Component drawings

A component may be defined as any item used in a
building which emanates from a single source of supply
and which arrives on site as a complete and self-
contained unit, whose incorporation into the building
requires only its fixing to another component or
components. Thus, a window is clearly a component, as
is a manhole cover, a door, a section of pre-cast
concrete coping, a mirror. So, for that matter, is a brick.
(A brick wall would be an assembly.)

Two types of component should be distinguished:

1 There is the manufacturer’s product, available off the
builders’ merchant’s shelf, for which no descriptive
drawing need be prepared. Such items as standard
windows, sanitary fittings and proprietary kitchen units
may be described uniquely by the quotation of a cata-
logue reference. If they are to be drawn at all then their
draughting will be in the simplest terms, more for the
avoidance of doubt in the minds of architect and con-
tractor than for any other reason. Certainly any detail as
to their method of construction will be at best redun-
dant, and at worst highly amusing to the manufacturer.

2 There is the special item requiring fabrication—the

non-standard timber window, the reception desk, the

pre-cast concrete cladding panel—and in order that

someone may make it as required, it is necessary for

the architect to define quite precisely what it is he

wants and (in many instances) how he wants it to

be made.

Clearly it is the latter category that is of most concern at

the drawing stage.

In both categories, however, a basic principle holds

good. The component should always be defined as the

largest single recognisable unit within the supply of a

particular manufacturer or tradesman. An example will

make this clear.

Figure 3.1shows an elevation of a row of fixed and

opening lights, contained within a pre-cast concrete

frame and separated from each other by either a brick

panel or a pressed metal mullion. How many window

components are there? We may look at this in various

ways, and all of them would have some logical force

behind them. We could say, for example, that there were

six window components, of which four were of type A

3

CHAPTER

Component,

sub-component and

assembly drawings