Terri Meyer Boake, BES, BArch, MArch, LEED AP
Professor School of Architecture University of Waterloo
email: tboake@uwaterloo.ca

Arch 173:
Building Construction 2

Winter 2024:
Sketch Assignment

Project Description:

Each week you are assigned a "DRAWING" to complete, as described below. These are to be submitted to LEARN the following week by 9am - prior to the start of class.

The assigned details will include both freehand sketching as well as drafting. If you do not use the method requested in the assignment a grade of zero will be given. Drafting is to be done by hand. Computer drawing is not permitted.

Freehand sketching is essential to the development of projects and construction details. Ideas are explored before they become part of a digital construction drawing set. Being able to sketch approximately "to scale" is key to making sure that details work and respond to material sizes. Lettering must be neat and conform to standard architectural lettering styles that have long been done "by hand". When a computer is not at hand and meetings are underway, there is nothing handier than sharing a roll of trace and knocking out sketches.

The ability to detail is essential the the successful execution of buildings. When we draft our details we reflect on the precise sizes of components and their interaction. Accuracy is essential.

These drawings are intentionally being done at a very large scale. You can fudge things at 1:20 but you cannot at a larger scale.

Remember that SKETCH means completely freehand drawing with perhaps a couple of very light reference lines to get you sorted. DRAFT means all hardline and using a scale.

Log-in to LEARN: here

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING REQUIREMENT

1

DRAWING 1: ARCHITECTURAL LETTERING

Architectural lettering has always been block style and highly consistent so that multiple people can work on a drawing set and maintain a sense of order. Clarity is critical as this is a legal document and any misinformation can result in errors.

Print out the entire alphabet in block letters as well as the numbers 0 through 10, and the character &

You should do this on lined paper or on a blank page where you have set out lightly drawn control lines.

Create an assembly list as you were required to do for the final project for Arch 172 for the wall assembly. Print this out by hand, left adjusted, as you would put it on a drawing.

You will be required to use this lettering style to label all subsequent sketch details this term.

Take a photo and upload to LEARN. JPG or PDF is fine. Do not ever use Apple HEIC format as it is unreadable.

For your reference, the Drawing Guide we put together for the AE students that talks mostly about contract type documents.

2

DRAWING 2: FOOTING DETAIL

You are to DRAFT this detail at HALF FULL SCALE, but with a couple of improvements.
- Replace the interior fibreglass insulation with 50mm of extruded polystyrene insulation on the exterior. Put this between the dampproofing layer and the drainage board.
- Add 13mm bitumenous joint filler between the basement slab and the concrete foundation wall.

Please use differentiated line weights and label the detail as below WITH ONLY THE METRIC UNITS using your best architectural lettering.

NOTE: There are many ways to approach doing this detail. For more information on foundation walls, please have a look at this article

3

DRAWING 3: SILL DETAIL FOR BRICK TO FOUNDATION

You are to DRAFT this detail at HALF FULL SCALE, but with a couple of improvements.

We need to add rigid insulation in the cavity to make the R-value of the wall better. Add 38mm XPS insulation between the air barrier and the brick, maintaining a 25mm air space between the XPS and the brick. You will need to increase the dimension of the concrete foundation to make this work. It is drawn at 250mm (below, it is incorrectly labeled as 200mm by CMHC) and needs to be 300mm.

Instead of the bitumenous building paper we are going to use a high quality air barrier material (like Tyvek).

We can now omit the polyethylene vapour barrier that is normally placed behind the gypsum board. Will explain why later.

Everything else can stay the same.

Please use differentiated line weights and label the detail as below WITH ONLY THE METRIC UNITS using your best architectural lettering.

4

DRAWING 4: WINDOW SILL IN BRICK WALL

You are to SKETCH this detail at HALF FULL SCALE, but with a couple of improvements.

We need to add rigid insulation in the cavity to make the R-value of the wall better. Add 38mm XPS insulation between the air barrier and the brick, maintaining a 25mm air space between the XPS and the brick. This increases the space between the back of the brick and the wood frame wall. The window must cover this gap. Keep the alignment of the window on the precast concrete sill the same and the overall depth of the window the same. Windows are purchased at fixed sizes. Now you need to add a nice wood window sill/casing on the interior to complete the detail.

Now that we have added the cavity insulation, we can eliminate the poly vapour barrier on the interior.

Labels only in metric please.

5

DRAWING 5: WINDOW HEAD DETAIL

SKETCH this detail. This one is a bit more challenging so read carefully.

For our window head detail we are LOOKING AT a concrete block structural wall with brick veneer but you are being asked to replace the concrete block with a light frame wood wall. That wood frame wall will be constructed from 38x140 studs and have 140mm of batt type insulation inside. The wall will have gypsum board as its interior finish. There will be 13mm OSB and a spunbonded olefin air barrier between the studs and the cavity insulation. Be sure to show the lintels over the window. These will be a pair of 38x184 lintels. Make sure that you place insulation between them. Maintain a 25mm shim space between the lintels and the window frame. That gap gets filled with sprayfoam insulation once the window is fixed into position.

The cavity insulation is 50mm thick. Air space is 25mm.

The brick part of the detail as shown below is more or less ok as is. The steel angle is just spanning across the opening, bearing on each side of the opening on the adjacent brick veneer walls. It is NOT attached back to the wood framing.

6

DRAWING 6: SOFFIT

TO BE SKETCHED AT HALF FULL SCALE.

Pictured here is a wood truss. You are going to replace the wood truss with a rafter. The rafter has to have a notch that allows it to sit on the ceiling joist header. Make the ceiling joists 38x286 so that they are deeper to accommodate 300mm of fiberglass batt insulation. Eliminate the 19x64 furring that is shown on the underside of the trusses. When you are using regular ceiling joists there is no need for these. They screw the gypsum board directly to the joists.

Also, we are adding 38mm of XPS insulation in the cavity as per some of the previous details above.

Use spunbonded olefin air barrier material instead of the asphalt building paper.

Add a rain gutter/eavestrough. These are around 100mm deep and 150 mm wide.

7

DRAWING 7: PARAPET

To be DRAFTED at half full scale. This one can just be copied without any changes. Try to understand well what exactly you are drawing, the construction sequence and the ability to make the insulation and the air barrier continuous. You can simplify the notes.

8

DRAWING 8: CURTAIN WALL BASE CONDITION

This view of the curtain wall system is its connection at the base of the wall. Curtain wall is applied as a rather expansive system, usually used to clad large buildings where this forms a continuous skin across the facade. To understand the scale (none was supplied on the drawing I sourced) the mullion is 150mm in depth, SKETCH at 1:1, no changes.

9

DRAWING 9: CURTAIN WALL PARAPET CONDITION

This next detail looks at the termination of the curtain wall at the roof of a building that has a flat roof and parapet, which is pretty typical for most tall buildings. Note that the parapet top slopes towards the interior to prevent staining of the facade. There is an attempt made at continuity of insulation. Again same scale, SKETCH at 1:1, no changes.

10

DRAWING 10: For this drawing (drafted or free hand, your choice) please submit what you think is a key material or connection detail from your final studio project, the small library. This might simply be a cladding detail showing the layers of your envelope. Do make sure that you use proper hatching and label all of the materials. The scale is not defined but should provide us with a very close up view similar to the others you have completed for this assignment this term.

Evaluation:

DETAIL SKETCHES: 10 @ 4% = 40%

Late Penalties:
Projects or assignments submitted after the due date or due time will be penalized 5% per calendar day of lateness, with no maximum. There are no late passes in this course.