Get a deeper understanding of the various terminologies used in architectural drawings, such as floor plans, building elevations, sections, and details. Learn how these distinct elements of construction documents provide different perspectives and levels of detail of a building's design.
Key Insights
- A floor plan is a horizontal slice through a building, typically measured about 4 feet 6 inches above the finished floor or the ground plane of a building.
- Building elevations are vertical slices at the outside of the building, providing an external perspective, while building sections offer a vertical slice through the building for an internal view. Both are usually shown at the same scale as the floor plans.
- Wall sections and details offer a more zoomed-in view on specific areas of the construction, with details providing the most detailed information within the construction documents. These views represent the building geometry as 2D drawings.
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I would like to spend a few minutes explaining to you the difference between a floor plan, a building elevation, a building section, wall sections, and details. Typically, a floor plan is a slice that's happening through a building, and the slice is normally measured about 4 feet 6 inches above the finished floor or the ground plane of a building. So a floor plan is a horizontal slice through a building.
An elevation is a slice that is outside of the building that looks straight on at the different sides of a building. We have floor plans that are horizontal slices through the building, elevations that are vertical slices at the outside of the building. A building section is a vertical slice that happens through a building.
The floor plan, the building elevations, and the building sections are normally shown at the same scale throughout a set of drawings where the floor plans, the elevations, and the building sections are relaying information at the same level of detail. We also have something that is called a wall section. In a wall section, we are zooming in closer on some specific information so that we can show even more detail.
Last but not least, we have a detail itself. With a detail, we are really zooming in on information provided within the set of construction documents. We have a floor plan, which is a horizontal slice through the building.
We have elevations, which are slices outside of the building looking at the building. We have building sections, which are slices through the building. We have wall sections, which are enlarged areas within the drawing.
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And we have details, which are providing yet more information on the drawing. These are the typical kinds of information that we show throughout a set of construction documents. It is important to remember that these views are representations of our building geometry as 2D drawings.
These drawings may be referred to as views, drawings, plans, details, or even images. These words are interchangeable in most situations, but drawings will usually be the best word for describing these views.