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Architectural Drawing: Home

Introduction of work type in the Collection

Introduction

Architectural drawing is a type of drawing, more specifically, created throughout the design process of a building, built or unbuilt. 

This guide aims to introduce the types of architectural drawings you can find in the M+ Collection Archives.

Description of drawings

Within our collection, different vocabularies will be used to describe the drawings based on:

The completeness of the creative process
  • Sketch: preliminary idea put down by the architect
  • Rendering: a more solid visualization of the project in its form of completion
  • Floor / Layout / Site plan: layout of each floor, sometimes with technical details, e.g., drainage, electricity

CA2/11/3CA8/3/1

From left: sketch (CA2/11/3), rendering (CA8/3/1), floor plan (CA10/2/8)

The angle of perception
  • Elevation: a two-dimensional representation of one side of a building or space. It can depict one of the building’s facades or an interior surface from a straight-on viewpoint (Museum of Modern Art)
  • Section: a graphic depicting the profile where a surface (usually a plane) intersects the ground and the underlying structures along the plane (Archives Terminology, SAA)
  • Perspective: a representation of three-dimensional objects or spaces in two dimensional artworks (Tate)
  • Axonometric: a geometric drawing of an object, such as a building, in three dimensions showing the verticals and horizontals projected to scale but with diagonals and curves distorted, so that the whole appears inclined (Collins English Dictionary, HarperCollins Publishers)

From left: elevation (CA16/7/39), section (CA38/6/4/1), perspective rendering (CA16/4/27), axonometric drawing (CA39/4/6/2/5)

Information on drawings

In detailed drawings produced at the later stage of the project, you may see different numbers written by the previous creators, including:

  • Project no. assigned by the architectural firm
  • Drawing no. assigned to each drawing individually, sometimes when there is an amendment, Roman numeral or alphabet is added at the end
  • Date
  • Amendment(s)

Highlight: architectural archives

Here are some fonds in the Collection Archives that include an abundance of architectural drawings:

M+ Reference Library