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Architecture vocabulary · Space, Form and Composition

Layout

Meaning in architecture, with examples

/ˈleɪaʊt/nounCore term

In architecture, layout means: The way rooms, furniture or areas are arranged within a plan, including their sizes, positions and relationships to each other.

In Turkish: yerleşim, plan düzeni, plan şeması

How it is used

Used for houses, offices, kitchens and whole sites. Architects test, change and improve layouts, and clients often comment on them first. The phrasal verb 'lay out' means to arrange: 'We laid out the flats around a central corridor'.

Example sentences

  1. The new layout gives every bedroom its own bathroom.

  2. Let's try an open-plan layout for the office floor.

Common collocations

  • floor layout
  • office layout
  • kitchen layout
  • furniture layout
  • change the layout
  • floor planA drawing that shows a building from above as if it were cut horizontally about a metre above the floor, showing walls, doors, windows and rooms.
  • open planA layout with few or no internal walls, so that functions such as cooking, eating and living, or many desks in an office, share one large space.
  • circulationThe way people move through and between the spaces of a building, including corridors, stairs, lifts, ramps and entrances.
  • diagramA simple, abstract drawing that explains one idea about a design, such as how spaces connect, how people move or where the sun comes from.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Space, Form and Composition

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