Chapter 1.01 - Plans & Drawings. The Beginning

That's how sketchy the layout plan I've got.

Typically a sub-sale property transaction will take months to complete, with various legal works like Sales & Purchase Agreement, Loan Documents, Transfer of Deed & many more. I thought this is the good period for me to have some fun & work on the design while those boring stuff is running behind, hopefully all design decisions & necessary documentations will fall in its own places as soon as I've got the key, no time wasting paying loan installment for a vacant house.

I've been trying to search online for a layout plan of the particular unit I've purchase, probably due to the fact that it's not a typical unit, my hours swimming in Google Image search are pretty much wasted effort. Then, I turned to my real estate agent, he sent me a very, very, very sketchy plan, the only plan he has for my unit.

    

Trimble SketchUP

Before any design work can kicked off, I need to rationalized this sketchy plan. To understand the scale & sizing to each space precisely. No point of dreaming big & wonderfully but receiving a huge splash of ice-cold water with shocks that the vision is not realistic because not enough walkway width or the cabinet is too big to fit, etc.

Autodesk AutoCAD

I gets to choose between AutoCAD and SketchUp for the said purpose of study. My choice? I'm pretty used with SketchUp & AutoCAD combined work flow, whereby SKP is used in early stage of design exploration & development, largely due to its easy to use 3D modeling capabilities & migrate to CAD for detailed design  documentation. It's also good that I start my plan with something 3D ready, considered my mom will very likely to have tons of comments & attempts in influencing the design, spinning a 3D model around on screen is simply easier for her to understand every decisions that I'm going to make. So, SketchUp it is then!

I've ended up spending about an hour studying the plan & built a rough 3D model of the space, which will serves as my layout plan as well. During the process I've learnt quite a lot about the building i.e. where's the structural grid, which wall is possibly can be demolished safely, how is all the windows modularization works & many more, I'll share all these as we progress in my planning studies.

It's time for me to print whole bunch of them & start doodling on  paper, in my opinion, the most inspiring way of doing design.