Building 101: How to Read Floor Plans
An architect and college professor sheds some light on an oft-intimidating, but all-too-important document
When building a house or buying a condo unit, a floor plan is one of the first drawings you are presented with. But what do the multiple lines, X's, arrows, and bubbles mean?
Richelle Baria, architect and professor at the College of Architecture at the University of the Philippines Diliman explains that a floor plan is like an apple sliced horizontally: the skin represents the walls and the fruit and core represent what's inside the structure. "It represents the sizes of the spaces and [their] relationship to each other," she says. "Floor plans are important because, as part of a structure's working drawings, it is an instrument for material takeoff and construction, means for granting a building permit, coordination within various trades like the suppliers, and it is a permanent record for future remodeling or expansion."
Photographed by Ocs Alvarez.
Read the original article in RL Notebook - September 2012 issue of Real Living Magazine. Download your digital copy of Real Living on the Real Living App (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/real-living/id553158056?mt=8) now! Log on to summitnewsstand.com.ph/real-living for more details. Â
