Room (space)

In Turkish architectural practice, mahal is the term for a room or space set aside for a particular use: a living room, bedroom, bathroom, store, corridor or plant room, and even a balcony or terrace. On drawings, each space is tagged with a name, a number and usually its net area, so everyone reading the project knows exactly which space is being discussed.

What a room schedule is for

In construction documents, all spaces are collected in a table, the room schedule. For each space it lists floor, wall, ceiling and skirting finishes, the area, sometimes the ceiling height, and any special notes. Whoever prepares the quantity take-off, the tender package or the site orders works from this table. Spaces with technical requirements, such as wet areas, fire escape routes or clean rooms, are flagged separately. Keeping room numbers stable as the project develops is a small discipline that prevents a lot of confusion between drawings and schedules.

Room schedules and visualization

When preparing interior renders, the room schedule is the most reliable source for which material goes where. A project with clear finish information leaves no guesswork during modelling and material assignment, and the images end up much closer to the space that will actually be built.