In Figarc‘s world, load-bearing pillars and walls are drawn by putting rectangular layers inside your Figma canvas. And while we can end the tutorial here and call it a day, there are some architectural considerations you could make to help your floor plan in Figarc resemble closer to what an architect would draw. So, let‘s dive in.
Load-bearing pillars
Before putting anything else in our floor plan, we must draw some load-bearing pillars. These will help us calculate where our main walls should be drawn so we can evenly distribute the structural load down to its foundation.
In architecture schools, load-bearing pillars are discussed in detail, and students are taught not only how to construct versatile pillars but also what materials to use, how to test how much load they‘ll withstand, etc.
But since Figarc is for inspiration and fun, we don‘t need to go that deep. I‘ll only advise you to keep an eye on the following aspects.
Pillars thickness
As a rule of thumb, the larger the structure, the thicker the pillars. For example, if you are visualizing your village house with only one floor, you could use square pillars of about 25x25 pixels. For two-story houses, I prefer to go with 30x30 pixels. In Figarc, 1 pixel equals 1 centimeter, while 30 pixels equals 1 foot.
But if you visualize a structure with many floors, those pillars should be much thicker. For example, if you live in a flat that is part of a building with 10+ floors and have the original floor plan in front of you, you‘ll see that the pillars there are much thicker. Why? Because each floor adds to the load of the building foundation and requires bulkier and sturdier pillars to carry the load for each additional floor.
Distance between pillars
As a rule of thumb, I like to draw pillars with a spacing of no more than 4 meters, which is roughly 13 feet. But the correct answer to this is, of course, it depends.
The distance between pillars is determined by many factors, such as structural considerations, cost and efficiency, environmental factors, etc. But what‘s relevant to you as a Figarc player is to have a general sense of how much load they carry.
For example, if the area between two pillars needs to support hefty loads, make sure those pillars are drawn closer together. Alternatively, if that approach limits your design, ensure the pillars are thicker than usual. If in doubt, ask a real architect, not me. 😊
Now, let‘s move on to walls.
Walls
Load bearing walls
Just like the title hints, these types of walls carry a load. They literally hold up a structure and direct loads to the foundation. Such walls are usually exterior but also interior, especially if the structure is larger.
The exterior load-bearing walls have several layers made of different materials. The materials are chosen based on climate, cost-effectiveness, and design principles, but what you need to know is that your exterior walls should be the thickest of all other walls. Generally, I like to draw these walls at about 40 pixels thick, which is equivalent to…? You guessed it: 40 centimeters. For my friends overseas, that‘s 15.7 inches.
Besides the actual wall, we must also consider the exterior facade. I would like to reserve an additional 10 pixels for that, making your wall 50 pixels thick. In the real world, that‘ll be 50 centimeters or 19.6 inches.
😎 Pro tip: You can group all walls into a Union selection. That way, if you want to design your walls as stroke-based, you can apply the effect on the Union selection so all wall intersections appear as one wall structure.
Non-load-bearing walls
You guessed it. Those are the walls that don‘t carry any load, so they can be much thinner than the others. As a rule of thumb, I draw these at 15 pixels thick. In the real world, that translates to 15 centimeters, or 5.9 inches, for my friends overseas.
The 15-pixel thickness is just enough to include sound insulation between rooms, which we aim for. But if the wall you are drawing needs only to divide a room without insulation, then 10 pixels is just enough.
Sometimes, I go as little as 5 pixels, especially if that wall only needs to cover an exposed area for aesthetic purposes, like a built-in wardrobe or a division between a toilet and a bathroom vanity. Such walls don‘t even need to go all the way up to the ceiling, but they can be only about 1 meter in height if the design asks for it. Obviously, you can‘t represent that in Figarc due to its orthogonal orientation, but you can keep it in mind while you draw.
Special walls
I call them special because they have a specific function. Such walls are usually used to accommodate plumbing pipes, fittings, and fixtures such as sinks, toilets, and bathtubs, but also to reduce noise transmission and to create ventilation.
Considering that, it goes without saying that these pipes should also be thick enough to accommodate all these fixtures. Depending on the number of fixtures it needs to handle and whether the fixtures are on both sides of the wall, these special walls need to be about as thick as the exterior wall. So, I usually draw them at 40 pixels thickness, that is, 40 centimeters or 15.7 inches.
Too many plumbing or ventilation walls can reduce the functional area of your floor plan, which would translate into additional costs in the real world. That‘s why I recommend planning your bathrooms, toilets, and kitchens early on during your drawing process so you can reuse as much as possible from the wet walls.
For example, if you are visualizing a two-story house for your retirement, it would be ideal if the pipes from your guest toilet on the ground floor were reused in the bathroom as part of your master bedroom on your upper floor. Therefore, the guest toilet below should be in pretty much the same section of your floor plans as the main bathroom above.
This might limit your creative ideas, but it will save you money if you plan to implement the floor plan in the real world. Also, you‘ll make your architect proud.
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And that‘s a wrap. If you want to dig deeper into this topic, I invite you to get your favorite drink and read this article.
