Front elevation of the project ‘13 Kelross Road’ for which I have been preparing the planning drawings and now the preconstrcution draw-ings. This has been the first thing I have been responsible for beyond the bathroom!

in the case of Kelross road we have decided to appoint a quantity surveyor (QS) early on, and get one contractor to give us a contract price. If they roughly agree and the offer seems reason-able then we will go forward with this arrange-ment, which should be more reliable, and for a project of this scale, not any worse off for the lack of competition. I have recently moved on to working on the

pre-construction phase of Kelross Road. This is new and exciting for me as I have mainly worked on planning drawings up to this point. The information provided on planning draw-ings is relatively basic, and in fact the idea is to give the planners the absolute bare minimum of information in order to make the application more likely to be granted without conditions. When moving to the pre-construction phase the planning need to essentially move from a draw-ing that displays intentions for the purposes of planning, to a drawing which someone can use to build the projects. This of course involves the creation of a lot more detail within the drawing, including electrical services, mechanical ser-vices, drainage i.e soil vent pipes and rain water pipes (SVPs and RWPs), the construction build up of any new elements within the project, and going into a great deal more depth with joinery and bathroom drawings. The kitchens are nor-mally designed by a specialist kitchen designer, as this allows the inclusion of all of the mod-ern creature comforts such as various pieces of sliding storage and so on. I am also very interested in the way that contractors are ap-pointed. Sometimes a choice will be made to go out to tender, which I have come to understand to mean that several contractors are asked to come up with a quote based on our drawings in order to win the project. This however comes with its downsides. Although in some cases it may be that the most competitive price for the contract is made, there are occasions when we have chosen not to go down that route, of which Kelross Road is one example. The reason for this is that contractors may have a tendency to skimp on things in order to get their initial cost down, and then take every opportunity throughout the project to make alterations to the cost to make it more worth their while, which in the end results in less value for money.

Planning drawings

Back to the drawing board

13 Kelross Road - Example of the level of detail I have been going into at this stage for the draw-ing serving the dual purpose of communicating information to the client, and submission to plan-nig

A

B B

A

PROPOSED LOWER GROUND FLOOR PLAN

RUMPUS ROOM

CPD

Floor level to be lowered

Openable glazing at high level to provideview to upper ground floor

W/C Enlarged movedfurther out from stairwelloverhead

UTILITYWASHER

PROPOSED GROUND FLOOR PLAN

FORMAL LIVING

INFORMAL LIVING

DINING

Glazing providing view intorumpus room below and balustradefor formal living room above

Glazing up to level of staicase

Plasma TV

Bespoke joinery

KITCHEN

Glazed roof over

Breakfast bar

FRIDGE

OVEN

OVEN

Existing wall reducedand railing installed

Bespoke full height joinery

CLOAKS

Bespoke wall of joinery storage

High level storage

DRYER

Full height floor to ceilingdouble door entrance

Staircase pulled backto allow for lobby

Recesses in wall toallow doors to be openedcompletely flush with wall

Glazing to possibly be incorporatedinto doors to retain views

Storage to be designedinto extractor

L-Shaped run of kitchen surfacewith high level bespoke cabinetry above

Shutters to allow separation offormal living area

Level of exterior raisedto be flush with interior

D

D

D

DE

E

E

E

W/C

PLANT

Lightwell filled in

Sky-Frame glazing systems

scale

stage

E mail@lparchitects.co.ukW www.lparchitects.co.uk

Do not scale from this drawing. This drawing is copyright

Islington Green Studios81-83 Essex RoadIslingtonLondon N1 2SF

date issued drawn by

project

drawing title

T +44 (0)20 7288 1333F +44 (0)20 7288 0333

client

drawing no revision

revisions

rev. date description revised by

.( ).

PLANNING PROPOSEDLOWER GROUND AND GROUND FLOOR PLAN

K & V Ramachandran 13KELROSS ROADLONDONN5 2QS

1:100 @ A31:50 @ A1

19/12/11 BC 260 1 1.001 C

A 2012.01.09 Layout of lower ground floor changed, kitchen units altered. BC

50 1 m

B 2012.01.11 Changes made after client meeting BC

C 2012.01.16 Issued for planning BC

Hatching thus denotes new walls

13 Kelross Road

This is the nature of a fair bit of the work I hav e been doing. These are detailed bathroom drawings for ‘1 Walace Road’.

In order to get this type of work done routinely and effectively, the way that our layer system and CAD standards work is critical.

MASTER BEDROOM EN SUITE

SECTION A:A SECTION B:B SECTION C:C SECTION D:D

E:E INTERNAL ELEVATION

Rail

Rail

Rail Shelf

432

1382

Towel Rad

WALK-IN WARDROBE

B B

A A

C

C

D

D

TOW

EL

RA

DIA

TOR

1800

800

1200

900

1065

605

432

LAUNDRY

500

500

E E

F

F6no Ikea shoe-racks attachedto wall

Toile

t cen

ter

Bas

in c

entre

d on

mirr

ored

cab

inet

ry

450m

m fr

om w

all

1800

Heated mirror pad behind

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

MASTER DRESSING ROOM SECTION E:E

430

425

300

DRESSING ROOM SECTION F:F

RAIL

Adjustable shelf

F:F INTERNAL ELEVATION

RAIL

Adjustable shelf Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Adjustable shelf

Laundry Chute

600

100mm x 100mmfloor tile

400 400515

scale

stage

E mail@lparchitects.co.ukW www.lparchitects.co.uk

Do not scale from this drawing. This drawing is copyright

Islington Green Studios81-83 Essex RoadIslingtonLondon N1 2SF

date issued drawn by

project

drawing title

T +44 (0)20 7288 1333F +44 (0)20 7288 0333

client

drawing no revision

revisions

rev. date description revised by

.( ).

PRE-CONSTRUCTION PROPOSEDMASTER BEDROOM EN SUITE AND DRESSING ROOM

Dr. H Munn and Mr. A Grant

1 WALLACE ROADN1

1:20 @ A1 2012.04.16 BC 274 2 5.002 --

Hatching thus denotes glazed shower enclosure

Hatching thus denotes glazed splashback

Hatching thus denotes high level surface (material tbc)

Hatching thus denotes mirrored surface

Hatching thus denotes subway tiling

GENERAL JOINERY NOTES

1. Cupboard doors and shelves to beformed from MDF and painted (colour : TBC)2. Dressing room exteriors to be factory sprayed(colour : TBC)3. Cupboard interiors to be formed from melamine.4. Doors to be mirrored MDF doors on sliding doormechanism

SANITARY WARE NOTES

1.Refer to CP Hart specification for all sanitaryware.2.Refer to finishes schedule for all tiling

BEDROOM 1 EN SUITE

SECTION A:A SECTION B:B SECTION C:C SECTION D:D

480

Towel Rad

900

C

C

D

D

ENSUITE

B B

A A

TOW

EL

RA

DIA

TOR

900

900

450

350

430

805

Pocket door

New frosted glassto window

scale

stage

E mail@lparchitects.co.ukW www.lparchitects.co.uk

Do not scale from this drawing. This drawing is copyright

Islington Green Studios81-83 Essex RoadIslingtonLondon N1 2SF

date issued drawn by

project

drawing title

T +44 (0)20 7288 1333F +44 (0)20 7288 0333

client

drawing no revision

revisions

rev. date description revised by

.( ).

PRE-CONSTRUCTION PROPOSEDBEDROOM 1 EN SUITE

Dr. H Munn and Mr. A Grant

1 WALLACE ROADN1

1:20 @ A1 2012.04.16 BC 274 2 5.003 --

Hatching thus denotes glazed shower enclosure

Hatching thus denotes glazed splashback

Hatching thus denotes high level surface (material tbc)

Hatching thus denotes mirrored surface

Hatching thus denotes subway tilingGENERAL JOINERY NOTES

1. Cupboard doors and shelves to beformed from MDF and painted (colour : TBC)2. Cupboard interiors to be formed from melamine.3. Doors to be blank MDF doors with push releasecatches

SANITARY WARE NOTES

1.Refer to CP Hart specification for all sanitary ware.2.Refer to finishes schedule for all tiling

One major thing that is under discussion at the moment are the standards to which we use the tools of our trade, a large part of which is software. On Monday we had a long meet-ing at lunchtime over the drawing template for AutoCad. Up until now the office has had no official template and the way the drawings have worked so far is that they have been cobbled together from the various layers, blocks, line-weights, dimension styles, text styles, multile-ader styles, scale bars, revision bars, and paper space objects from previous drawings which seem to have been widely accepted as having been done right. As a newcomer, I found this to be an incredibly time-consuming, and gra-tuitously difficult, way of doing something that in my opinion should have been standardised from the word go. Load a template, and bosch, it’s all in there. Considering I frequently spend 8 hours per day using this piece of software, then the impact that a decent template would have, for the plethora of different AutoCad elements, that otherwise need to be redefined each time I draw them, would be considerable!

One very interesting aspect that this template issue has brought to the surface, is the line between when having a good procedure makes everyone’s work reliable, consistent, and easier, and when it becomes a barrier and an unneces-sary complication. It could potentially become like bureaucracy for your drawing, which is the last thing we need. We definitely don’t need a rigid system which has been over-thought to the point where every possible type of line has its own layer and so on. It needs to be a robust base which can take the idiosyncrasies that eve-ry project throws up. Therefore there has been a set of base layers created, entitled for exam-ple Joinery_-- which can then be made more bespoke, and added to for different versions, in a way that anyone else who picks up the file can understand. For example Joinery_client revision 3.

The age old CAD debate

Although I do get frustrated when it seems to create tasks in and of itself, such as the never ending discussion on the soon to be approved template.

This week has been fairly hectic so far and I have stayed after hours quite a bit. Bathroom drawings take a long time to draw... They are always very compact and intricate little spaces, and for rooms of a few square metres each interior elevation needs to be fastidiously drawn in order to understand how the thing can be built. There seems to be a little bit of a feeling mounting up in the office that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. The Christmas cheer when I joined was perhaps deceptive, as 2012 is now in full swing and everybody is at it ham-mer and thongs. One controversial issue seems to be the writing up of site visit notes which absolutely nobody has the time (or the inclina-tion) to do. A task that I am frequently assigned is the translation of survey drawings into our AutoCad conventions. This is actually more time consuming than you might think and involves more than just re-assigning layers. In order for the drawing to be easily editable later on the thing needs to be structured correctly as pol-ylines. This means that we can make optimum use of the stretch points. There is always a hell of a lot of pushing and pulling back and forth as a design develops and so the drawing needs to be robust and clear enough to cope with this, not fragmented and poorly structured. In Bruce Mau’s incomplete manifesto for growth he says various outlandish things such as “creativity is not device dependant” and “the problem with software is that everyone has it”. However he runs an extremely high end and almost celebrity cult design firm which represents a very small proportion of the way that most people survive in the various businesses of design in the world, and is not representative. To an extent I have been scrutinising the apparent fact that my creativity must be directly proportional to the number of keyboard shortcuts I know, however it is important to remember that the software is just a tool not an end in itself. And AutoCad is a very useful tool at that, so so long as I don’t lose sight of the fact that it is only an enabler, then there shouldn’t be a problem there.

Drawing technique continued

Interestingly it is the engineers who are the ones doing all the hand-drawing. Conisbee, our consulting engineers, send our drawings back to us with

A snapshot of the level of detail I have been moving up to producing now that the project for 13 Kelross has been progresssing to tender stage.

Tender information

W/C Enlarged

Crawlspace storage accessed atmid level from utility room

Mid level bifolding doorsto provide access to crawlspacefrom utility room

Lightwell to be retained as existing

New hard landscaping in front garden

PROPOSED LOWER GROUND FLOOR PLAN

UTILITYWASHER

DRYER

W/C

PLANT

Staircase modified for new floor level

Existing basement floorlevel maintained

F

01--.--.-

02

F

01--.--.-

02

F

01--.--.-

02

Part B:a) All new smoke and heat detectors to be interlinked so that detection of smoke by any one unit operates the alarm signal in allof them.b) Smoke alarms will be permanently wired in accordance with BS 7671 to a separate fused circuit (labelled Smoke Alarms) onthe distribution boardc) All smoke alarms will be mains fed with battery back up.d) Fire alarm system to be installed in accordance with BS 5839: pt 6 with commissioning certificate provided upon completione) All new ceilings and walls to be lined in 12.5mm Fireline (vapourproof in kitchens and bathrooms) plasterboard to achieve 30minutes fire resistance and classification 3 (in all small rooms of area no more than 4m2 and domestic garages of area no morethan 40m2) and classification 1 (in all other rooms) to restrict the spread of surface flame.f) All pipe-work, ducts or conduits passing through compartment walls or floors to use a proprietary sealing system to maintain fireresistance throughout protected areas. All details to be confirmed.Part F:a) All new windows to be fitted with trickle vents to give total ventilation area per room of not less than 4,000 mm2 in toilets,kitchen and office and not less that 8,000mm2 per window in main space.b) Fans in Bathroom to be capable of extracting air at a rate of 15 litres/sec and be controlled by light switch with 15min overrun.Fan to duct to external air, see drawings for details of grille covers.c) Extract fan over hobs, fan in kitchen to be capable of extracting at a rate of 60 litres/sec and duct to external air, see drawingsfor details of grille covers.d) Fans in Utility rooms to be capable of extracting air at a rate of 30 litres/sec and to duct to external air, see drawings for detailsof grille covers.

Part H:a) All UPVC wastes to sizes shown. All waste fittings to have suitable access for cleaning at all changes in direction. Forminimum dimensions for access fittings and inspection chambers see Table 11 of AD part H.b) All waste pipes to be Polypropylene and to run at a 1:80 minimum gradient.c) Kitchen to have 40mm wastes and traps with 75mm deep seal to back inlet gullies or SVP with spigot connection for washingmachine and dishwasherd) WC's to have 100mm diameter wastes and traps with 50mm deep seal to branch into SVP.e) Baths and showers to have 40mm diameter wastes and traps with 75mm deep seal to branch into SVP.f) Testing of the new drainage to withstand an air or smoke test of positive pressure of at least 38mm water gauge for at least 3minutes will be arranged with Building Control by the main contractor.Part J:a) All gas appliances and un-vented hot water storage systems to be installed by a Gas Safe Registered Engineer, uponcompletion a copy of the installation certificate to be issued to Building Control.b) Gas service and installation pipes or associated meters should not be incorporated within a protected stairway unless the gasinstallation is in accordance with the requirements for installation and connection set out in the Pipelines Safety Regulations 1996and the Gas Safety (Installations and Use) Regulations 1998.Part K:a) All stairs to have balustrades at a minimum 900mm from finished stair level.b) All external balustrades or handrails o be a minimum 1100mm from finished floor level with maximum 100mm between vertical

Part L:a) See drawings for construction build up and associated combined u-values.b) All windows to be double glazed (except where indicated) with 4mm toughened glass where below 800mm. All doors to bedouble glazed with 4mm toughened glass where below 1500mm. Double glazed units to have 4mm inner pane with 4mm low Eouter pane with 16mm argon filled cavity.c) If shown, radiator positions are indicative. Sizing and number are to be determined by Contractor's plumberd) The insulation of pipes ducts and vessels is to be undertaken in accordance with Table 11 (p.29) of the Domestic HeatingCompliance Guide.e) Ensure new light fittings comply with Part L1B by ensuring that the number of fixed energy efficient fittings installed is not lessthat the greater of: a) One per 25m2 of dwelling floor area OR b) One per four fixed lighting fittings.f) The fixed building services that are proposed to be altered or installed will be undertaken with respect to the following guideline:A notice will be issued to the LA, by someone suitably qualified to do so, confirming that the fixed building services have beencommissioned in accordance with a procedure approved by the Secretary of State (paragraph 38 of L1B).Part P:a) All wiring and electrical work will be designed, installed, inspected and tested in accordance with the requirements of BS7671,the IEE 17th edition Wiring Guidance and Building Regulations Part P (electrical safety). On completion of the works a copy ofthe Installer's Electrical Installation Test Certificate compliant with BS7671 is to be given to the client and the local authority.b) Prior to covering all wiring/cables the applicant is to ensure that the installation is inspected by a competent person and oncompletion of the work, in addition to the Installation Rest Certificate, a competent person's Electrical Installation Certificatecompliant with BS7671 is to be given to the client and the local authority.c) All fused spurs to be grouped in one location (to be confirmed with Architect on site), assume 7 no. for pricing purposes (hob,extract, oven, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, & fridge freezer)

MISC:a) No vegetation to be removed without prior permission of the Architect.b) Notify Architect of any discrepancies prior to work commencing.c) No demolitions to be carried out without prior permission of the Architect.

BUILDING REGULATIONS NOTESPart A:See S. Engineers' drawings and specification for details on all new beams and columns. All drawings to be read in conjunctionwith Structural Engineer's drawings and details.

All switches and socket outlets for lighting and otherequipment to be located between 450mm and 1200mm abovefinished floor level (hatched zone.)

50mm painted SW architrave around door unless otherwiseindicated.

Ceilings and walls to be lined in 12.5mm firelined board toachieve 30 min fire rating and classification 1 to resist thesurface spread of flame.

Door Ironmongery to lie within a zone 750mm and 1200mmabove finished floor level (hatched zone) and be easilyopenable with a clenched fist.

GENERIC ELEVATIONAll recessed light fittings to achieve same classification aswall/ceiling lining to restrict spread of surface flame.

TV AERIAL POINT

ENCLOSED LIGHT

DIRECTIONAL SURFACE MOUNTED SPOTS

RADIATORLIGHT SWITCH

RECESSED SPOT LIGHTWALL LIGHT

FUSED SPURFUSED SPURFAN FLUERAINWATER PIPE

SMOKE ALARM

SOIL VENT PIPE

KEY TO ELECTRICAL SYMBOLS

EXTERNAL TAPSHAVING POINTLIGHT SOCKET

MOVEMENT CONTROLLED LIGHT

DOUBLE SOCKET OUTLETTELEPHONE POINTTELEPHONE POINT

DATA POINT

5A SOCKET

Door to be replaced bywindow to match existing

Position of meters to be moved outside

Part section of 100mm blockwork wallwithin opening to crawlspace

1m wide x 1m deep underpinning to bay

scale

stage

E mail@lparchitects.co.ukW www.lparchitects.co.uk

Do not scale from this drawing. This drawing is copyright

Islington Green Studios81-83 Essex RoadIslingtonLondon N1 2SF

date issued drawn by

project

drawing title

T +44 (0)20 7288 1333F +44 (0)20 7288 0333

client

drawing no revision

revisions

rev. date description revised by

.( ).

PRE-CONSTRUCTION PROPOSEDLOWER GROUND FLOOR PLAN

K & V Ramachandran 13KELROSS ROADLONDONN5 2QS

1:100 @ A31:50 @ A1

13/02/12 BC 260 2 1.001 D

A 2012.04.05 Scheme revised after planning changes BC

B 2012.05.11 Underpinning to foundations omitted BC

C 2012.05.17 Party wall boundary line amended after surveyor feedback BC

D 2012.06.08 Information updated BC