construction1

Information Architecture; Literally!

 

How to figure out construction plans through building shapes.

 

When I look up at timber work in a roof I become overwhelmed. I try to figure out all the directions/connections, but I always fail. After some frustration, I finally came across a way to understand why all those timbers and planks crossed the way they do. For timber framed houses the method goes as follows:

 

I used two symbols; a filled circle and an unfilled circle to represent intersections (e.g. a rafter and purlin, beam and rafter, etc). A filled circle touches the ground (i.e. a post), an unfilled circle distributes load to a post (to the ground); therefore a filled circle generally provides more structural support than an unfilled circle. Although not shown here, a concrete wall would be a chain of filled circles.

 

The general goal is to provide a grid like appearance to the drawing, therefore empty spaces are filled with circles to provide structural support. To obtain the plans for:

 

1a. Start by drawing the contours and ridges of the roof. Next use filled circles to fill in the spots where the posts connect to the roof (usually the corners)

 

1b. Place hollow circles at regular intervals along all lines the lines.

 

1c. Connect the circles using 1 of 4 directions: straight up, straight down, left, right

 

2. Place filled circles at the corners of the walls. Add unfilled circles where you need clearance underneath (windows, doors, arches) and filled circles elsewhere.

 

This posting lacks specifics on spacings for right now, e.g. “use a 1/8th depth/length ratio for flooring boards”.

 

 

Done