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Architecture vocabulary · Design Process

Sketch

Meaning in architecture, with examples

/sketʃ/nounCore term

In architecture, sketch means: A quick freehand drawing used to explore or explain an idea, usually made early in the design process and not drawn to an exact scale.

In Turkish: eskiz, kroki

How it is used

Architects sketch on tracing paper, in sketchbooks and during meetings with clients. You make, do or draw a sketch. 'Sketch' is also a verb, and 'sketch out an idea' means to draw it roughly to see if it works.

Example sentences

  1. She did a quick sketch of the courtyard on tracing paper during the meeting.

  2. Let me sketch out two options for the entrance before we decide.

Common collocations

  • make a sketch
  • quick sketch
  • sketch out an idea
  • concept sketch
  • sketchbook
  • conceptThe central idea that guides a design and gives it a clear direction, such as a strong relationship with the landscape or a building organised around light.
  • 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.
  • design studioThe central course in architecture education, where students develop design projects over a term with regular crits and juries; also a design office.
  • perspectiveA drawing or image that shows a space as the human eye sees it, with lines meeting at vanishing points so that distant objects look smaller.

This word in other fields

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

More terms: Design Process

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