Why We Draw Sections First

Most practices draw the plan first, then cut a section through it to check the plan works in three dimensions. We do the opposite, and it is not a style choice — it changes what gets designed first.

A plan answers where. A section answers what it is like to be there: the height of a sill against a seated eye-line, whether a stair lands in daylight or shadow, whether the ceiling drops where a drop actually matters. On Kunsthalle, the section through the top-lit hall was fixed before a single exhibition wall was placed, because the light quality in that room was the brief, not a consequence of meeting it.

The risk is a beautiful section wrapped around a plan that doesn't work for circulation. We check that second, deliberately, once the section has done its job.