Reading concept drawings: follow one feature across the pages

Check the set before reading the rooms

Look for the drawing title, date, revision and option name. If you have several PDFs, ask which one is current. A screenshot from an earlier email might show a doorway that has since moved, even though both versions look equally polished.

Ask the designer to explain the legend and any unfamiliar symbols. Dashed lines, shaded areas and arrows need context. I would rather have a short explanation of the notation being used than guess what a line means and build a whole opinion around it.

• Which design option are we looking at?
• Are these pages all from the same issue?
• Where is the key to the symbols?

Give each drawing a different question

A floor plan helps you understand the arrangement of rooms and openings. An exterior elevation shows a face of the building. A section cuts through it, helping explain the relationship between floors, ceilings, roof and ground. The site plan places the proposal within the property.

MBIE's drawing checklist describes these different roles for building consent documents. Concept drawings can be less developed, so use those distinctions to understand the views rather than expect a concept set to contain every construction detail.

• Plan: where is it in the layout?
• Elevation: what does that face of the building look like?
• Section: how do the heights and levels relate?

Follow the front door

Find the entrance on the floor plan and mark it lightly. Look for a label or reference that helps you find the corresponding exterior elevation. Ask the designer which way you are looking: the elevation is a view towards the building, so its left and right may not match your first reading of the plan.

Next, find a section marker on the plan. Ask where the cut passes and which direction its arrows face. If it does not cross the entrance, it cannot answer every question about the entrance. Request a sketch through that location if you need one.

In a hypothetical sloping-site concept, the door might be easy to locate in plan while the change between the path and internal floor only becomes understandable in section. Write down the relationship you cannot yet explain instead of assuming the two surfaces meet.

• Can you locate the same feature in another view?
• Does the section actually pass through the place you are discussing?
• Which missing view would answer your question?

Separate the design from its presentation

A coloured surface or a furnished image can help you imagine a proposal. I would still ask whether the material, furniture or planting is selected, indicative or simply included to explain the idea. Likewise, ask for an important dimension to be labelled rather than estimating it from a resized screen image.

Orui Home's project page includes site, plan and building-form sketches. It offers a useful example of different views explaining different aspects of one proposal. For your own project, ask the designer to make those connections explicit, including any information still to be verified.

• What is a design decision at this stage?
• What is only illustrative?
• What still depends on further investigation?

Explain it back in ordinary words

Close the PDF and try describing the entrance, the main rooms and the roof to someone else. Where you get stuck, make a note. You do not need drawing vocabulary to say that you cannot work out how two spaces connect.

Before agreeing to the next stage, ask what that agreement covers and which questions remain open. If you are starting a project and would like help understanding how your ideas become a design, I am happy to talk through the process with you.