INTRODUCTION
In the previous module, we studied plan drawing and its recording of a
building through its spatial orders, geometries, and various sequences.
This information on a building is abstract in essence, as a graphic
flattening of a horizontal condition, and does not reflect our human
sensory experience of the building.
This module, as we rotate our picture plane 90 degrees, we will study and
record buildings on a vertical plane of projection—through elevation and
section drawings, which closer reflects our typical experience of a
building.
Module Learning Objectives
Explore correspondence between plan and section and elevation
drawings.
Identify how to construct section and elevation drawings from plans.
Readings
Francis Ching, Design Drawing, Chapter 6: Pictorial Systems, 135–161
Architectural Graphics, Franics Ching – Sections and Elevations (PDF,
4207.6 kb)
Module Coursework
Read and view all module content and media in the pages that follow.
Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other Activities, and
Quizzes and Exams areas included in this module.
Strategies for Success
It is recommended that before reading this module, you will
complete the assigned reading for this module.
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Student-drawn conceptual section drawings
(UCSLO)
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Student-drawn conceptual section drawings
(UCSLO)
SECTIONS
Photo and cross-section drawing of a pepper
As a conceptual “slice” through a building, the section reveals the interior
condition, and potentially the relationship of the various spaces within a
structure. In this way, it is similar to a plan drawing—the section providing
a snapshot that orients one at a particular moment in the building in
relation to its adjacent spaces (in this case, spaces both next to as well as
above and below you) that are not normally visible or apparent.
Distinct from a plan, however, the section is visually and conceptually
“occupiable”; we can and often do include a human figure within a section
drawing and one is able to directly witness how the building and space(s)
respond to and accommodate (or not) the body—what is within view, sight,
touch, and reach.
The poche of the cut, similar to poche in plan, reveals the profile and form
of the interior spaces, their degree of separation (or connection) to each
other, and also to the exterior.
The drawing of the space itself behind the section cut, though, reveals the
interior elevation—their scale and proportion, their surfaces, materiality,
and details—qualities which mirror what we would actually see and
experience of the spaces. One is able to communicate, for instance, the
quality of light in a space and the solidity and texture of an enclosing wall,
as in the following drawing of the Pantheon (introduced in the previous
module):
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Here the poche of the structure is lightly colored, while the interior of the
building is rendered to reflect the depth of the coffered ceiling modules
making up the round dome and the elements and depth as well of the
niches and sanctums on the ground level.
The following project is a home by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto that is
a rigorous investigation of the possibilities of section driving a design:
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Third floor and roof plan of home Description:
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Exterior of home Description:
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SITE SECTIONS
Section drawings can show us how a building responds to its site. At a
smaller scale, the drawing has sufficient space to allow for the section cut
to extend to slice the ground beyond the building, and traverse one or both
sides of the surrounding context of the building. The drawing is able to
depict adjacent buildings, structures, or landscape elements, as well as
nearby changes in topography.
By showing the condition of the building section alongside this site
information, the drawing reveals the relationship of the various design
elements and spaces of the building to its adjacent context. Elements of
the design and spaces can continue or extend existing site conditions
(such as building heights, or open spaces), inflate or exacerbate particular
site conditions (such as ground slopes or building density), or even
conflict or contradict existing conditions.
The following building examples reflect different responses to their
individual sites, revealed in their section drawing.
Rokko Housing Development, Kobe, Japan by Tadao Ando,
1983–99
The Therme Vals, Switzerland, by Peter Zumthor, 1996
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This housing complex anchors itself into the steep hillside, and mimics the slope to
terrace housing units such that each can have view.
Description:
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Section drawing of Rokko Housing development, by Tadao Ando, 1983 Description:
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Section Drawings of Therme Vals Bath, by
Peter Zumthor, 1996
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The building becomes an extension of the
groundscape for the hotel above. The building
slowly emerges from under the ground.
In this example, the building becomes an extension of the groundscape for
the hotel above. The building slowly emerges from under the ground. The
way in which light is introduced into the interior spaces reflects this
underground condition, where tiny slots of light between the heavy ceiling
panels shine intense strips of light onto the richly textured stone walls.
CaixaForum Arts Center, Madrid, Spain by Herzog and de
Meuron, 2008
The last project, set within a historic city fabric, responds very differently
to its site compared to the previous two examples. The Caixa Forum Arts
Center, designed by Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron in the city of Madrid,
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Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor, 1996 Description:
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One of the semi-underground spaces of the bathhouse, with slits of light entering
from above. Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor, 1996
Description:
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Spain, and completed in 2008, converts and adds to a former power
station structure to house art galleries, administrative offices, an
auditorium, and a restaurant.
As opposed to following or extending the existing surroundings’
conditions, the architects chose to lift the existing building, and create a
“chasm” between the ground and the building—a demonstrably different
relationship between building and site than the surrounding buildings. This
detachment from the ground allows not just a memorable entry to the
building, but also a sizable covered public “plaza.”
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CaixaForum Arts Center, Madrid, Spain by Herzog and de Meuron, 2008 Description:
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Section drawing of CaixaForum Arts Center, Madrid, Spain by Herzog and de Meuron,
2008
Description:
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DETAIL SECTIONS
Section drawings can also deftly illustrate the construction systems and
components that make up the building. At a larger scale, the poche—the
armature of the building— can be examined beyond simply its role to
define spaces and their separations. It is also literally an intentional
assemblage of materials that uniquely define and characterize the design
and building. As described in Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, and David J.
Lewis’ book, Manual of Section:
“The section illuminates the interplay between a building’s structure
and the space framed between foundation and roof. Gravitational
loads of structure trace vertically down through a building, with
window loads registering lateral loads against the side of a building’s
section. The material investment and spatial invention necessary to
creatively resist these loads is best explored and depicted through
the architectural section.”
Section drawings are often included in construction drawings to explain
how different materials and components are intended to come together. In
the following example, the section drawing is an essential component of
the building’s design.
MIT Chapel, Cambridge, MA by Eero Saarinen, 1955
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Inside a seemingly simple cylindrical volume, Saarinen crafts an exquisite
undulating experience of light.
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Within the double-layer wall that creates the cylindrical shape, a slot of
space between the wood wainscoting and the brick wall allows light to
reflect off the water of the moat outside into the sanctuary.
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This very unique feature can be seen planned into the section drawings of
the building:
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Entrance view of shelter for Roman ruins, Peter
Zumthor
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Section drawing for shelter for Roman ruins,
Peter Zumthor
Shelter for Roman Ruins, Graubunden, Switzerland, Peter
Zumthor, 1986
In this example, Zumthor’s detail section drawing of the entry to this
humble museum is exquisitely rendered to capture the lightness and
materiality of its floating stair.
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Detail axonometric drawing of wall section of MIT Chapel, by Eero Saarinen
Description:
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Section Drawing of MIT Chapel by Eero Saarinen
Description:
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ELEVATION, PART 1
Building elevations are essentially sections taken at a position outside of a
building, with the picture plane set parallel to one side of a building’s
exterior vertical surfaces. Principal elevations can be understood as the
face of a building, or ‘”façade.” As the very first visual and physical plane
typically viewed and engaged by a building user or occupant, the façade
often plays a dominant role in one’s experience, memory, and
understanding of a building. Whereas a building’s plan is digested bit by
bit, by walking through and mentally sequencing and mapping interior
spaces, the elevation immediately confronts and divulges itself, in direct
relation and scale to one’s own body and senses—visually and physically.
The “face” of a building and its expression of “frontality” has preoccupied
architects and their designs for centuries, even at the expense of what lay
behind, within the building. Below is the façade of Palazzo Rucellai,
designed by Leon Battista Alberti and built in the early period of the
Renaissance in the mid- 1400s. In this and a series of other palazzi
façades, Alberti reinterpreted and transformed the language of classical
architecture utilized in ecclesiastic structures of that time to heighten the
prominence and significance of these homes. In the Palazzo Rucellai, the
composed symmetry and vertical order of the façade belies the hodge-
podge of accrued agglomeration of structures that lie behind that make up
the villa, revealed in its side elevation and irregular plan.
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ELEVATION, PART 2
Form Follows Function
In the early twentieth century, as structural innovation and technological
progress were transforming how buildings were constructed and designed,
this formal frontality was also questioned. Rather than buildings exhibited
as emblems of status and power, architects chose to expose and celebrate
the everyday condition of living. Buildings sought more transparency
between interior and exterior, and the principle “form follows function”
grew to dominate the architectural conversation. Exteriors became more
directly reflective of interior layouts and volumes. This philosophy took
many forms, as architects worked to form new architectural vocabularies
and language reflective of this new era.
Mies van der Rohe, a German architect and Bauhaus school director who
emigrated to America in 1937, engendered, within his ideology of pure
expression of structure and of universal space, a dissolution of the façade.
His designs pushed the technical boundaries of his time for the greatest
literal transparency a building could possess.
Two other examples that clearly articulate the “form follows function”
principles:
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Main atrium of Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1952
Description :
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Farnsworth House, Mies van der Rohe, 1951
Description :
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Villa Mairea, Noormaku, Finland, by Alvar Aalto, 1939 Description :
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Wall House, Ridgefield, CT, John Hejduk, 1973-2001 Description :
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ELEVATION, PART 3
Surface and Skin
In contemporary architecture, one might argue that there has been a shift
back—where building elevations have become more about its surface
quality and tectonic rather than a reflection or deliberation of its function
or interior arrangement. The work of Herzog and de Meuron exemplifies
this approach. Below we show their following project, Ciudad de Flamenco,
designed in 2005 in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain:
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Elevation
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They write: “The surfaces of the Ciudad del Flamenco consist of poured,
perforated and artificially processed concrete; they follow the lines,
shapes and patterns of Gypsy tradition and Arabic ornamentation. Both
traditions are extremely contemporary; to be more precise, they are
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centuries-old and ceaselessly new source of inspiration for contemporary
art and daily culture. We encounter them in punk and rock music, in
tattoos, in symbols and emblems, in patterns and in many other places.
This kind of ornamentation informs the concrete at the Ciudad del
Flamenco.”
In contemporary architecture, even without the vocabulary of classical
elements, the significance of the building’s façade, with its contribution to
the urban fabric, and its introduction to the building, persists.
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Museum of Folk Art, New York, NY by Todd Williams and Billie Tsien
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CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PLANS, SECTIONS, AND ELEVATIONS
Constructing Sections and Elevations
As part of your project work, you are asked to not simply trace, but actually
construct sections and elevations from the plans you have found of your
case study. Just as in drawing your objects for your first project, the three
types of drawings—plans, sections, and elevations—should work in tandem
to fully describe the three-dimensionality of the building. Dimensions
(length, width, height) of both spaces and architectural elements should be
consistent between drawings.
Please review the following video for demonstration on constructing
sections and elevations from plans:
Correspondence: Plan, Section and Elevation Drawing, Part 2
0:00 / 3:30 1x
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CONCLUSION
In this module, we reviewed how to craft a thoughtful, professional, and
effective presentation layout. We also introduced drawing work by several
seminal architects to demonstrate the significance of drawing as a tool to
both develop and communicate design intention and concept.
Readings
Francis Ching, Design Drawing, Chapter 6: Pictorial Systems, 135–161
Architectural Graphics, Franics Ching – Sections and Elevations (PDF,
4207.6 kb)
Module Coursework
Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other Activities, and
Quizzes and Exams areas included in this module.
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Online Help Desk: 888-431-ARTS (2787) or 415-618-3545 [email protected]
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