Scale — Architecture
1:500
1:500
scale
One metre becomes 2 mm. A person is 3.5 mm tall, a door 4.2 mm, a 3 m storey 6 mm. Everything below is drawn at 1:500.
Hold any bank card flat against the screen and move the slider until the outline below matches its edges. The setting stays in this browser.
Scale1:500
Subjectblock, bus, person, tower, tree
Grid1 cm on the model
DrawnAtelier AMOD
Sheet10 / 20
Person3.5 mm1.75 m
Door4.2 mm2.1 m
Storey6 mm3.0 m floor to floor
Car9 mm4.5 m long
01Converter
Real size,
Real size,
1:500 size
For a whole building at every scale at once, use the scale calculator.
| A stair riser 17.5 cm | 0.35 mm |
|---|---|
| A chair seat 45 cm | 0.9 mm |
| A person 1.75 m | 3.5 mm |
| A door 2.1 m | 4.2 mm |
| A storey, floor to floor 3 m | 6 mm |
| A car 4.5 m | 9 mm |
| A bus 12 m | 24 mm |
| A 10-storey building 32 m | 64 mm |
| A football pitch 105 m | 21 cm |
| 100 metres 100 m | 20 cm |
| One kilometre 1 km | 200 cm |
| 1 mm on the model | 50 cm |
|---|---|
| 1 cm on the model | 5 m |
| 5 cm on the model | 25 m |
| 10 cm on the model | 50 m |
| 30 cm on the model | 150 m |
| 50 cm on the model | 250 m |
| 1 m on the model | 500 m |
02The masterplan
At 1:500
I
What is modelled
Massing, roof shape and window rhythm. Trees become spheres and cars small blocks; a person is 3.5 mm.
II
What it is used for
Masterplans, campuses and urban blocks, where the relationships between buildings matter more than their brickwork.
III
In the archive
The archive holds 8 models at 1:500, among them Atlas Arena, Garanti Bank Tech Campus and Holland Hall.
03One figure, every scale
The same person
The same person
at every scale
Architecture
Model railway
04From the archive
Built at 1:500
Models from the archive at this scale, cut, assembled and painted by hand.
05The scale rule
Every scale
Architecture ↑Model railway ↓
06Questions
On 1:500
How big is a person at 1:500 scale?
A person 1.75 m tall is 3.5 mm at 1:500. A child of 1.2 m is 2.4 mm and a standard door of 2.1 m is 4.2 mm.
How do I convert 1:500 to real size?
Multiply by 500. One millimetre on the model is 50 cm in reality and one centimetre is 5 m. To go the other way, divide the real size by 500: a 3 m storey becomes 6 mm.
What is 1:500 scale used for?
Masterplans, campuses and urban blocks, where the relationships between buildings matter more than their brickwork. Massing, roof shape and window rhythm. Trees become spheres and cars small blocks; a person is 3.5 mm.
How big would my building be at 1:500?
A building 20 m wide, 12 m deep and 15 m tall is 4 × 2.4 × 3 cm at 1:500. The scale calculator works it out for any building at every scale at once.
Your building, at 1:500, built by hand.