Floor Plan Design

Summary

This lesson provides students with an opportunity to design and draw to scale a floor plan for a home including but not limited to; a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom.

Materials

The following materials are needed for this lesson:

• an assignment sheet for each student
• an example floor plan--drawn to meet all stated specifications (according to assignment sheet)
• graph paper
• furniture templates (can order these from NASCO)
  
  

  Background for Teachers

  Please be familiar with the techniques used to draw floor plans. It may be helpful if you draw one as an example--for students to look at and to help you review/practice what you are teaching them to do.

  
  

  Student Prior Knowledge

  Students should have been taught what scale is and how to draw things to scale. Students should also be familiar with the rules to follow when arranging furniture. It may also be helpful if students have looked at a variety of floor plans so that they have an idea of how rooms should be placed throughout a home--room relationships--in order to make it "flow" well.

  
  

  Intended Learning Outcomes

  This lesson should act as a culminating effort to display all that a student has learned throughout the design and function section of an interior design class. It is a way for students to apply all the knowledge they have accumulated to see if they can put it all together correctly.

  
  

  Instructional Procedures

  • Hand out the assignment sheet to each of the students and go over the directions as a class. Discuss the reasoning behind them only drawing one level of a home--if they start out trying to two levels, they may get overwhelmed and just give it up. One level must be complete before they can start on the second. The one level that they start with must have the four required rooms. Students may question how they can fit a bedroom in on the main floor when they want all their bedrooms to be located on the 2nd floor. Discuss the possibility of having a guest bedroom on the main floor or maybe the master suite, etc..
  • Discuss the idea of scale. Every square on the graph paper represents one square foot of space on their floor plan. This makes the floor plan much smaller than what students may be comfortable with. Showing them the example that you have drawn may be helpful at this point for students to visualize exactly what they will be doing and generally what size their end product should be.
  • Their floor plans must include furniture placement in all rooms. At this point you may want to show students the templates that they can use to draw in their furniture. Rules for template use should be covered at this point as well. Templates can be purchased through NASCO (catalog orders) or may be available in an art supply store near you. Make sure that templates are 1/4 inch scale.
  • Floor plans must show the lighting and electrical plan for each room. Remind students that every room need to have a light switch near each door way, each room needs to have some sort of light source, electrical outlets are necessary for all appliances and in all bedrooms.
  • Answer any and all questions as you go. Remind them that neatness is very important and that they should draw everything in pencil before they start in ink. It may be helpful if you require students to check off their pencil drawn floor plan with you before they can start going over it in ink so that you can check for windows, doors etc... before they have made them permanent.
    
    

    Assessment Plan

    Refer to the assignment sheet for the point break down for grading purposes.