Principles of Building Planning

Planning is grouping and management of components of building in a systematic manner so as to form a functional homogeneous body.

Factors affecting planning of a building:

-  Topography

-  Climate conditions

-  Neighborhood

-  Utility of space

-  Selection of sites

-  Shape and size of plot

-  Orientation of building

-  Building bye-laws

-  Function of building (public, residential, commercial, industrial etc).

1. Aspect

2. Prospect

3. Privacy

4. Roominess

5. Grouping

6. Circulation

7. Flexibility

8. Sanitation

9. Elegance

10. Economy

11. Furniture requirement

12. Practical Consideration

1. ASPECT

It is the proper placement of different rooms of building in accordance with our activities at different hours of the day.

A room receiving light and air from particular direction is said to have aspect of that direction. All the rooms should be well ventilated and well lighted.

Aspects depends upon the direction of the sunlight and air, which gives

- hygienic condition

- great atmosphere

- comfort

2. PROSPECT

It is the view seen of outside from the windows and doors in external walls. A building is said to have prospect when it presents a pleasing and cheerful appearance when seen from inside.

It must also possess good qualities like comfort, security, labour saving, modern outlook etc. Small Projections or bay window can have a good out-look as well as helps in providing breeze, light and sunlight to the room.

Aspect & Prospect both are primary consideration of building planning and disposition of doors and windows. It will be seen that sometimes aspect and prospect considerations may be different with each other, so they should be skillfully disposed.

3. PRIVACY

Privacy is one of the most important considerations in the planning of buildings. It can be of sight (bathroom, w/c) or sound (study room, confidential discussion room) or both sight and sound (bedroom). It is classified in two categories Internal privacy and External privacy.

a. Internal Privacy

It is privacy within building (one room from another) which can be achieved by

-  Use of partitions

-  By proper furniture arrangement

-  Privacy can be maintained by single panel doors

-  The door should not be located on one side of the long wall of the room

-  Screens may be used in the doors of all rooms which can easily separate one room from another.

b. External Privacy

Privacy of all parts of a building with reference to the surrounding streets, buildings & by-ways, which can be achieved by

-  Plant the trees near building

-  Built a compound wall on plot boundary

-  Raising sill height of W.C. and bathroom also maintains the external privacy

-  Windows hight should be enough with respect to roads or ground near by

-  Verandah is to be planned in the front side to maintain external privacy.

4. ROOMINESS

Roominess refers to the effect produced by deriving the maximum benefits from the minimum dimensions of a room.

Factors affecting of roominess are

-  Furniture used

-  Size of the room

-  Shape of the room

-  Position of doors and windows

-  Colour is also responsible for creating the effect of space. Light colours create the effect of more space than the dark colours.

5. GROUPING

Grouping refers to the arrangement of various rooms with reference to their function. it minimises the circulation and at the same time improve the comfort. Some points to be considered are

-  w/c away from dining and kitchen

-  Verandah adjacent to the drawing room

-  Dining room close to the kitchen

-  Bath and w/c should be near to each other

-  Staircase should be easily accessible from all rooms

-  Bedroom, toilet and dressing room grouped together.

6. CIRCULATION

Circulation is the access or internal movement inside a building. It should be straight, short, sufficiently lighted & well ventilated. Circulation should be easily accessible from various rooms without intruding privacy. It is of two types horizontal and vertical.

a. Horizontal Circulation

It is the movement for same floor.

It can be achieved by providing passages, corridors, verandahs, lobbies & halls. Desirable horizontal circulation has short, straight & independent passages.

b. Vertical Circulation

It is the movement from one floor to another floor.

It can be achieved by providing lifts, stairs and escalators. All the staircase and sanitary services should have independent access from all the room through lobby.

7. FLEXIBILITY

Flexibility means planning a room in such a way that even though a room originally

planned to satisfy a particular purpose, it should also serve other desired purposes when required in future. For example: kitchen as dining, Drawing room as guest bed room, dinning room as study room etc.

8. SANITATION

The overall purposes of sanitation are to provide a healthy living environment for everyone and factors influencing sanitation are lighting, ventilation, cleanliness, water supply and sanitary amenities.

a. Lighting

It is of two types Natural and Artificial.

Natural lighting: Its main source is the sun. Sunlight not only lights up, it also destroys germs and bacteria since it contains UV rays. The intensity of light is affected by clouds, smoke, dust and gases.

Artificial lighting: It is the replacement of natural light. It is also used for decorating rooms. Modern lightning techniques bring cheerfulness, comfort and efficiency of workers in office or factory by reducing fatigue.

b. Ventilation

It may be defined as a system of supplying of fresh air from outside by natural or mechanical device.

Natural ventilation: The doors and windows should be positioned in such a way that hot air, foul odours are removed from the room and fresh cool air is admitted in the room. 

Artificial ventilation: It is achieved by providing ventilators near the roof in addition to windows. Cross ventilation should be employed for proper circulation of air. It is necessary if the room is occupied by large number of people.

c. Cleanliness

The minimum window area should not be less than 1/10th of the floor area to allow maximum sunlight to enter the room which destroys the germs.

The interior wall should be perfectly plane and the corners should be rounded for easy cleaning. The floor should be on non-absorbent type, smooth and proper slope for easy washing and cleaning.

d. Sanitary Amenities:

It includes the provision of bathrooms, lavatories, latrines, urinals to remove unhygienic matter away from living place.

Dust bins should also be provided to collect the garbage and to carry away.

The sanitary amenities should be provided with non-absorbent flooring (ceramic) materials with proper slope and water supply.

9. ELEGANCE

Elegance means the aesthetic view of the building or the beauty of the building. A better elegance can be achieved by:

-  treatment of interiors and staircase

-  increasing plinth height of building

-  providing corner window, bay window etc

-  providing projections like balcony, sunshade, porch etc

-  Superior building materials for facing like glass, timber, marble etc.

10. ECONOMY

The building should have minimum dimension of room area with maximum utility. Hence it will reduce the cost of the building. Only with proper planning and utility the space can be maximized. It can be achieved by:

-  reducing storey heights

-  simple elevation

-  reducing number of steps of stairs

-  providing small portion for porch, lobbies and balconies

-  standardising sizes of different components.

11. FURNITURE REQUIREMENT

Planner should know how much space is used by each function. The requirements of furniture depend on the type of building, number of persons using the room and function of the room.

Some points should be kept on mind, while arranging the furniture are:

-  clearance for circulation

-  parmanent furniture shall be used

-  bedroom has bed, dressing table etc

-  kitchen has platform, cup-board, refrigerator etc

-  minimum clearance for circulation should be provided

-  furrniture should be proportional to the size of the room.

12. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

After all the fundamentals some practical points should be considered additionally:

-  firstly stability, strength and comfort should be considered during planning

-  principles should be made in building planning for future extension in building without dismantling

-  during planning points should be considered likely adverse effect of natural agencies (earthquake, storm, flood etc)

-  if possible the size of the room must be large because the large room can be shortened by providing movable partition but smaller room can't be enlarged easily.