A bird’s eye view is a common term used to describe an architectural drawing that shows a structure from an overhead perspective. This type of drawing provides a unique vantage point to understand the layout, design, and spatial relationships of a building or space. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what defines a bird’s eye view architectural drawing and why it’s such a useful visualization tool for architects, builders, and anyone interested in the built environment.
What is a Bird’s Eye View Drawing?
A bird’s eye view drawing is a technical illustration that depicts a building or space as it would be seen from above. Imagine you are a bird flying over a property – the aerial perspective allows you to see all parts of the structure and landscape from an elevated, top-down angle. While dimensions like height and side profiles may be distorted, a bird’s eye view provides excellent insight into floorplans, circulation patterns, roof shapes, and how the building fits into the surrounding site context. Usually drawn to scale, these drawings present a measurable overhead layout view not achievable from a human perspective on the ground. They enable accurate evaluation of functional relationships between spaces, visualizing room connections, circulation paths, entry/exit points, parking, landscaping, and more.
Key Features
There are a few key features that define bird’s eye view architectural drawings:
- Overhead perspective – The illustration is an aerial view looking directly down on the structure, as though the illustrator were hovering above it.
- Building footprint – The outline of the building’s perimeter and roof shape can be clearly seen.
- Measurable scale – The drawing will be presented at a measurable architectural scale, such as 1/4″ = 1′.
- Functional details – Room names and layouts are included, circulation is clear, entryways visible.
- Context – Surrounding landscape features, streets, sidewalks are illustrated for spatial context.
These technical drawings don’t typically include decorative elements, furnishings, or illustrations of people. Rather, they focus on the functional layout and design of spaces.Scale, measurements, and labeling make them highly practical references for planning and construction.
Types of Bird’s Eye View Drawings
There are a few specific types of bird’s eye view drawings used in architecture and construction:
Site Plan
This is an overview of an entire property or construction site as seen from above. The drawing will include the building footprint as well as driveways, parking, vegetation, fencing, utilities, topography, and any relevant site details. Site plans depict how the building fits into the site context and are especially useful during planning and permitting.
Floor Plans
Floor plans illustrate an overhead view of a building’s internal layout one floor at a time. They highlight individual room dimensions, arrangements, uses, and connections between spaces. Floor plans typically include door locations, windows, stairs, walls, columns, and sometimes furniture layouts. Stacked floor plans assemble each level to communicate spatial relationships throughout the building.
Room Layouts
For interior spaces, focused bird’s eye view drawings can illustrate how furniture, equipment, and interior architectural elements fit within a room. This is especially useful for complex spaces like kitchens, laboratories, manufacturing facilities, and similarly intricate interiors.
Uses for Bird’s Eye Views
Some of the valuable applications for bird’s eye view drawings include:
- Design Development – They help architects design building form, scale, and organization of layouts.
- Communication – Illustrate design concepts clearly to clients, stakeholders, and other project collaborators.
- Construction Plans – Provide measurable drawings for bidding and construction phases.
- Marketing – Help sell or lease real estate by showing spatial layouts.
- Records – Archive as-built drawings for facilities management use.
For each of these applications, the specific, measurable overhead perspective is much more useful than general exterior views. The ability to crisply communicate scale, form, organization, and context is what makes the bird’s eye such a vital architectural drawing tool.
Relationship to Other Architectural Drawings
Bird’s eye views drawings closely relate to various types of architectural illustrations that serve different representative purposes:
Section
Sections are cutaway views revealing interior space arrangements in profile. Cross sections and longitudinal sections visually communicate vertical spatial relationships.
Elevation
Elevations illustrate the exterior facade of a building from a frontal, straight-on perspective. These communicate design, massing, materials, doors, windows, etc.
Axonometric
Axonometric projections are a type of parallel line drawing that shows a 3-dimensional building form unfolded. This oblique perspective depicts all sides simultaneously.
Perspectives
1, 2, or 3-point perspective drawings add depth and realism to illustrate interior and exterior architectural views from a human eye level perspective.
Each drawing conveys important, but different, information. Bird’s eye views offer measurable use and circulation information unmatched by these other drawing techniques. Using complementary combinations gives the fullest impression of a building.
Origins & History
The practice of architectural drawing is thousands of years old, used since ancient times to plan, design, and document buildings and cities. However, the specific bird’s eye view technique became popular more recently. Some key points in the origins and evolution of bird’s eye view drawing include:
- Renaissance Era – Italian artists pioneered perspective drawing techniques to add realism.
- 17th Century – Dutch artists painted highly detailed overhead cityscape views.
- 18th Century – French artists popularized the aerial landscape view painting style.
- 19th Century – Photographic aerial views were taken from hot air balloons.
- Early 20th Century – Architectural plans evolved formal conventions for orthographic views.
- Today – 3D building models can easily generate bird’s eye view drawings.
While once painstakingly produced by hand, modern CAD software makes constructing accurate scaled overhead drawings much simpler for today’s architects. The core function of communicating spatial layouts through an aerial perspective remains unchanged.
Bird’s Eye Views in Built Projects
Bird’s eye views are common in essentially all architectural drawing sets because they are so useful for understanding layout, orientation, circulation, and spatial adjacency. Some well-known buildings that prominently feature bird’s eye view drawings in their original presentation drawings include:
- The Parthenon – Ancient Greek temple with elaborately organized floor plan.
- Hagia Sophia – Interior layout conveying the grand Byzantine church design.
- St. Peter’s Basilica – High Renaissance church with extensive site considerations.
- Villa Savoye – Le Corbusier modernist villa integrated with the landscape.
- Falllingwater – Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece cantilevered over a waterfall.
- Sydney Opera House – Drawings revealed the geometry of the unique shell structure.
In every case, the bird’s eye views were essential for designers and builders to thoughtfully shape, orient, and integrate these iconic buildings.
Conclusion
A bird’s eye view drawing is an invaluable architectural illustration. The measurable overhead perspective provides practical insight into the layout and organization of a building and its surroundings. This technique has been used for centuries to plan, design, and construct structures of all scales with clarity. From a quick sketch to understand a room layout, to a presentation drawing selling an innovative design, the bird’s eye view remains a critical communication tool for built environment professionals and an insightful view into architecture.
