And the cake reference
I was in the first semester of studying architecture when Gloria, my technical drawing teacher, entered the classroom and said: “Today we are drawing sections.”
Although this was not 100 years ago, sometimes it feels like it. Technology has changed so much. My class was one of the last to learn to draw with ink and paper, and I often stayed up all night redoing plans or designs for homework because I had fallen asleep on the table and spilled the ink all over the drawing. Or because I got a better idea in the middle of the way and had to start over. AutoCAD was already out, of course, but some old-school teachers thought that great designs start with pen and paper because the hand has a way of flowing. I am so grateful for that foundation. Even today, all of our projects start hand-drawn. On an iPad, but it still counts.
Anyways, back to the story. That day we were going to draw sections. Nowadays, you can build a model in 3D, and the computer will give you an idea of what a section will look like. A computer model still needs so much cleanup because it may print lines in different line weights or show things irrelevant to the topic you are exploring, making the drawing difficult to “read” or understand, but it is a great start. However, in college, I had to clean the model, make it more legible, and figure out how every view looked in the entire project. I can not emphasize enough the importance of having that level of understanding for an architect.
I for sure had seen sections before but had never drawn one. Or even began conceiving how to draw one. There were a few of us in the class with panicky eyes. The teacher said, “ok, we will start by drawing a basic floor plan.” Great! I thought - I knew how to do that!
We worked on our beautiful floor plan. Then Gloria continued, “I want you to draw a line in the middle of the room, pick a place. That line is going to go across the entire floor plan. That is going to be your section line indicated in a floor plan. At the end of the line, you will draw an arrow, indicating the side towards the section you will be looking at. And now, I want you to draw a section.”
The exercise was more clear, but still. We all were drawing what we thought it would be. Some of my classmates were getting somewhere close, and others were lost. Then, she introduced the cake reference. It is so obvious now that I think about it, but everything became clear once we thought about sections as slices of a cake being cut and viewed from different points.
“Imagine a cake, " she elaborated. It has different layers inside, covered with frosting and decorations on the outside. Looking at it from the sides, you would view the elevations. Once you cut it horizontally or vertically, it becomes a section”. Until then, I had never even thought about a floor plan as a “literal cut.” The cake reference was to me, and sometimes still is for complicated projects, the basis for understanding architectural, technical drawings.
Horizontal cuts are called floor plans. Vertical cuts are called sections. We usually need one horizontal section, or floor plan, for every story of the house or building, plus foundations and roof framing. Vertical sections are important to help us understand the space in question. We need a few, depending on each project's complexity. If we think about a building as if it was a cake, the parts that the “knife” actually cuts are usually represented by a darker line. Those are usually walls and main structures because those elements run from bottom to top and cover all edges. All other elements behind the cake that we see but are not cut by the “knife” will be represented by lighter lines.
Architectural drawings are sometimes intricate because they include notes, references, keynotes, etc. Understanding floor plans and sections is very important for anyone developing a construction project, especially the owner and client. The owner or client will approve the development, permit, and construction drawings. They need to have a great understanding of how the building is going to look before it is built.
Architects help the owner understand the drawings with many other visualizations, like 3d views and walk-throughs. We do our best to cover the most important areas. However, it is still important for the owner to ask questions and understand every aspect of the project before moving forward. Sometimes that may mean extra work not considered in your original design proposal. However, the monetary and psychological savings will be significant if the client invests in visualization during the design process versus having a shock because they imagined the space completely differently before it was built.
So, don’t be afraid to ask questions, request extra views, or finish and materials samples! When you are working with an architect, that is usually part of the services that they can provide for you!
At Unfolding Lines, we have different packages to cover more visualizations, interior design, and finish selections. We work with fixed fees and a defined scope. The fee changes only if the scope of the work changes. Call us to discuss your project and recommend the best direction.
On a different subject, this post left me thinking about the many similarities between cakes and architecture.
They both need a structure.
Many buildings, especially skyscrapers, look like a tiered wedding cake.
Decorations give both their personality.
And they both can be either delicious, too much, just right, or a big mix.
They both fulfill a physical need, but the masterpieces fulfill the soul!
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Gracias!
Citlalli
You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy cake, and that’s kind of the same thing!
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Special thanks to my editor, Ilya Godes!
Citlalli is an architect and a mom who enjoys finding the extraordinary around us and understanding what makes each person thrive.
She believes that art and sound design should be accessible, and her motivation is to help build a better world for the next generations thru design.
She has worked on residential and commercial projects for over 15 years. She decided to open her studio in Los Angeles, California, to make great design reachable to more people.
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