La sección como relato — the section as the narrative of a space. In kitchen design, the section drawing is the most important drawing in the set. It shows what the plan cannot: how the ceiling height relates to the countertop, whether the window sill is at the right height for the view, how the hood sits in the space, and whether the kitchen feels compressed or generous in volume.
At MÉTODO, kitchen design begins in section. The plan follows.
What the Section Shows That the Plan Cannot
A kitchen floor plan shows area, layout, traffic paths, and appliance locations. It is a useful document. But it answers none of the questions that determine the spatial quality of a kitchen:
- Is the ceiling high enough to stack visual weight — upper cabinets, pendant lights, a hood — without compression?
- Does the kitchen window sill start below the countertop level, so the countertop floats against the view, or above it, so the stone countertop reads against an opaque wall?
- Is there an overhang at the roof that shades the kitchen from afternoon sun, and at what time of year does it stop providing shade?
- Where does the ceiling plane change — lower over the kitchen work zone, higher over the dining connection — and does that change create a spatial datum or an awkward transition?
None of these questions are answered in plan. They are answered in section.
The Kitchen Section at 1:20
A kitchen section at 1:20 shows the following dimensions at the scale of human experience:
- Floor-to-ceiling height (typically 2.7 to 4.0 m in well-designed residential kitchens)
- Countertop height (90 cm standard, or 85 to 95 cm custom to the client's height)
- Upper cabinet depth (30 to 35 cm) and its position relative to the soffit or ceiling
- The gap between countertop surface and the underside of upper cabinets (typically 45 to 55 cm) — narrow gaps compress the kitchen even in generous rooms; wide gaps make the cabinets feel disconnected
- Hood height above the range (70 to 75 cm for gas, 60 to 65 cm for induction) and the space the hood occupies in the elevation
- Glazing sill and head heights, and whether they align with the countertop, the upper cabinet, or the ceiling
At 1:20, a kitchen section with a human figure silhouette at 1.70 m shows the client what they will experience spatially before anything is built. This is information that no 3D render conveys accurately — renders flatten perspective and distort scale in ways that sections do not.
Kitchen Elevations: The Millwork Drawing
While the section shows vertical spatial relationships, the kitchen elevation shows the composition of each wall face. An elevation is a true, orthogonal view of a wall — not a perspective, not a render, not a photograph.
Each wall of a kitchen is drawn as an elevation at 1:20 in the MÉTODO drawing set. The elevation shows:
- Cabinet unit boundaries and their proportions — width, height, the reveal between units
- Door and drawer configurations within each unit
- Appliance integration — the refrigerator panel, the dishwasher face, the oven column — and how their heights align with adjacent cabinet tops
- Stone panel layout on the backsplash wall — slab orientation, joint locations, field size
- Hardware positions — pulls, knobs, built-in handles — at their exact heights
- Lighting — under-cabinet strip location, pendant drop point from ceiling
The elevation is the primary fabrication document for the millwork fabricator. An elevation that does not include the stone panel layout or the lighting position forces the fabricator to interpret or the contractor to improvise — both of which produce results that deviate from design intent.
Section Details at 1:5: Where the Design Lives
The overall kitchen section at 1:20 shows spatial relationships. The section detail at 1:5 shows how materials meet. This is where the design quality is encoded.
A 1:5 section detail of the countertop-to-cabinet transition shows:
- The stone countertop thickness and edge profile (1.5 to 3 cm stone, with a specified radius or chamfer)
- The shadow reveal between the stone and the wood face frame below (typically 4 to 8 mm, designed to allow stone removal without damaging wood and to accommodate differential movement)
- The substrate below the stone — cement board, plywood, or a steel channel — and its relationship to the cabinet top
- The wood face frame dimension and how it relates to the door gap below
Without this detail, the countertop-to-cabinet transition is resolved by the stone fabricator and the cabinet fabricator independently, producing a joint that may look acceptable but was not designed. In kitchens with authentic materials, this joint is visible every day.
The Ceiling Section: Volume Before Fixtures
The kitchen ceiling section is the most overlooked drawing in residential kitchen design. It shows the ceiling plane's height, any changes in plane (coves, soffits, beams), the hood's relationship to the ceiling, and where lighting fixtures penetrate the plane.
At MÉTODO, the ceiling section is drawn before fixtures are selected — because the ceiling plane decision (flat, stepped, or vaulted; drywall, wood plank, or exposed structure) determines what lighting strategy is possible, and the lighting strategy determines which fixtures are appropriate.
A kitchen with a flat 2.7 m ceiling reads differently from one with a vaulted 3.5 m ceiling even at the same footprint. The section shows this. A render might not.
Using Section Drawings in Client Communication
In MÉTODO, every client review that involves spatial decision-making is conducted with a section drawing on the table, not only a plan or a 3D model. The section drawing, explained with a scale reference, allows clients to evaluate the spatial experience before construction begins.
Common client decisions that section drawings make concrete:
- Should the kitchen ceiling be raised at the expense of a room above?
- Is the window large enough to connect the cook to the view while standing at the range?
- Does the island height need to vary — lower bar height on the dining side, standard counter height on the working side?
These decisions cannot be made confidently from a plan. The section makes them unambiguous.
Próximos pasos
Kitchen sections and elevations are not bureaucratic documents produced for permit submission. They are the design instruments that resolve the spatial quality of a kitchen before any construction begins. In MÉTODO projects, we do not present kitchen designs without section drawings — because a design that exists only in plan has not yet been fully designed.
Conoce el método de MÉTODO to understand how we use section and elevation drawings as the primary design tools in our kitchen and residential interior projects.