UNIT V: BUILDING PLANNING

A building consists of a number of rooms including toilets / bath rooms, kitchen, Hall,
bed rooms etc interconnected through corridors, passages and each room may contain a
number of doors, windows, almirahs, cup boards whereas building drawing reveals the details
of all building elements such as foundations, doors, windows, lintels, arches, roofs, floors,
sanitary and electrical fittings. Usually these fittings represent symbolically. The graphical
symbols are the shortest forms of the objects and components. Hence, drawing is the language
of Engineers and Architects.

BUILDING PLANS: A plan is the graphical representation to some scale on the surface of the
earth as projected and represented on the paper on which the plan is drawn. In order to
represent these elements on a plan, the plan is conventionally prepare at the window sill level
(The horizontal member at the base of a window opening) rather than at the plinth level
(Within the context of construction, it is the top of the foundation walls).

The art of arranging various units of a building on all floors and at ground level giving
due consideration to planning, drawing; architectural, engineering, finance and
management aspects is known as building planning. Hence, the building planning
include drawing and is the foundation subject for civil engineering students.

A building may be completely represented by the following types of plans:

Plan of a typical floor: The plan of a typical floor (ground floor plan at ground floor
level, first floor plan at first floor level) is represented by a plan cut at the window sill
level so that all the windows, cup boards, almirahs etc are also represented on the plan.

Foundation plan: Foundation is immediate beneath the lowest part of the structure,
near to the ground level is known as shallow foundations. Such foundations are mostly
placed on the hard strata available below the ground level.

Shallow foundations are further classified into the following types:

1. Open trench foundations
2. Grillage foundations
3. Raft foundations
4. Stepped foundations
5. Inverted arch foundations

Structural plan of a typical floor: A structural plan of a typical floor contains location,
nomenclature and details of various structural elements at that floor level.

Terrace plan: The terrace plan is the plan at the roof level showing the stair cabin, lift
cabin, overhead water tanks along with roof drainage pattern, parapet walls etc.

❖ CLASSIFICATION OF BUILDINGS:
According to National Building code of India 1970, different classifications of
buildings on the basis of occupancy are:

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Group A –Residential Buildings: All those buildings in which sleeping accommodation
is provided for residing permanently or temporarily with or without cooking or dining
or both facilities are termed as residential buildings, for example Apartments, Flats,
Bungalows, Dormitories, Private Houses, Hotels, Hostels, Cottages, Holiday Campus,
Clubs, outhouses, Inns, etc., These buildings are further sub-divided in to 5 groups,
namely; A- 1 Lodging Houses; A- 2 Family Private Dwellings; A- 3 Dormitories; A- 4
Flats; and A- 5 Hotels.

Group B–Educational Buildings: All those buildings which are meant for education
from a nursery to the university, are included in this group, for example, schools,
colleges, Universities, Training Institutes, etc. These buildings provide facilities like
class – rooms, staff cabins, drawing rooms, laboratories, admin blocks, seminar halls;
recreation halls, library, playfields, gymnasium etc.

Group C–Institutional Buildings: This group includes any building which is used for
the purposes such as medical, health, physical or mental disease, care of infants or aged
persons, etc. These buildings normally meant for healthcare for the occupants. These
buildings are further sub – divided into three groups viz., C – 1 Hospitals ; C – 2
Custodian Institutions ( a financial institution that has the legal responsibility for a
customer's securities) and C - 3 panel Institutions ( a group of persons selected for some
services ).

Group D–Assembly Buildings: This group includes any building where groups of
people assemble or gather for amusement / entertainment. For eg: theatres, cinema
halls, assembly halls, auditoriums, exhibition halls, museums, restaurants, places of
worship (temple, mosque, church, etc.), club rooms, passenger stations, public
transportation services; open air theatres, sports pavilions( i.e., stadium), swimming
pools, etc.

Group E–Business Buildings : A commercial building is a building that is used for

commercial use. Types can include office buildings, warehouses, barbershops/beauty
parlours etc

Group F – Mercantile Buildings: This group includes any building or part of a building
which is used as shops, stores, market for sale and display of products or wares either
wholesale or retail.

Group G–Industrial Buildings: This group includes any building in which products of
different kinds and properties, are fabricated, assembled or processed. For example,
laboratories, assembling plants, laundries, gas plants, power plants, refineries, diaries….

Group H–Storage Buildings: This group includes to store materials such as cement,
iron/steel; home appliances etc. eg: godowns

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Group I–Hazardous Buildings: This group includes those building structures which
are used for the storage, handling, manufacture/ processing of materials which are
liable to burn and prove hazardous to building contents. Hazards may be due to fire,
poisonous fumes or gases , explosions, ignition, etc., from materials subjected to various
operations. Buildings used for storage of explosive materials, manufacture of synthetic
leather, explosives, fireworks etc.
❖ PLANNING OF BUILDING
Planning of building is an art of assembling/arranging various components/rooms
of building in order to form meaningful wholesome plan for the comfort of users and
meets the purpose of the building.
Planning of building depends on
1) Its functional object and requirements
2) Its component parts, their sizes and the relationship between the different rooms
3) Shape of the plot/Topography of the plot
4) Climatic conditions of the place
5) Its location and neighbourhood
6) Whether single storied or multi storied /detached, semi-detached or row house.
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF BUILDING PLANNING:
THE FOLLOWING ARE THE FACTORS/PRACTICAL POINTS OR
PRINCIPLES WHICH EFFECT PLANNING:
1)Aspect 2)Prospect 3)Privacy 4)Furniture requirements 5)Roominess 6)Grouping
7)Circulation 8)Sanitation 9)Flexibility 10)Elegance 11)Economy 12)Practical
consideration.
1.ASPECT: Doors and Windows are arranged in the external walls of the building to
receive and enjoy nature’s gift such as sunshine, fresh breeze and scenic beauty of
landscape at the same time protecting in the inmates from their ill effects. The manner
of arrangement of rooms or peculiarity of arrangement of the doors and windows in the
external walls of the building to draw maximum advantage from sun and wind is termed
as aspect. A room which receives light and air from particular direction is said to have
aspect of that direction. An aspect not only provides comfort but is a requisite from the
hygienic point of view as well. Aspect is very important consideration in the planning of
a building. It influences the appearance of the building.

While designing building enough care should be taken such that it has all its varying
aspects. Each room of residential building should have particular aspect because certain
rooms need morning sun other rooms need less light.

Room Recommended aspect Influencing factor

Bed NW-W-SW To receive plentiful of breeze in summer
Kitchen E and rarely NE To receive morning sun which is germicidal. It
purifies the air. It should be well illuminated
and cool in afternoon.
Dining SE-S-SW Proximity of Kitchen. It should be cool
Drawing SE-S-SW-W Adequate natural lighting during winter and
obviate the sun during summer
Reading N-NW Light from north being diffused and evenly
distributed and cool.
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Store NW-N-NE Dark and cool

2. PROSPECT:
To enrich the outside view i.e. elevation or end view is created by prominently exposing
the better constructed and better constructed and better looking portions and at the
same time concealing from the view of any undesirable ones.
Prospect must not only make outer appearance attractive, but also maintain qualities
such as comfort, cheerfulness, security, labour-saving and up-to datedness. Prospect of
the building can be improved by attractive planning, providing bay windows and
utilization of good landscape or seascape.

3. PRIVACY:
Privacy is the screening provided for the individuals from others. It is different from
seclusion. It is one of the important principle in the planning of buildings of all types in
general and residential buildings in particular. If they act in respect of privacy, it is a
deplorable fault which cannot be compensated even by a host of other merits. Privacy
can be privacy of sight as needed in bath rooms, water closets and urinals etc. or privacy
of sound as needed in confidential discussions and in study room or both privacy of
sight and sound as required in a bed room.

Privacy is classified into

1) Internal Privacy
2) External Privacy

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i) Internal Privacy: Internal privacy is the privacy within the building. It can be
achieved by
1) Proper grouping of rooms
2) Careful planning of entrance and circulation space
3) Better disposition of doors and windows and mode of their hangings.
Locate the doors at one corner rather at the middle. Doors with single shutter offer
more privacy only when they are kept closed. Doors with two shutters offer privacy as
one shutter can be closed leaving the other open.
Internal privacy can be obtained by proper grouping of rooms and careful planning of
circulation space. A bed room should not be used as a passage or vestibule. Internal
external partitions, screens, curtain walls, dwarf walls, ground glass windows provide
privacy. Curtain wall is the outer wall above lintel and below roof of a verandah. Dwarf
wall is similar to parapet but is provided above floor of verandah or passages. Doors
opening into the room offer better privacy than those opening outside.

Additional internal privacy may be achieved by providing

1) Providing a buffer area between the other rooms and bed rooms. Dining room and
kitchen room also require privacy. They are separated from bed rooms by a buffer area
which can be cordoned off in case of necessity.
2) Vertical segregation of the rooms i.e., by providing drawing, dining, kitchen and toilet
in ground floor and bed and toilet rooms in the first floor.

i) External Privacy: Privacy of the whole building with reference to the surrounding
buildings and roads.
External privacy can be achieved by:
1) Having a compound wall to a height of 1.35 m to 1.5 m.
2) Planting trees around the compound walls which acts as sound barriers and sight
barriers as well.
3) Providing ground glass windows and ventilators. Venetian have the advantage of
offering privacy as well as air circulation. Ground glass venetials offer light as well.
4) Providing screed walls, curtain walls and dwarf walls.
5) Plating creepers along the boundary fencing or growing shrubs.

4. FURNITURE REQUIREMENTS: One of the most important requirements of a building

planner is to know how much space is needed by each function in a particular building.
The room sizes for a particular function can be completed on the basis of permanent
furniture to be used in that room as the furniture dimensions are standardized.
How much space is required for performing a particular activity is known through
anthropometric science. Dimensions of furniture to be used in that room is also known.
Hence arranging furniture in that particular room keeping clearance for circulation,
dimensions of furniture can be finalized. Hence, while planning a building, furniture
arrangement must be shown to justify the size of a room. Room areas are not related
only to furniture sizes, but also to their arrangement. Different layout if arranged in the
same space may not be equally efficient. Hence, planning of a room depends on the
number of users and on its furniture and equipment.

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5. ROOMINESS: It is the general feeling created after a room is well furnished with all
the permanent furniture as a spacious and well-planned.
The room dimensions should be such that the maximum use of room having minimum
possible dimensions can be made. It means the accomplishment of economy of space, at
the same time avoiding cramping of the plan.
Some rooms may create the impression of being crammed with furniture, whereas some
other creates a tunnel-like feeing as we enter.
A square room has no advantage and a rectangular room of the same floor area gives a
better look. A breadth to length ratio of 1:1.2 to 1:1.5 is desirable. When the length
exceeds 2 times its breadth, it creates a tunnel like effect i.e., a feeling as when one is
inside a long tunnel.
Similarly height also plays an important role. A large room with less ceiling height will
give very bad impression, and a small room with large ceiling height will produce a
cavernous effect. Hence, room should have all proportional dimensions. The utility of
space in a room can be increased by providing built in cupboards to accommodate
furniture.

6. GROUPING: Grouping is the planning of two or more related rooms proximity of each
other. It minimises the circulation and at the same time improves the comfort, privacy
and convenience of the inmates of the house. Grouping varies according to the type of a
building. All public buildings should be designed taking into consideration the
movement of the persons from one unit to another without causing disturbance to the
other units. The shape of the building depends upon grouping of various individuals
units.

The following points are to be considered while planning residential building:

1) Verandah adjacent to the drawing room has its own advantage. When the visitors are
more in number they can be accommodated on the verandah. The furniture from the
drawing room should be disturbed through the minimum length. Strangers can be
received on the verandah itself.
2) The dining room close to the kitchen permits an easy serving of dishes in the
desirable state i.e. hot or cold. Further the odours and smokes of kitchen are kept off
from other rooms, bed and drawing rooms in particular.
3) The bed room, toilet and dressing room may be grouped together for better privacy.
4) The bath room and water closet should be nearer to each other. This saves the length
of the water supply pipe. They also collect waste water blended with the body wastes
whose disposable is to be done in an hygienic manner. Both water-closet and bathroom
should be provided with a ventilator at a height of 1.8 m above the floor level to an
outer wall. When the number of occupants is less than 5, it is desirable to have a bath-

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cum-water closet, but when the number exceeds 5, it is better to have two separate
units provided side by side.
5) Kitchen should be nearer to the backyard and doors and windows are so located that
the housewife can have a free unobstructed sight of the children playing in the open
space or in the drawing room.
6) If more than one bedroom is provided, they should have easy access to the drawing
and dining –rooms.
7) Staircase should be centrally located and easily accessible from all the rooms.
8) The water-closet should be away from dining-room and this is mainly to get privacy
of sound and psychological feeling of being away from the insanitary place.

7. CIRCULATION: Circulation is the access into or out of a room. It is the internal

movement inside a building and the area earmarked for it. It is the space used for
getting comfortable communication from one room to another or from one floor to
another. The position of the doors dictates the area of circulation which in turn controls
privacy, comfort and convenience. Circulation inside a house should be simple,
systematic and short. Circulation area should be straight, short, and bright, lighted both
day and night and well ventilated. Circulation should not affect the privacy and should
not interfere with the utility space.

Circulation is of two types:

i) Horizontal circulation: Besides the in front and backside of the doors, central
circulation within a building is facilitated by verandas, corridors, halls and lobbies.
Passages should never be narrow, dark, zigzag or winding. They should be free from
obstructions. Windows-shutters should never flung open into the passages particularly
when people are in motion. No stationery object is to be situated on a corridor or
verandah.

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Area of the horizontal circulation may constitute about 20 % to 25 % of the total plan
area of residential building.
ii) Vertical Circulation: It is movement provided from one floor to another in a multi-
storeys building. It is possible by providing staircases, ramps, elevators and escalators.

If number of floors exceeds 3, a lift has to be provided along with the staircase. In
general lift is located adjacent to staircase. Stairs are to be provided with smooth hand
rail for easy ascent and descent. Stairs are to well ventilate both day and night. They
should have a free and independent access from all rooms. Ramps are common for the
movement of heavy machinery (Work shop, Laboratories).

Escalators have the features of both stairs and lifts, but they are a little slow as
compared to lifts.

8. SANITATION: It is the provision and upkeep of the various components of a house to

keep the inmates cheerful and free from disease. The factors influencing sanitation are
1) Lighting 2) Ventilation 3) Cleanliness

9. CLEANLINESS: Dust harbours bacteria. Besides rendering the surface dull, it creates
health problems. Hence the floor which receives most of the dust should be smooth,
impervious, non –absorbing and uniformly sloping so that it collects less dust and is
easily cleaned.
Dampness is the root cause of infection. Hence walls and floors should be damp-proof.
Sanitary conveniences as bath and water closet should be so designed that the waste
water drains off as quickly as possible. Their flooring should be smooth, impervious,
non-absorbent, non-slippery and given proper slope for the quick drainage. Also walls
of sanitary blocks are to be finished with glazed tiles to a height of one metre above the
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floor level. The corners are preferably rounded off and the flooring is provided with a
required slope for quick drainage.

10. FLEXIBILITY: Flexibility means that a room which is planned for one function be
used for other, if so required.
It is the ease with which a room designated for a particular activity can accommodate
more load temporarily or sometimes with maximum utility. It may have to supplement
the activity of another room as the drawing room being used as a bed room for guests,
kitchen as additional dining room etc. A bigger drawing room, a number of rooms and
verandahs offer flexibility. Independent access to bath and water closet is a basic
feature of flexibility. Flexible planning is very important for public and commercial
buildings.

11. ELEGANCE: Elegance is the grand appearance of the building attained mainly owing
to the elevation which in turn depends on the plan. Without elegance even a best
planned building may not have beauty whilst a poorly planned building, if given a slight
consideration on front portion may produce good elegance.

12. ECONOMY: The building should have minimum floor area with maximum utility. It
will reduce cost of construction and hence will be economical. Economy should not be
achieved at the cost of strength; otherwise the useful life of the building will reduce.
Economy may not be principle of planning but it is definitely a factor which effects
planning.

13. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS:

Besides all the principles of planning discussed, the following practical points should be
kept in mind in the planning of residential building

1) Strength and stability coupled with convenience and comfort of the occupants should
be the first consideration in planning
2) In future, the building may be extended further. Provision for the future expansion
has to be made in the planning in the beginning so that some part already built can be
further extended without dismantling t he existing structure.
3) The elements of the building should be strong and capable of withstanding the
adverse effects of environmental factors that are likely to arise.
4) As far as possible, sizes of rooms should be kept large. Larger rooms can be
shortened by providing movable partitions, but smaller rooms cannot be enlarged.
5) Life period of building should be at least 50 years.
6) Expenditure should not increased unnecessarily for elaborate architectural purpose
like balconies, arches etc.
7) If all bed rooms are in the higher floors, lift should be provided for sick and old or at
least one bed room should be provided in the ground floor.
8) The number of doors and windows should be minimum from safety and strength
point of view
9) To effect the economy, use of locally available material should be used in the
construction.

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❖ BUILDING BYE-LAWS: Every locality has its own peculiarities in respect of weather
conditions, availability of material and labour and thus adopts its own method of
construction. In addition, every locality has certain rules and regulations which help
in controlling the development of locality. The rules and regulations covering the
requirements and ensure the safety of the public, minimum use of rooms, area
limitations are known as “Building bye-laws”.

BUILDING BYE-LAWS ARE NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE THE FOLLOWING OBJECTS:

 Gives guidelines to the architects / engineer and thus help in preplanning the
building activities.
 Allow disciplined systematic growth of buildings/layout and prevents haphazard
development
 Afford safety against fire, noise pollution, structural failures etc.
 They provide proper utilization of space. Hence maximum efficiency in planning
can be derived from these byes –laws.
 Due to these bye-laws, each building will have proper approaches, light, air and
ventilation which are essential for health, safety and comfort.
While framing building bye-laws assistance of experts on various subjects such as town
planning, law, health, civil engineering, traffic, general administrations etc should be
sought due its weightage.

Indian Standard Institution, an organization of Govt of India has published IS 1256

“code of building laws” covering all the salient aspect of building activities.. National
Building Code (NBC) was published by the Govt of India for smooth running of building
activities by realizing the importance of building bye-laws.

Following are the few building bye-laws which govern the building planning.

(1) FLOOR AREA RATIO (FAR): is the ratio of the total covered area of all floors in a
building on a certain plot and to the area of the plot.

Total floor area in all storeys

Floor Area Ratio = Plot Area

The Floor Area Ratio, describes the relationship between the size of a plot and the
amount of floor space it contains. For example, a 50' x 100' lot (5,000 sft) with a single-
story 50' x 50' building (2,500 sft) has a floor area ration of 0.5. If a building with the
same size footprint had 4 stories, the FAR would increase to 2. Higher FARs tend to
indicate more urban (dense) construction and is used by local governments in zoning
codes.

(2) FLOOR SPACE INDEX (FSI): It is the ratio of built up area inclusive of walls of all
the floors and to the area of the land on which the building stands.

Total built-up area or (Total floor area including walls of all floors)
Floor Space Index = Plot Area

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Thus, an FSI of 2.0 would indicate that the total floor area of a building is two times the
gross area of the plot on which it is constructed, as would be found in a multiple-story
building. FSI for residential buildings in the city area is 4. The value of FSI is fixed by
local authority and it is different for different areas and for different buildings of the
town.

Use Area FSI Remarks

Residential Scheme 1 Only Ground floor is allowed.
Residential City area 4 Facing street of > 12 mts width
Residential City area 3 Facing street of < 12 mts width

(3) ROAD SIDE MARGIN:

Width of Proposed Minimum Road Remarks

Roads (mts.) Side Margin (mts.)

Road up to 9mts. and less. 3.00

More than 9 mts and upto
(1)For the existing built up area the
12 mts. 4.50
margins requirement may be
relaxed on merits of individual case
More than 12 mts and
subject to other regulations.
upto 18 mts. 6.00
(2) Minimum side Margin shall be
More than 18 mts and
provided as per regulation no.
upto 40 mts. 7.50
12.4.1(A)(ii).
More than 40 mts. 9.00

(4) THE AREA OF ROOMS:

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(5) HEIGHT OF ROOF: Roof height on each floor is 2.7 mts ( min ) and for bath room
and WC is 2.1 mts ( min)

(6) AREA OF DOORS, WINDOWS & VENTILATORS: This shall be 1/6th to 1/10th of
the floor area of the room. In addition, every room should have ventilator.

(7) STAIR CASE: The stair case shall have area not more than 12 sq mts. The pitch shall
be in the range of 30o to 45o and flight shall have steps neither < 3 nor > 12. Minimum
width of stair shall be 900 mm.
(8) LIFT: This shall be provided for buildings having more than 3 floors excluding the
ground floor.
(9) SEPTIC TANK: shall be provided as per number of floors / rooms.
(10) HEIGHT OF COMPOUND WALL: The maximum height of compound wall on road
side shall not be more than 1.5 mts and the gates shall open inwards. On other sides, the
height of compound was shall be 1.8 mts.
(11) OPEN SPACE: The open space width shall be 1.8 mts (min) and 3 mts (max) for
front, rear and sides.
(12) PARKING SPACE: Parking spaces for cars required for cinemas, shopping areas
and offices located in central areas are to be allocated as per National Building Code.

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Ht. of building: (given in class notes)

Lighting and ventilation reqmts (given in class notes)

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