ACTIVITY 1: ‘SCALE, ANNOTATION & WORKING DRAWING CONVENTIONS

1. How and why is scale used for documenting building projects?

Scale is used in building project documentation to express information such as dimensions at different levels of magnification. In building documents small scales are used to show precise measurements of joints and other details, larger scales are used to show dimensions or rooms and other large elements.

Scaled drawings, as an alternative to proportionate drawings, provide more exact measurements and information.

2. Determine the preferred working units for building projects and the range of scales appropriate to use for construction documentation.

The preferred working unit is millimeters, the scales used mostly range from 1:2 to 1:250.

ACTIVITY 2: CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTATION TOUR

1. Questionnaire attached.

2. How does the information in your drawing set compare to what you observed at site last week?

Drawing sets show an exact representation of the materials, dimensions etc. of the site

How does the scale of the building compare to the scale of the drawings?

The building varies from twice to 250 times the size of the drawings.

How do the architectural and structural drawings differ?

Architectural drawings show images and diagrams that relate to the building plan, layout and different sections of the building, whereas the structural drawings show more engineer-based diagrams, for example, details or joints.

ACTIVITY: STRUCTURAL CONCEPTS

In this activity we built a scaled model of the structural elements of the canopy of the Oval Pavilion building. This canopy has a frame/skeletal structure. We constructed our model out of balsa wood, as it was sufficiently strong enough and easy to cut into the desired lengths and shapes. We attached it to a foam core board.

First we pieced together the main elements of the design. Initially we used glue to hold the members together, however, this was very time consuming, and thus we moved onto using pins. We added extra supports at the base of each column to prevent them from falling (these were not part of the design).

The canopy has a simple frame structure, with a membrane, which we excluded from our model, as it was not structural. The image below shows the trussed structure of the canopy, which spans in two directions.

The trusses are made up of a combination of steel ‘T’ shaped universal beams (UBT), universal columns, universal beams and circular hollow sections, as can be seen below.

Truss

Column

Added supports

UBT

CHS

UBT

UBT

CHS

These trussed sections are supported by three 168.3x6.4mm circular hollow section steel columns. These columns have a greater depth then the beams used to form the trusses as they have a greater load to carry, as can be seen below.

Another group created the other end of the canopy in a similar method to us; they also constructed their structure out of balsa wood and pins.

The third group created a section of the building; they made this out of balsa wood, foam core and cardboard

ACTIVITY 1: STRUCTURAL CONCEPTS

The only major difference between our structure and the second groups structure (made of balsa wood and pins) was that rather then having three columns like us they had a vertical truss system for support which can be seen below.

The above truss system is constructed out of universal columns and parallel flange channels (PFC), which can be seen below.

The third group created a basement room. This room has a solid structure, which they built out of foam core, balsa wood and cardboard. They also began creating the above room which has a frame/skeletal form.

The loads in this structure are simply carried directly down the foundations walls to the strip footings, the load is then transferred into the ground below.

PFC

UC

Frame structure

Foundation wallDoor openingStrip footing

ACTIVITY 2: FULL SIZE PRESENTATIONS