Each Layer Takes Something Away
An exploded axonometric that pulls one site apart into stacked transparent layers — kept on white and kept analytical, because the temptation is to render it dramatic and lose the drawing. Six fields.
Two runs of the same template. A park under a flyover beside a working quay — one long strip against an L-shaped edge, both pulled into five layers on white, both registered by vertical dashed lines. The quay run keys its zones and water as bare colour swatches without names, where the park run labels each one.
Generated from this template with the fields shown above — white to all four edges with no vignette anywhere, the complete plan at the base in full colour, and four layers above it each holding one system alone on an otherwise empty footprint. Registration holds: same parallelogram, same angle, same position, tied by fine vertical dashes. The keys sit dark on white in the right margin and can be read. The reference's baseline is why the ground is now the first thing checked. Asked for a white background with generous white space and light transparent layers, it returned a heavy dark vignette wrapping the whole sheet, sinking its own title and both of its keys into low-contrast grey. Everything else about that drawing was excellent, which is the point: the atmosphere cost it the legibility the drawing exists for.
Generated for this library
Input
Site a community park built under a disused flyover,
one long narrow strip beside a road
Layers complete plan · structures · circulation · zones ·
planting and water
Drawn in colour · grey line · one orange · pale flats ·
pale green and blue
Title UNDER THE FLYOVER - turning the grey space beneath
a viaduct into a green living room
Keys one per analytical layer, right margin, small
Ground white, flat, edge to edge
Returned 1 drawing · 3:2 · white, five stacked layers
stack five parallelograms at one isometric angle, evenly
spaced, tied by fine vertical dashed lines
bottom the full-colour plan, the only layer with detail
above each one an extract - structures alone, then paths
alone, then zones alone, then planting alone
ground white to all four edges, no vignette, no gradient,
no atmospheric darkening anywhere
keys small, right margin, dark type on white, legible
numbers 01 at the plan, counting up the stackYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The site
- 2The five layers, bottom to top
- 3What each layer is drawn in
- 4The title, and one line under it
- 5The keys
- 6The ground
Each Layer Takes Something Away
Produce ONE image, 3:2 landscape: an exploded axonometric analysis of one site. Follow every line. Replace only the FIELDS block; everything after it is fixed.
First — do you have the fields?
If any field below still has braces around it, stop and ask. Put all the questions in one short message, and show the example under each one so they can see the shape of a useful answer. Wait for the replies, then draw. Never fill a brace yourself: a value you invented is a value nobody asked for, and it will look exactly as considered as the ones they did give you.
Ask in whatever language they are writing to you in. Translate the questions and the examples; do not make someone read English to tell you what they want.
The examples are only examples. If someone answers a question, use their answer; never fall back to the example because you prefer it.
If the fields are already filled in, ignore this and carry on.
Fields — replace these six lines only
- The site: {what it is, and its shape} e.g. a community park built under a disused flyover, one long narrow strip beside a road
- The five layers, bottom to top: {the complete plan, then four extracts} e.g. the complete plan in full colour · structures — market canopies, courts, shelters · circulation — footpaths, the cycle route, entrances · zones — market, court, rain garden, play, social · planting and water — trees, rain gardens, grass
- What each layer is drawn in: {a treatment per layer} e.g. plan: full colour · structures: pale grey line · circulation: one orange · zones: pale flat colour · planting: pale green and blue
- The title, and one line under it: {a name, and a sentence} e.g. UNDER THE FLYOVER — turning the grey space beneath a viaduct into a green living room
- The keys: {what is keyed, and where} e.g. one key per analytical layer, right-hand margin, small
- The ground: {the background} e.g. white, flat, edge to edge
The register law
This is a drawing, not a render, and the difference is where these runs go wrong.
The ground is white, flat and unbroken to all four edges. No vignette, no atmospheric gradient, no darkening at the corners, no haze behind the stack.
A reference run of this template was asked for a white background with generous white space and light transparent layers. It returned a heavy dark vignette wrapping the whole sheet, which sank its own title and both of its keys into low-contrast grey. Everything else about it was excellent. The atmosphere cost it the legibility the drawing exists for.
Keep it analytical: thin lines, flat pale fills, high contrast type on white.
The subtraction law
The bottom layer is the complete plan, in full colour, with all the detail. It is the only layer that carries everything.
Every layer above it removes information. Each shows one system alone, drawn on an otherwise empty footprint — structures with no planting, paths with no buildings, zones with no paths. Nothing is added going up; things are taken away until only one system is left.
A reader should be able to name each layer without the key.
Registration
Every layer is the same site, at the same isometric angle, at the same scale, in the same position. The footprints are identical parallelograms stacked with even vertical spacing.
Fine vertical dashed lines run through the whole stack at three or four points, connecting the same location on every layer. That registration is what makes it one site pulled apart rather than five drawings arranged in a column.
The treatments
- The plan: full colour, complete.
- Structures: pale grey line with the faintest fill, a soft shadow at most.
- Circulation: one strong accent — orange or red — as lines and arrows, with small round nodes at entrances.
- Zones: flat pale translucent colour, one per zone, clean boundaries, a small label on each.
- Planting and water: soft green and blue shapes only.
Upper layers stay light and translucent. None becomes a solid model.
The page
Title upper left, dark on white, with one line beneath it. Layer numbers down the left margin, 01 at the plan and counting up, each with the layer's name. Keys in the right margin, small, one block per analytical layer, dark type on white. A north arrow and a scale bar at the lower right.
Nothing invented
Layers, treatments and labels come from the fields. Do not add a sixth layer, invent zone names, or supply site data — dimensions, areas, capacities — that nobody gave.
Never
- ✕ a vignette, gradient or any darkening of the ground
- ✕ a layer that adds information rather than removing it
- ✕ layers at different angles, scales or positions
- ✕ a solid or heavily rendered upper layer
- ✕ keys or titles in low contrast
- ✕ invented dimensions, areas or capacities
The result
A drawing that explains a place by taking it apart: one plan at the bottom holding everything, four sheets above it each holding one thing, and enough white around them to read every word.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the six FIELDS lines. Order the layers bottom to top, with the complete plan first — each one above it should be a subtraction from that plan.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the drawing.
- Check the ground before anything else: if the background has darkened into a vignette, the run has made a presentation render and the legends will already be hard to read.
What you swap
- The site
- a community park built under a disused flyover, one long narrow strip beside a road
- The five layers, bottom to top
- the complete plan in full colour · structures — market canopies, courts, shelters · circulation — footpaths, the cycle route, entrances · zones — market, court, rain garden, play, social · planting and water — trees, rain gardens, grass
- What each layer is drawn in
- plan: full colour · structures: pale grey line · circulation: one orange · zones: pale flat colour · planting: pale green and blue
- The title, and one line under it
- UNDER THE FLYOVER — turning the grey space beneath a viaduct into a green living room
- The keys
- one key per analytical layer, right-hand margin, small
- The ground
- white, flat, edge to edge
Before it runs
- A site with genuinely separable systems. If two of your five layers would show the same marks, you have four layers.
- One plan you could actually draw. Every layer above is an extract of it, so a vague site produces five vague sheets.
- Acceptance that this is a drawing, not a render. Atmosphere is what this format trades away for legibility.
When to reach for it
When a place has to be explained rather than shown: a park, a building, a campus, a masterplan. Templates in this style ask for light transparent layers on white and come back atmospheric and dark, with the legends sunk into a vignette.
What changes
- One competition-grade drawing: five site layers floating in isometric, tied together by vertical dashed lines.
- A white ground held throughout, because the analytical register is the whole point and a dramatic one costs the legibility.
- The complete plan at the bottom in full colour, with every layer above it subtracting information rather than adding effects.
- Perfect registration — the same footprint, angle and position on every layer, so a point on one sits directly above the same point on the others.
- One system per layer, so a reader can name what each one is without consulting the key.
Pairs with
- Count Both SidesA value-proposition canvas — a square facing a circle, three regions each — where the two halves are written as pairs, so anything unmatched shows up instead of hiding in a list. Six fields.
- Every Region OccupiedA three-circle overlap diagram where every region you draw has something real in it — held to three sets, because four creates overlaps nobody can fill. Six fields.
- Inner Before OuterA concentric capability model — one subject, three rings, four sectors — where depth means prerequisite rather than decoration. Six fields.