Landscape Design 1.2 Drawing Sections and Elevations What is a Section drawing?

A cross section of the plan Helpful for construction details and level changes

What is an Elevation drawing? It is a side view of the site plan as seen from in front of the site There is no perspective. Elevations show more depth & detail than sections but may not be as accurate for construction Generally should be to exact scale

What is a Section-Elevation drawing? It is a cross section with some additional elements beyond or in front of the base line

Section

Drawing adapted from Reid (1987) Page 1171

Elevation

Section/Elevation

Adapted from Wang (1996), Page 95

Why do we draw Sections & Elevations? To emphasise the vertical elements in the plan To visually describe the design, level changes etc To show the spatial relationships between different landscape elements Can give a quick view of the design to the client which they can relate to better then a plan To show the form of the elements in the design You may want to show the way particular level changes will impact on the site, so in this case you will draw section You may want to show the Faade of the building and glass foyer with the landscape in front. In this case you will draw a section elevation

Step by Step How to draw a Section / Elevation 1. Place trace paper on plan 2. Stick the trace paper down with masking tape 3. Draw a line through the site at the point which will best show how your design works or which will describe it easily to the client. 4. Mark this line at each end with an A. If you do more than one section / elevation, you will name the second one B at each end and so on 5. This line will act as the natural ground level & should be bold 6. Place dots along this line at the point where each element crosses the line. 7. Now using your scale ruler, draw vertical lines to the height of each element. If some elements such as ponds are lower than the ground plane, they will go below the ground plane line 8. Using you scale ruler, now join up the vertical lines with the horizontal line to scale 9. Draw in your plants, and any other structures etc 10. When you have drawn all of the elements along this line, you can start to add some foreground or background elements (depending on what you have drawn and want to show). This will enable your client to understand the way the landscape will appear as if standing in front of it. 11. Make sure that all of the shapes actually look as they should e.g. Trees (shape and height), tables and chairs to scale and people in the landscape help it to make it believable
References www.sustland.umn.edu/design/drawings.html#elevation Reid,P,1987, Landscape Graphics, Watson Guptill, New York