Slide outline for Lesson 4.12. Day 1 has eleven slides; Day 2 has eleven. Keep the conversion line on the board both days: at 1/2 inch equals 1 foot, one square is 6 inches, 6 squares is 36 inches, 5 squares is 30 inches, 10 squares is 60 inches.
Day 1
Do now
- Here is a 12 by 14 room with the bed in the middle of the floor
- Redraw it at 1/4 inch equals 1 foot with the bed against a wall
- Add a straight path from the door to the window
- Two minutes to draw, one to compare with a neighbor
Teacher notes
Image: a rough plan of a 12 by 14 room with a bed floating in the center of the floor and nothing else.
Day 6 of the floor plan stack. Skim the stack before class for scale errors; if several students drew a 12-foot wall as 12 squares at the wrong scale, slow the demo down.
Thirty inches
- I walk through the tape strip. Easy.
- I carry a laundry basket through it. Harder.
- A student walks through it with the walker. Watch.
- Thirty inches is fine for you. It is not fine for Grandpa Okafor.
Teacher notes
Image: two labeled masking tape strips on the floor, one 36 inches and one 30 inches apart.
[Sal: borrow a walker, or a wheelchair from the nurse's office. Ten seconds of rolling through the 30-inch strip does more than any slide.] Land it: today every path in your plan gets measured.
Plan: Scale Drawing and Traffic Flow
- Lesson 4.12, Day 1 of 2
- Today: draw the room to scale and place the furniture
- Tomorrow: measure every path, get reviewed, revise
- A floor plan is a promise that everything fits and everyone can move
Teacher notes
Image: a finished student-style bedroom plan with furniture, shaded paths, and the scale written in the corner.
The project scale
- 1/2 inch equals 1 foot. Two graph squares per foot.
- A 12-foot wall is 24 squares
- Tiny house teams: 1/4 inch equals 1 foot on letter paper, or 1/2 inch on 11 by 17
- Write the scale in the bottom corner. Write your client's name at the top.
Teacher notes
This is the Lesson 4.10 scale doubled, so a bedroom fills the sheet. Say the rule out loud: the numbers on the card are not up for debate.
Draw the outline
- Read the room measurements on your card
- Count the squares before you draw a line
- Four walls with a ruler
- Check with a partner: does 12 feet equal 24 squares?
Teacher notes
Image: the Okafor room outline, 11 by 12, drawn on graph paper with the square count marked on two walls.
Draw the Okafor room on the board while they draw theirs. Walk and count squares with them.
Doors, windows, closet
- Door: leave a gap as wide as the door (3 feet is 6 squares), draw the line plus the quarter-circle swing
- Bedroom doors and front doors swing in. The tiny house door swings out.
- Window: a break in the wall with two thin parallel lines
- Closet: a small rectangle the size the card gives, open to the room
Teacher notes
Image: the three symbols drawn large and labeled: door with swing arc, window, closet.
Common mistake is the swing drawn into the hall. Say it here and say it again on Day 2.
Zones first
- Sleep, work, store, sit, move
- Tiny house: cook, wash, eat, sleep, sit, store, move
- The zone that needs light goes near the window
- The zone that needs quiet goes away from the door
- Pencil each zone as a light circle. Zones are not furniture yet.
Teacher notes
Image: the Okafor plan with four light circles labeled sleep, sit, store, move.
The furniture cut-outs
- Page 2 of the handout: real furniture sizes at our scale
- A twin bed is 3 by 6.5 feet, which is 6 by 13 squares. A desk is 2 by 4.
- Cut the pieces your client needs. Needs first, wants second.
- Slide them around. Do not glue anything today.
- The bed goes down first, then the chair or desk, then storage
Teacher notes
Image: the cut-out sheet with a twin bed, a dresser, an armchair, and a nightstand cut out and sitting loose on a plan.
Seventeen minutes on this step. Ask every pair the same question: which piece did you put down first, and why?
Anything not on the sheet
- Measure a real one, or look it up
- Round to the nearest half foot
- Draw the rectangle and write the real size on the piece
Teacher notes
This is where the optional homework from Lesson 4.11 pays off. Any student who measured a bed or a dresser at home uses their number.
Freeze the plan
- Trace lightly around every piece, or tape it with removable tape
- Plan and loose pieces go in your project folder
- Tomorrow every path gets measured and a peer gets to find your mistakes
Teacher notes
Five minutes. Count the folders as they go in the bin.
Sticky note out
- The first piece I placed was ___ because ___
- The piece I could not fit is ___
Day 2
Teacher notes
Two read aloud. Stick the notes on the board under each client's name. The "could not fit" notes are your board examples for tomorrow.
Do now
- Sketch a 6 by 9 foot entry with the front door on a short wall
- Add a bench and a wall of hooks
- Shade the walking path from the front door to the inside doorway
- Is the path 36 inches? Write yes or no and how you know.
- Two minutes to draw, one to check
Teacher notes
Day 7 of the floor plan stack. This is the Nguyen card, so the mudroom students get a free rehearsal. The bench is the usual culprit: an 18-inch bench in a 6-foot wall leaves 54 inches, which passes.
Traffic flow
- Lesson 4.12, Day 2
- Today: measure every path, check the principles, peer review, revise
- A path is as wide as its narrowest point. Measure the pinch, not the entrance.
Teacher notes
Image: one plan with a path shaded from the door to the bed, wide at the door and pinched to 24 inches at the foot of the bed, with the pinch circled.
The rules
- 36 inches for any walker or wheelchair path, and for a front entry: 6 squares
- 30 inches everywhere else: 5 squares
- A wheelchair turning circle is 60 inches across: a circle 10 squares wide
- The door swing stays clear. Nothing tall in front of a window that must open.
- A bed needs one long side open to a path
- A crib stays 36 inches from a window, cord, heater, or anything that could fall
Teacher notes
Image: page 3 of the handout with a small picture beside each rule.
These numbers come from the ADA for the 36-inch and 60-inch lines and from common residential planning for the 30-inch line. A home is not a public building, so this is not code; we use them because they work.
Shade and measure
- Shade every path a person walks: door to each zone, and zone to zone
- Measure the narrowest spot in squares, write the width in inches beside it
- Circle any path that fails
- Draw the turning circle if your client uses a wheelchair
- Eight minutes
Teacher notes
Watch for measuring in squares and forgetting to convert. Six squares is 3 feet is 36 inches. Point at the board line every time.
Now check the principles
- Is there a focal point? What does a person see first from the door?
- Is the room balanced, or is everything on one wall?
- Is each piece in proportion to the room? A full bed in an 8 by 9 room eats it.
- Name your focal point on the plan
Teacher notes
This is Lessons 4.6 and 4.7 coming back. A plan that passes every path and has nothing to look at is not finished.
Peer review, 10 minutes
- Swap plans with a pair who has a different client
- Use the checklist, page 4. Fifteen boxes, yes or no. Every no gets a note.
- Mark, do not fix. Colored pen. The owner decides.
- Write two things that work for this client and one thing to change
Teacher notes
Image: the checklist with the first five boxes filled in and a note beside a no.
This is the same routine as Lesson 1.19. A review with fifteen yeses and no notes goes back. "Add more stuff" is not a client need; send the reviewer to the card.
Questions I will ask while you review
- How many squares is 36 inches at our scale? At 1/4 inch equals 1 foot?
- Show me the path from the door to the bed. Where is it narrowest?
- Why does a bed need one open side? Who is that side for?
- Your peer wants the desk under the window. What does the client gain and lose?
Teacher notes
The desk-under-the-window answer: more light, but the window may not open and a wheelchair user may not reach the latch. Take both sides.
Revise, 12 minutes
- Fix every failed path
- Fix every checklist no you agree with
- Glue or tape the final pieces down
- On the back of the plan: two changes you made and why, one suggestion you rejected and why
Teacher notes
Go straight to the plans with a circled path. The push is always the same: you have a 28-inch path and a 36-inch rule. What moves?
Before and after
- Two pairs hold up the plan
- The class names what moved and why
- Three minutes
Teacher notes
Pick one plan where a path was fixed and one where a suggestion was rejected for a good reason. Rejecting well is a skill.
Exit card
- One path in my plan is ___ inches wide, which passes because ___
Teacher notes
Sort the cards into pass and fail on the math. "It passes because it looks big enough" is a fail; those students get a two-minute check at the start of Lesson 4.13. Preview: tomorrow every piece on this plan has to be paid for.