels as they relate to north

The illustrations below are designed to show how the names given to elevations are derived from the direction of North, indicated by the North point symbol (shown in the top right corner of each drawing).

Architectural diagram labeled Orientation 1, showing a floor plan at the top with arrows connecting to north, south, east, and west elevation drawings of a simple rectangular building with a pitched roof.
Note the names of Elevations when North is up.
Architectural diagram labeled Orientation 2 showing a floor plan with north indicated, and four elevation views: east, west, north, and south, each with simple outlines of the buildings exterior.
Note the names of Elevations now that North is not in the upward direction.
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Dimensions

Linear Dimensions

Dimensions are constructed in a similar way to those used for third angle orthogonal drawing. However, three parallel dimension lines are used to measure three different aspects of a building these are;

  • 1st line (closest to the building) external features such as doors and windows
  • 2nd line internal walls, wall thicknesses, internal features
  • 3rd line external overall dimensions

See illustration at right for an explanation of dimensions in architecture.

A building floor plan diagram with labeled dimension lines, gaps, projection lines, and dimension text styles. Callouts explain features such as line gaps, extension lengths, text font, and line placement order.
Components of linear dimensions.

Circles and arcs

Curves are dimensioned in different ways depending on the ‘house style’ of a studio. However, they may be dimensioned by showing a diameter or radius in the same manner used for third angle orthogonal drawings.

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Putting it together

Watch this video to find out how you can use the digital media of Adobe Illustrator to make a plan for a simple house. I used this method to make the example images on this page. However, the example in the video is a bit simpler again. This is Part One of two videos. Scroll down to elevations for Part two.

Part one of the video on Plans and Elevations. In this video, we learn how to draw a Plan view in Adobe Illustrator.

task

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4.1 Drawing a plan
Watch the video above and make the plan as shown.
4.2 Dimensions
Design a nano-house. Search them up if you have to. Draw a Plan at 1:50 scale using the same process as shown in the video above. Dimension the Plan using the three dimension lines shown on this page. Do this manually or digitally.
4.3 North Point Symbol
Create an original North point symbol from the examples shown on this page. Apply it to your Plan to guide the labelling of Elevations done in the next step.
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Elevations

What is an elevation?

An elevation is the name given to a view of a side or vertical face of a building or structure. Elevations are drawn for each side of a building and named according to the orientation of the plan. Exterior elevations show the features seen from the outside of the building. They extend from one edge of a face to the other and as such, they do not show wall thicknesses. They often show stylised textures to represent wall cladding. Interior elevations show interior features in a stylised manner. They extend from one edge of an interior wall to the other and do not show wall thicknesses beyond the interior of a room.

Elevations show ground, floor and sometimes ceiling levels. These lines are referenced against heights above sea level as calculated in a land survey from a (TBM) Temporary Bench Mark which is located on the property by the surveyor. The height of this point may also serve as a ‘zero’ height point. Therefore, the dimensions of elevations measure heights.

Elevations are made at different scales according to the function of the drawing. Exterior elevations are usually shown at the same scale as Plans and joinery detail elevations for kitchen, bathroom or studies are shown at a larger scale (for example, 1:20).

Example exterior elevations
Architectural drawing showing west, north, and south elevations of a modern, single-story house with a slanted roof, large windows, and simple lines. Dimensions and floor levels are labeled; scale is 1:50.
Components of linear dimensions.
Example interior elevation
Architectural elevation drawing of a modern bathroom showing two large mirrors, vanity with drawers, tall storage cabinet, wall tiles, sink, and bathtub, with dimensions marked in millimeters.
Components of linear dimensions.

Putting it together

Watch this video to find out how you can use the digital media of Adobe Illustrator to make an elevation for a simple house. I used this method to make the example images on this page. However, the example in the video is a bit simpler again. This is Part Two of the video above.

Part two of the video on plans and elevations. In this video, we learn how to draw an Elevation of the same small house.

task

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5.1 Elevations
Working from the Plan you made in Tasks 4, create and name two exterior Elevations at the same scale.
5.2 Joinery Details
Using the classroom you are in (if it has a sink and joinery) or your kitchen at home, create an interior Elevation of the wall with the sink bench on it. Measure all the features, including the width and height of the whole wall. Complete the Elevation at a scale of 1:20
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Site plan

What is a site plan?

A Site Plan is a drawing that shows how a building will sit within a site. A building should always be designed to maximise the potential of its site. Designing for function and aesthetics includes awareness of the site’s aspect, levels and fall of the land and surrounding vegetation, access roads and other features. A site plan is annotated to identify the direction of North, the title boundary (the edges of the property), and heights measured above sea level and shown in relation to contour lines and other features of the land.

There is no greater example of a building that was designed in full awareness of a most spectacular site than Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1939. Consider my picture of the house above with the Wright's site plan also shown above.

Image
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867–April 9, 1959), Site Plan, Fallingwater, Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1936–1939. Pencil on tracing paper, 380 × 550 mm. DMC 1852.2. (Image: Drawing Matter).
A modern house with stone and glass elements, built over a waterfall and surrounded by lush green trees in a forest setting.
My photo of Fallingwater in situ over Bear Run, a small river, Pennsylvania, USA.
Example exterior elevations
Architectural site plan showing a house, driveway, decks, trees, and property boundaries, with the label SEAS SPRAY AVENUE on the right. Measurements and annotations mark distances and structures within the plot.
Example site plan at 1:200 showing a building, pool, deck and garden features.
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Title block

A title block on an environmental drawing is quite an elaborate part of the presentation. As one can see from the image, it contains much information about the project. Students of VCD are not expected to go to those lengths. The example drawings on this page show appropriate title boxes for student work. They should include;

  • The title of the drawing
  • The project title
  • The student's name
  • The date drawn
  • The North point indicator
  • The scale used
  • The sheet size
  • Reference to units used in the dimensions

Dimensions for setting out a title block can be found here on the third-angle orthogonal drawing page.

task

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6.1 Title block
Choose one of your Plans or Elevations done on this page. Draw or re-draw digitally. Click on the link above to learn how to create a title block. Centre the drawing on the page and create a title block as would be required in a presentation drawing.
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