Site planning is an essential part of the architectural process that involves organizing access to the plot of land, drainage and gradients, privacy, and, importantly, the layout of all of the structures planned for the property.
In professional practice, there you need to have a Development Order (DO) before you may do any work on your site. In order to get the DO, you must submit the Development Plan.
What is Building Planning?
Building planning is the method of setting or arranging various components or units of a building in a systematic manner to form a meaningful and homogeneous structure to meet its functional purposes.
Factors Affect Planning of Building
The following are the major factors affecting to planning of a building:
Function of Building Planning
Topography
Climatic Condition
Building Regulations
Orientation
Principles of Building Planning
Basic Principles of Building Planning
Aspect
In building planning, the Aspect is the placement of various rooms in any buildings with reference to all four directions in such a way that the users of the building would enjoy the natural comforts like sunlight, fresh air, scenery, etc. to the maximum possible extent at different hours of the day.
A room that receives sunlight and air from any particular direction amongst all four directions is said to have the aspect of that direction.
Some are regulated in bye laws; some became rules of thumbs.
2. Prospect
In building design, Prospect refers to the desired outside view from specific rooms/sides of the building.
The objective of prospect is to enhance the outside view by highlighting the better-constructed and better-looking portions of the building’s elevation or end-view, while simultaneously concealing any undesirable ones.
Prospect is explained by surrounding condition aesthetic or bad of the selected site.
It demands the disposition of doors and windows like aspect. However, a good plan should not be altered for the sake of good prospects only.
3. Privacy and Security
Privacy is of the whole building planning regarding the surrounding buildings or roads or some external point outside the subjected building.
In buildings, every element should have some privacy and security which can be maintained by carefully planning entrance-foyer, passages, path-ways, and drives.
Circulation is movement or access of the users within the building, and it may be both horizontal and vertical circulation.
There are a few main purposes of circulation:
Connecting spaces
Fire Safety and Security
Operational and services
In general, the position of access dictates the area of circulation which in turn controls privacy, comfort, and convenience.
Circulation of a building should be independent, easy to understand, systematic, and should be enjoyable as well as safe.
If possible, all the passages and stairs should be well ventilated, lighted, properly planned regarding width, rise, and tread.
5. Properly Zoned
Zoning is the method of planning or arranging two or more related rooms in the proximity of each other.
Zoning means setting different rooms of a building as per their inter-relationship of invitation and transition in the building planning.
The rooms are arranged in the layout in a proper correlation of their functions and due proximity with each other. Zoning varies according to the type of building.
All public buildings should be designed taking into consideration the movement of persons from one unit to another without causing disturbance to the other units.
6. Flexibility
Flexibility means that a space that is planned and designed for a function or a specific purpose be used for another purpose, if so required.
Flexible planning is a very important factor in the planning of public and commercial buildings.
7. Economy and Value
The Economy and Value are a major factor while planning any building.
The common target is the building plan should offer a minimum floor area with maximum utility.
It will reduce the cost of construction of buildings and hence it will become economic.
Sometimes the cost might be higher but the values are higher when considered in long run of the building lifespan.
The economy can be achieved by providing the following measures without reducing the utility and quality of the building. i.e usage of IBS Standardization of sizes of various components and materials of the building.
8. Practical Consideration
After a discussion of all fundamental principles of building planning, some practical points should be additionally considered while designing and building planning:
Fulfilling the building regulations, should be a priority.
Provision for future extensions or adaption without dismantling any part of a building should be taken into consideration while planning.
While building planning any building strength, stability, convenience, and comforts of end-users should be taken in the first consideration.
As far as the possible sizes of the spaces should be kept enough large. It can be shortened by providing movable partition, but the smaller spaces cannot be enlarged easily.