Architectural Plans Explained 

I don’t have anything to add, just a comment to help out with the algorithm so more young architects would see these videos!

I really love how you put snippets of The Sims 4 (judging by what objects used). I played The Sims series since I was little and most of the time I spent playing them is building things...ofen trying out designs of my dream house. This is just my two cents but the benefits of The Sims building mode is that you get to live it. Akin to what your mother did with houseplans, but in a more tangible way, I'd say. Using the sims character as an extension of your own self. Really love your video, mate!

I became interested in architecture as a kid because I lived in a Greek Revival brick house, built in 1831. The walls on the first story were about 12 inches thick, but they stepped back to about 8 inches on the second floor, so the second-floor rooms were slightly bigger than the corresponding first-story rooms. This gave me my first insight into structure, the support of floor joists, etc. I also became fascinated by the plan books you mention, although in my case they were plan books of the 1960s and early 70s. I think I figured out how to read floor plans when I was about 8 years old. I know I was drawing floor plans by age 9 -- usually plans for the totally over-the-top mansion from my favorite "Gothic" soap opera, "Dark Shadows", with all its hidden rooms and secret passages. Another favorite drawing activity was trying to match the interior sets of TV sit-com houses to the exteriors shown on the shows. I came up with some "creative" solutions, since the set designers rarely made any attempt to match the exterior and interior. I can tell I'm a lot older than you. When you were playing Super Mario Brothers, I was in grad school!

Its good to go back to basics.

This explanation of how architecture plans are achieved and how we get all the relevant information is key for learning how to develop an architecture project as a starter. We use to think that plans are more relevant than sections, but in reality a plan is a section itself. Your channel is fresh air for all of the architecture beginners, keep it up. Thanks for your content.

House plan books were my comic books growing up. Still have a few pages of home plans that I liked but not sure how they have aged.

as a young architect. this is beautifully explained....

I just want to say, I've been a draftsman/BIM manager for 12 years, and your videos have convinced me to obtain architectural accreditation. Thank you!

This is fascinating! Can you do another video about how 3D modelling is changing how the next generation of architects think spatially?

These videos are so charming and informative! Definitely one of the best resources I've ever found for my hobby of designing imaginary buildings.

When I was a kid I bought loads of those house plan books, I loved imagining living in those beautiful houses, I even used to draw my own plans on the back of a roll of old wallpaper. I was quite good at mechanical drawing too but life and a few bad experiences had a different path for me. I hope to build my own house back in Ireland one day.

As an architecture student, I appreciate your inspirational and educational videos. They explain various aspects of architecture in a simple language.

This video is an excellent way to communicate to clients what they can expect from plans. Thanks!

Fun, fun...(and informative) video. Every budding architecture student, product rep and building code person should be made to watch Stewart's video! I too was smitten at an early age by building plans in those magazines and it led to my being able to understand, by age 9, plans for more complex commercial buildings that my family was involved with. I can't recall precisely when I first realized I was now fluent in these pages of lines and figures, but it definitely was rooted in the dreamy like aspect of gazing at magazines of house plans.

Fantastic video! I loved the whole digression about perspective and dolly zooms and the shadow tracing :)

Me at 1 am watching a beautiful man explaining architecture: Interesting.

Hey Stewart, I really enjoy your videos and the balance of approachability and substance you seem to dial in very well. Your essays are very well put together and for me it's consistently a pleasure to watch, even if I'm quite familiar with the subject. I think a good chunk of us would love to get more from you in maybe some less scripted, more off the cuff format so I'd enjoin you to maybe look into creating a Clubhouse club and get some activity going there - I'd love to eavesdrop and maybe some of us here have something interesting to contribute also. Thanks and keep making great stuff, it's highly recommendable.

thanks so much for the content! really hard to find architecture insight in the clear & concise manner in which you structure your videos.

I do the same things like your mom when I was younger. Looking at plans for hours, visualizing all the spaces, like how lights would hit every nooks and corner, visualizing how the people would interact inside etc.

Your videos lately have been home-run after home-run. Really great content

Finally an architecture channel that informs instead of impress

This kind of content is so diverse for RU-vid too. I am no architect anx have zero interest in actually building a house, but I AM a horror author. How can one write a book about a haunted house without first knowing the layout of the house? Architecture and architectural plans can permeate into a staggering number of interests and fields, and you have done a wonderful job talking about them, you truly deserve more subscribers!

This video is everything. It explains to me so many things about what I like in life, and brings them all together, when I hadn't even realised. Even down to 'poche' - I've always been fascinated with this, and had no clue it even had a name...Always thinking of secret rooms and hallways, within. I always used to 'read' those plan books, I'd look at them for hours, and used to love drawing orthographic everything, with the side view, front, and top down. Also, that brick building, the largest? there's a lot of old brick warehouses that must be close...will have to investigate this one! :) Great stuff, very informative yet not overly so as to lose the viewer, imho anyway. love it.

Yes your a great teacher and I'm now hooked on your channel soo much great content...love it

Wow. You're the real deal. At first, the algorithm sent me one of your videos and I didn't know you were a professor. Three videos later I see that you are trained in the art of making anything interesting. I'm glad you make these videos because people like me wouldn't have access to your content.

Best video of architectural explained I've seen! Well done!

Was interesting seeing you go so in depth with explaining orthographic perspective... When I was first introduced to it for 3D modelling it pretty much just went: "Orthographics are drawings without perspective, so you can draw objects from different angles and have them line up." "Yeah cool, makes sense."

I am so happy I came across your video series!

Sims games were my way into architecture. Building the house plans and drawing out the plans before I’d build in game. Took drafting in school then went to a tech school for it as well. Loved it.

I just started my architectural Journey and this video helped me alot ! Thank you 🙏🏻

Not only is Mr Hicks informative he is also very attractive which makes watching his Video post sooo satisfying .

Those House Plans books!! I have one called "Home Designs-450 House Plans" which is from the 1970s that I looked at. My parents had it for inspiration for the house they built 30 yrs ago; but I was fascinated by it and drew plans and houses constantly. And also played the old Mario Bros lol. They gave me the book recently after finding it, I should do a vid on it just because all the awesome modern designs that nobody would build these days. Thanks for the inspiration!

I’m not sure how old I was when I first saw a set of architectural plans but I understood them right away. I knew at that point that I wanted to design houses and buildings for a living.

I became aware and interested of architecture the same way. My parents got a pile of books of house designs when I was 5-6 years old. I have always been very talented in dreaming so it came naturally for me to start imagining the life inside. Also I think it was a escapist way to start designing something that is completely outside your world. ever since to become an architect was my dream. I didn't become an architect. I love great architecture. In many cases it is not grand

Funny how your vid sprung at the exact time when I was searching for plans of the Farnsworth house after getting inspired from your open plans video for my first portfolio review

Hello Stewart, great enjoyable and smart lessons! This is what students of today need! Nice to see some Dutch vibes:) Greetings from Rotterdam. Be welcome to shoot some images for future lessons here, I will be happy to show you around for some "funky liminal spaces" :) Greetings from an oversee colleague, Harm Scholtens (TU Delft)

1:10 "apparently I was more into sections".... I like how you slipped that in there, very nice!

Good video Stewart! You said, "The things that tend to go unnoticed are precisely the things we should pay the most attention to." Certainly this is true in the houses most of us live in - tract homes. I was just trying to look up what percentage of tract homes adhere to the geometric proportions and the golden ratio that you have spoken of. How often do most of us actually experience proper design?

Thank you for the informative video. Keep up the good work :D

Hi Champ I'm an architect with a large builder really enjoyed your breakdowns. Thankyou

In my Algebra Course in Middle school we had a project to recreate our home in a floor plan drawing and then we were to create our dream home plan, first on graphing paper, then on Vellum paper and then in a small 3d model.

Blown away at the beauty of Stewart. Crazy handsome man ❤️

Thanks for this, really interesting information.

Thank you for another wonderful video!

I used to draw pictures of houses featuring floor plans when I was 5 years old. Good times. I wish some of my floor plans were saved.

This was educational and very interesting to watch ..

Nice Work! Congratulations!

This is impressive to deal with a client but usually architects have no idea about real world, cost of material, technical specifications/ restrictions and future maintenance.

What a great video!!!

Awesome video. Thank you

i've been exposed to floor plans at a very young age. i used to watch my dad, who is an architect, manually draft the plans. and i had been browsing those house magazines and a few copies of architectural digest

Your videos are amazing!

Gran video, gracias!

Amazing video!

Thanks for the awesome vid.

Stewart, I'm like your mom; I, too, like to look at home plans! My mother loved to go to new subdivisions and walk through the models. I called her "the Gene Siskel of the home-building world" (you're in Chicago, so you get that reference), because she'd voice a running critique as she toured the homes: "I'd switch these rooms...That's a terrible location for the stove...I love this laundry room..., " etc. A similar critique runs through my head when I look at floor plans! One current trend that has me baffled: In the master bedroom, you have to walk through the en suite bathroom to get to the closet. I see that in a LOT of newer home plans. What's up with that??

Love your videos. Been learning alot. Can you please do a video explaining how physical modeling can be a better design tool than 3d modeling. Thanks.

"... aparently, I was more into sections that I was into plans." loveeed it!

Thanks for this video helped a lot! would like to see how to create the concept and the diagram of spaces

The only place I could be inspired without feeling bad about myself

As a child I became fascinated by the home plan books of the 1950s, 60s, & 70s, as well as the floor plans of the houses sold by Sears over a century ago now. I’m still fascinated by them but now I pin them to a board in Pinterest instead of taking up valuable bookshelf space with them. One thing hasn’t changed, imagining what alterations I would make.

Amazing and helpful

Great video Stewart! If I may ask where do you get your 3d models from, table, chairs, etc, When using rhino ?

RU-vid knows that I want to be an architect when I'm older, I have multiple books and sketch books for architecture, this helps me alot for my hopefully future career.

Another inspiring video. Can you recommend an inexpensive floor plan software for non architects/ contractors?

I like the comparison between 2D plans and the painting. What is really interesting is, in my opinion, that the most comprehensible painting is the one where the shadow is “false” the composition is way better. As an architect, I feel like atelier bow how is far ahead from anything other architects are doing for plans and sections. These are meant for communication and in that way, it is a form of art in it’s own

Nice content. Thanks

Great video.

In practice we use plans based on movement, Axial Analysis. I have grown up in house built by german prisoners after the war. They used Golden Section at every partitions of rooms and corridors.

The "riss" in Grundriss translate more to 'mark' than 'rip'/'cut'. When you mark a piece of metal for precise machining it is calles a 'Riss'. 'Grund' itself is a big word, translating to ground, soil, reason, foundation, bottom. Basically something that lies beneath things and supports something above it. So a full translation would be more like 'base mark' or 'ground mark'

my favorite plan view is the reflected ceiling plan it imagines a view from the ground of the ceiling but to fit with all the other plans it is reflected once in each direction so that you can lay it out from the floor

When me and my boyfriend were looking at apartments, I always wanted to see the floorplans, id go and make the ones I liked into the sims to see how furniture might fit and look, but all he cared about was the pictures of the apartment. He always said he could tell more about a place based on the photos than a floorplan because he can't see them like that. But I can tell how id feel about living in a place unless I could see it top down. I thought it was weird since he's very analytical and can use his judgment very well. But it didn't make sense since the photos are going to be of the showroom anyways.

I’m 40 and now I wanna be an architect after watching you teach lol great job

I really appreciated your explanations. For beginners, you can try with the archiplain software.

So, the plan at 11:23, is there a good reason for the abstract angles, or is that a result of someone simply trying to be different but not making the best use of space. I see at least 2 area that appear empty, and a few others with sharp corners that would also be unusable. Also, what's the software used at 8:48. It doesn't appear to be Revit, and definitely not AutoCAD

Love the videos! And Super Mario brothers!

where can I buy those books you mentioned in the beginning? I'm obsessed with flour plans in a similar way you described your mother was 🥰

There are different floor plans (horizontal sections). The presentation plan along with models, renderings, virtual walk throughs, to sell the client on the project to show the banks. If there's no visualization to latch onto its difficult to get the project off the ground. The plan as a legal document where every line means money. The Wonder Bread method of slicing the building into site, foundation, floor, HVAC, electrical, structural plans and so on. Remember seeing a 1900s floor plan along with elevations drafted with ink on silk. Plus, no dimension lines. The craftsman contracter was expected to know them by adding up the masonry stones for example. Sort of the CMU block modular dimension of 1'-4" or 16", length. So, if a block is nominally 8"x8"x16" then three block lengths equal 4'-0" and 4'-0" matches the width of a 4'-0" x 8'-0" plywood sheet to match studs placed at 16" (or 24") spacing on a 2'-0"x 2'-0" grid. Japanese mats play a similiar role in buildings. The trick is after the various floors plans are sliced apart to put them back together in a coherent whole without the rafters sitting on air two feet above the top of the masonry wall. Learned architects along with engineers have no 3-D imagination. Really Except Antonio Gaudi ... genuflect :) P.s. Plug for Edwin Abbott's book "Flatland" as an aid for visualizing scanning thru a building. A point is a line with no dimension, a line is a moving point, an area is a line moving sideways, a volume is an area moving sideways, a moving volume is a hyperspace entity and on and on ... or, a circle or ellipse is the shadow of a sphere. Nice explanation Stewart of a floor plan without thinking in perspective. Ominous Perhaps an explanation of Baroque architecture and descriptive geometry?

Very nice examples and animations! Being Dutch, I wonder what ‘Dutch Vibe’ refers to (11:35)?

Great video!!...I bet it will be very intriguing to explore ancient housing architectures from differents cultures in future videos😉!! If I'm allow to be picky @ 2:32 those images aren't from Egypt, but from Mesopotamia🙏😅

great video

Is there some advantage to thinking of it as a 4-foot cut as seen from Infinity versus an outline at floor level with projections of the elements above? I suppose the 4-foot cut would leave out, for instance, small high windows. Is there a benefit to that?

Much like hashi (chopsticks), I never 'learned' to use/read architectural plans, I just somehow knew. Seeing them can cause me to be late for whatever I was doing because I tend to fall right into them as if I was walking through the already built building. I can visualize the space, the light and almost to some degree the ambiance that might be there even though I have no clue where the location is or the direction the building mainly faces. What books are to most people for entertainment, architectural plans are for me.

Hi there, I'm really interested in relationships of music and architecture, and lately I have been thinking of using music as a kind of ephemeral enviorenment. I see some sort of link between score and plan, music and real construction. This aside, if I wanted to have fun on the side by very amateurishly drawing plans, but not playing "The Sims" what software should I use?

Having spent my life in "plans" this is a nice summary of the thought of plan making. To me I can look at a plan with a few annotations and I don't need much else to imagine the building. I forget sometimes that to others this is not enough information. I have moved to 3d draiwing but the plan is much better to work out the information that the builder will need. The builder starts with a plane, the ground, and once the plan is described, the builder can complete a house of the style or type of construction that is to be used, and to which he or she is accustomed. A 3d picture is fine for the impression but not so good for the facts about a building.

So Beautiful 💗

Great. How do you make these animated arrows and text?

Like your mother I enjoy looking at floor plans and mentally moving in, seeing if I'd like living in the space day to day. And for judging awkward layouts like the one house that had a single toilet with the only access being through the kitchen & even then the kitchen cabinets and bench were "cut" in half to allow space for the door. 3d models definitely have their purpose when deciding between different furniture layouts but they limit the imagination.

Well done

I have a question I need answered , I am a Draftsmen for a company I just started, I am assigned to design an additional extension to a building off an existing plan , specifically doing the insulated metal panels. I know I have to do details of the metal panels but my question is, on the existing architectural plan , the new additional extension isn't drawn on the floor plan, so do I have to draw that additional in my submittal? Please respond soon . Ty

Please tell me that the 12:10 focus shift was intentionally done as part of what you were saying because if it wasn't, it sure felt as if it was even if the camera was having a difficult time tracking focus automatically.

Which textbook do you recommend for reading architectural plans?

Thank you

My understanding is that the working drawings are a contract (thus a "contractor"), telling the builder all the dimensions, materials, their relationship, etc.

What software or application do you use to produce the 3d plans in this video??

With the submission of architectural plans to a review body, I’m wondering if you could explain where the public’s right to criticize a proposed project originated? “Zoning submittal set”versus “construction documents”. A planning and zoning submittal set is for the planning department to approve your project before a design review board. It may be interesting to Analyze zoning submittal plans and their use in reviewing a proposed project, criticism by neighbors and review boards.

never thought that all that information can come out of orthographic . i always called it plan view flat as can be for easy reading

The lines on the paper make more sense than some of the decisions made.

Borromini brought all the university nostalgia to the moment :)

I have a few Lowe's floor plan book I bought in the early 2010's. Some of them are pretty nice. Some are kind of weird.