A Step-By-Step Guide to Designing and Drawing Architectural Lighting Plans
The Fourth Annual One Drawing Challenge is open for entries! Architecture’s most popular drawing competition is back and bigger than ever, including larger prizes. Get started on your submission and hurry — the Main Entry Deadline of October 21st is fast-approaching.
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Are you interested in improving your architectural drawing technique? Follow along as the Founder of 30X40 Design Workshop and One Drawing juror Eric Reinholdt designs and draws an architectural lighting plan showing the necessary fixture types, switching, receptacle locations and all electrical devices and equipment. Designing such details in coordination with the other essential building systems — architectural, structural, mechanical and plumbing — affords the architect more control in the final outcome by anticipating how these systems will work in conjunction with invisible elements such as beams, ductwork, vent stacks.
Drawing and overlaying each helps to identify conflicts on paper where it’s much more efficient and cost-effective to make changes. In this video, you’ll see how the abstract concepts of ambient, task and accent lighting are accounted for and applied in a real-world design of a remote, off-the-grid residential project in Maine, USA.
Want to get your drawings in front of industry experts like Eric Reinholdt? Consider entering architecture’s biggest drawing competition, which Eric will judge along with other architectural figures such as Bob Borson, Dan Hogman and more!
Eric Reinholdt is an architect, founder of the residential architecture practice, 30X40 Design Workshop, author of Architect + Entrepreneur, innovator of progressive practice models, and the creator of the eponymous YouTube channel, 30X40 Design Workshop. From his remote island studio, Erc makes videos about architecture, designs simple, modern homes, and shares his process online.
This private Hamptons residence was designed as an immersive retreat. Situated along a natural ravine and protected wetlands, the residence consists of three simple gable-shaped volumes, creating a dialogue between the natural grasslands and the built environment. A contemporary interpretation of a common New England building form, each volume is shrouded in horizontal wood slats which seamlessly wrap all wall and roof surfaces. A public great room is centrally located, acting as a social hub for family and guest interaction. Within the great room, special attention was taken to the design of the architectural concrete fireplace, countertops and black steel sash windows.
This retreat was conceived as a place for gathering family and friends as well as solitude. Located along the crest of a narrow ridge overlooking a broad valley, the drive that connects to the home turns to reveal a long, linear core of sawn stone that parallels the ridge, sliding under a single-slope roof through a steel-framed glass volume. The stone core, marked by two large fireplace masses, organizes the spaces, with primary circulation along its south face, while gaps in the stone provide access to each of the living spaces. In turn, clear and translucent glass along the south wall creates a play of light and shadow at the circulation spine.
Designed as a beach house within the forest, this home creates a connection between the drama of the nearby ocean and the sense of sanctuary provided by the trees. Composed primarily of one large room, the house is light-filled on the south side facing the ocean, while remaining insular and protected on the other side. Glass walls open the living area to panoramic views of forest and ocean with two fireplaces on either end anchor that the space and provide a feeling of refuge. Artworks were incorporated into the design of the home, with the fireplace walls specially designed to fit paintings by Sam Francis and Diego Singh.
This suburban pavilion is located adjacent to woodlands. A contemporary house surrounded by mature trees and manicured gardens anchors the site. A new swimming pool, stone walls and terraces located behind the existing house organize the rear yard and establishes a dialogue between the existing house and a new pavilion. New paths, trees and structured plantings reinforce the geometry. The new pavilion, intended for year round use, is strategically located to provide a threshold between the structured landscape and adjacent woodland. The doors pivot to open the space much of the year while a large Rumford fireplace and heated floors provide a cozy counterpoint in winter months.
This small residence is sited on the banks of the White River five miles from Mt. Rainier. The project was designed to quietly blend into the surrounding forest. An entry courtyard serves as a transition space from outdoors to indoors and keeps the ubiquitous elk herds at bay. A steel-clad fireplace mass separates the living room from a covered outdoor patio. By working diligently with the client (who also served as General Contractor for the project), the building footprint was kept as compact as possible to minimize site disturbance. The residence was made to epitomize the small home living movement.
The heart of a dilapidated brick corner house from 1929 was completely renovated and extended, incorporating an inviting sitting pit. The clients asked for more space, an open kitchen and a more direct relationship to the garden. The sitting pit forms a playful space around the fireplace, where the owners are able to stay together with each other, friends and family. Seen at eye level from the seating pit, there is a vertically sliding window on the street side. By sliding this open as well as the large sliding doors at the rear, visitors find themselves outside in a sitting pit, at a fireplace and under a roof. The fireplace sits in a solid block that, together with a thick wall on the other side and a wall parallel to the seating pit, supports the roof.
This residential cabin project is located in Krokskogen forests, outside the town of Hønefoss. The site is very exposed to the wind and the cabin is shaped to create several outdoors spaces that provide shelter from the wind and sun at different times of day. The interior is a continuous space finished in a thin layer of curved birch plywood. The fireplace is located at the center of the cabin. The fireplace mantel is hanging from the ceiling, while the fire is down at the floor of the access level. This provides the feeling of a campfire in the landscape that can be seen from different places.
Despite the different heights on top, the lower end of the roof is evenly lowered by about nine feet to create a crisp frame of the view around. “Standing under the eaves and looking out, the vastness and tranquility of the plain wetlands seem to be included in the picture scroll,” GOA explained. The underside of the roof is also free of vents, which are in turn placed at the ground level along the glass windows, to create a disruption-free experience.
In addition to eliminating partition devices, the team has further blurred the boundaries between the structure and site around by using the same paving materials within the restaurant and the terrace that extends outwards. The terrace also includes a planned water body, closer to the natural water body, which creates a continuous line of vision when sitting inside.
This modernist construction in Ho Chi Minh combats the perception that shophouse-style buildings suffer from a lack of natural light because of the inherent narrowness of their lot. The designers do so with a textured combination of cement breeze blocks and brick patterned walls, letting sunlight gently diffuse inside. Bamboo trees, meanwhile, create their own natural screen to filter the direct sunlight coming through the street-facing windows.
The family commissioning this rural home near Melbourne wanted to ensure plenty of natural light within the living space, but without the harsh direct northern and western sun. To resolve this issue, Robson Rak Architects designed large eaves to shade thin long high-level windows around the house, creating an evenly glowing living room and dining room. In similar fashion, the architects added two wall-like beams underneath the kitchen’s skylight, parsing out the strong sunlight into milder segments.
Rejecting the idea of the theatrical space as a necessarily dark and solemn place, this new estate espouses a more open (and bright) setting for its cultural projects thanks to a series of large skylights. From the outside, the playfully random assortment of skylights and windows healthily counterbalances the more serious dark-grey exterior.
The design concept for this residential project in Chelsea, New York combines features from two different eras of the city’s architectural history: 19th and 20th century brick housing and contemporary glass skyscrapers. Yet, neither inspiration can account for the arrangement of floor to ceiling cylindrical-shaped windows which give the façade a lively character. It’s ironic that the project’s emblem is a snail because the design leaps towards an exciting vision of the future.
Standing on a steep slope near Lake Maggiore in the Swiss Alps, this new house keeps things simple with a cubic shaped structure and wood panel cast concrete walls. The irregularly placed large square and rectangular windows breaks with the monolithic façades and ensures no view of the stunning lake goes unseen.
The rear extension to this modest 1930s bungalow in a leafy Sydney suburb reproduces many of the sensible design choices of the original house: herringbone brick gables, a brick sunburst and some Tudor detailing among other details. However, three deep-set square windows bring a pop of modernity to the rear façade, matching the design ethos of the new living room on the floor below.
This new residence in Eindhoven is a playful remix on Le Corbusier’s ribbon window. The architects add a vertical dimension to the horizontal windows, ensuring one continuous flow of glass over two floors carved within the yellow cubic volumes. These offer generous vertical views of the nearby forestry while maintaining enough privacy for the second-floor bedrooms.
Huaxin Business Center by Scenic Architecture, Shanghai, China
“Light Arrival” Yorkshire Ceiling by Flynn Architecture & Design, Crystal Lake, Illinois
Norwegian embassy in Athens by gfra, Athens, Greece
