3.3 Hand drawn designs for part of a courtyard
It is time to put your new found hand drawing skills to the test. A design is required for portion of a courtyard similar to that shown below. The emphasis in this project is not on the design and plant selection, that comes later, but on producing part of a simple plan and making sure that it is drawn to scale.
This project
Involves producing a simple hand drawn plan at a scale of 1:5 on an A4 sheet (in portrait orientation) for part of a courtyard as shown in the figure below. We will also make two elevation and a section view of this part of the courtyard.
You can use whatever drawing techniques you are most comfortable with - pencil, drafting pens etc. The most important point to consider is that this must be an accurate scale drawing of the garden. Start by making sure that the lines indicating the boundaries (walls) of the courtyard are drawn to scale.
Hint: a wall 5000 mm (5 meters) long will be drawn 100 mm long when the scale is 1:5.
The figure below show one student's attempt at the plan view of this project. Although we could argue about the graphic impact of the design, enough information has been provided such that any competent landscape construction team could build this part of the courtyard to the design.
North elevation view
As an extension of this exercise, we would like you to draw two elevation views. These (elevations) are views of what you might see if you were standing outside the courtyard and (say) looking from the north or west.
Remember, in this design, the courtyard wall will hide most of the planting in these views.
The figure below shows a north elevation. The dotted lines are projection lines - used to accurately set up the elevation view. They will be removed at a later stage of drawing. the hatching on the courtyard wall is meant to indicate a rendered finish and we have included a line to represent the horizon.
Even though you would include a statement that the scale is (in this particular case) 1: 5, it is a good idea to include a human figure to give the viewer a sense of scale.
West elevation view
See if you can create a third drawing showing the view looking from the west to the east.
Section view
Unlike the elevation views, sections are views generated by taking a 'cut' through the design. Produce a fourth drawing showing a section information view (say through A-A1 in the first figure above). Your section would be similar, but not identical to that shown in the figure below.
Scan your drawings an send them to us as attachments to an email note to info@gardencad.net.
Second project (under development - likely to be moved to another point in the course)
You are asked to survey a small site using running dimensions and triangulation making note of site details such as the position of trees, buildings, simple level changes, and services etc. Evaluate the data collected on site and produce a scale drawing at 1:50 to accurately portray the site’s characteristics. Write a simple client brief and produce a sketch proposal based on that brief. The proposal will be drawn using pencil and then draughting pens, on architectural blanks using the title blocks to display appropriate information. Students will need to demonstrate an understanding of special concepts and design philosophy and demonstrate a reasonable knowledge of landscape graphical symbols.