Aren't old houses fascinating? The beauty and aesthetic of design meeting function...when you couple it with the historic context of the era when it was built, it becomes even more so... Ever since that first Lego Duplo set, our son has been building and designing. He has amazing spatial skills (as evidenced by these etch-a-sketch drawings!) and this is his student-led study on architecture, appropriate for middle and high school students. Never fear, mom, I've remembered to address the littles, too! Resources just for them are listed at the bottom. Let's begin with a review of the basic architectural column designs. Of the three columns found in Greece, Doric columns are the simplest. They have a capital (the top, or crown) made of a circle topped by a square. The shaft (the tall part of the column) is plain and has 20 sides. There is no base in the Doric order. The Doric order is very plain, but powerful-looking in its design. Doric, like most Greek styles, works well horizontally on buildings, that's why it was so good with the long rectangular buildings made by the Greeks. The area above the column, called the frieze [pronounced "freeze"], had simple patterns. Ionic shafts were taller than Doric ones. This makes the columns look slender. They also had flutes, which are lines carved into them from top to bottom. The shafts also had a special characteristic: entasis, which is a little bulge in the columns make the columns look straight, even at a distance [because since you would see the building from eye level, the shafts would appear to get narrower as they rise, so this bulge makes up for that - so it looks straight to your eye but it really isn't !] . The frieze is plain. The bases were large and looked like a set of stacked rings. Ionic capitals consist of a scrolls above the shaft. The Ionic style is a little more decorative than the Doric. The Corinthian order is the most decorative and is usually the one most modern people like best. Corinthian also uses entasis to make the shafts look straight. The Corinthian capitals have flowers and leaves below a small scroll. The shaft has flutes and the base is like the Ionian. Unlike the Doric and Ionian cornices, which are at a slant, the Corinthian roofs are flat. Part of the fun of architecture is getting to express your unique individuality!! Below are some fun activities for your students to explore their styles and do just that! What Is Your Architecture Personality? This quiz determines your architecture personality. At the end of the quiz it tells you about the different styles of architecture. This is definitely geared more towards adults than students, but the boys loved taking the tests lots of different ways to see what types of styles they could produce. American House : Styles of Architecture Coloring Book Crisp renderings of over 40 extant structures from Taos Pueblo to striking contemporaries. Spanish Colonial, Georgian, Stick, Gothic, many other styles. Rich and informative captions date, identify, and describe each dwelling. How to Become an Architect This page answers some of the most frequently asked questions about careers in architecture. The advice comes from several architects. You can't learn about architecture without getting hands-on! Here are some of the best kits and activities that we have stumbled upon so far. Lego Architecture : Eiffel Tower Lego has an entire line of architectural designs, ranging from $30 to $180. The Eiffel Tower is on the lower range, and we spent a whole day studying France while building this one!! (Double the learning, double the fun!) Lego Architect Studio This one is the mack-daddy of architectural sets from Lego...including a 300 page booklet and more bricks than any one child should own! Young Architect Kit Create a 3-dimensional design model in just 3 easy steps! Great for aspiring young architects, design and furnish your floor plan with templates and colored pencils that are included. To top it off, this building set is reusable, so you can start from scratch and redesign your floor plans over and over again for endless fun. Finally, David Macaulay's Building Big series at PBS offers students a chance to work with engineering concepts on an interactive site. This site is the accompaniment to his DVD series, which was fascinating for our entire family. Ranging from age 6 to Dad, we all enjoyed watching these videos together. Building Big PBS developed this site for use with the five-part series Building Big by David Macaulay. It covers bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, and tunnels. Interactive activities allow children experience with the challenges of design and construction for each of these structure types as well as engineering labs that cover forces, loads, materials, and shapes. David Macaulay DVD series Pyramid Roman City Castle Cathedral Mill Times Building Big: Bridges/Domes/Skyscrapers/Dams/Tunnels Early Elementary Resources How a House is Built If You Lived Here : Houses of the World American House : Styles of Architecture Coloring Book Victorian Architecture Coloring Page Hands-On Architecture Four activities that let your student play and invent new buildings! These are designed to develop an understanding of building, encourage creativity, and practice techniques. Looking for new ways to challenge your students to excel and pursue subjects of interest? With SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you and your child will have immediate access to 463 courses! Jump right in with the classes you think will be the best fit. New members may use the code FINISHWELL to save big on the Quarterly Membership. Purchase for only $45 (reg. $59.97). Additional membership resources include monthly meal menus, college and career planning resources, printable planners, calendars, videos, World Book online, and more.
A project steeped in the industrial past The construction of a building that includes 35 housing units (privately owned and social housing) and a..
Image 10 of 38 from gallery of 6 Housing Units in Paris / mobile architectural office. Photograph by Cyrille Lallement
Image 39 of 40 from gallery of Unité(s) Experimental Housing / Sophie Delhay architecture. Diagram
LAN architecture has unveiled a new, sustainable social housing complex.
Teach kids about blueprints and architecture with this fun dream house project. Print out blueprints and create and design a house. STEM project idea
Image 9 of 28 from gallery of 34 Social Housing Units In Bondy / Atelier Du Pont. Photograph by Luc Boegly
Image 8 of 18 from gallery of 114 Public Housing Units / Sauquet Arquitectes i Associats. Photograph by Jordi Surroca
Built by LAN Architecture in Paris, France with date 2014. Images by Julien Lanoo. Lot 4.2 is part of the new Clichy-Batignolles mixed development area and is located at the edge of boulevard Pereire,...
Image 5 of 31 from gallery of 35 Social Housing Units / mobile architectural office. Photograph by Charlotte Toscan du Plantier
Located in Vienna, Austria, the design is an eye-catching structure punctuated by full-size trees on each floor
Teach kids about blueprints and architecture with this fun dream house project. Print out blueprints and create and design a house. STEM project idea
Quelques jours à Copenhague : que voir, que faire… Tous nos conseils pour découvrir la capitale danoise !
We hope that these resources will help your children learn more about famous architects with these free printables and unit studies.
Architecture has been the theme for many of my lessons this quarter. My first graders reviewed what an architect is. We looked at Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water," and as with most art works that we look at and discuss, the kids were blown away with this design. During that lesson, the kids looked at the many parts that make up the exterior of a house and then designed their own. We also discussed that architect considers the land where a building will be built and so the kids drew their landscapes as well. This lesson was an extension of the Falling Waters lesson. They designed a 3D model of a house using a paper bag. It was fun seeing the extra goodies they added that made the house their own. ***Here is another architecture related lesson from my TeachersPayTeachers shop. It is based on the paintings and painted buildings by pop artist, James Rizzi. Though it says "art sub lesson," it is written so that anyone can teach it. Here are other architecture related lessons that are completely ready to be taught. All a student needs is paper, pencil and crayons. A Treehouse for Me and Captivating Castles
Image 54 of 60 from gallery of 8 Housing Units in Rue Jean-Bart / Jean-Christophe Quinton architecte. Plan
Image 1 of 18 from gallery of Natura Housing Units / Betillon & Freyermuth Architects. Photograph by Maxime Delvaux
Make a paper city with this fun architecture for kids project! It is fun, it is easy, it will keep them busy, and it is educational!
Do-it-yourself and build the home of your minimalist dreams with the new ‘Plain House’ from Japanese retailer MUJI. This spectacular single-storey home is delivered as a prefabricated unit and keeps clutter to a minimum by including only the essential features. MUJI’s first stair-free home adds to their on-going line of flat-pack houses, which present extraordinary […]
Diébédo Francis Kéré, architect, educator and social activist, has been selected as the 2022 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, announced Tom Pritzker, Chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the award that is regarded internationally as architecture’s highest honor.
Image 4 of 25 from gallery of Avenier Cornejo 88 Housing Units / Avenier Cornejo Architectes. Photograph by Schnepp Renou
Teach kids about blueprints and architecture with this fun dream house project. Print out blueprints and create and design a house. STEM project idea
Yes, zombies. Well, it might not have been what French urbanist Le Corbusier had in mind, but it may as well have been. The Unité d'Habitation are in many was the ultimate in (physically) defensible space, lofted above an open ground floor, sectionally complex with segmented corridors and split ...
Completed in 2013 in Nancy, France. Images by Olivier Dancy. The program of this residence for mental disable people includes a set of common premises (reception, dining room , office, media lounge) as well as...
Unité d'Habitation of Berlin is an apartment building located in Berlin, Germany, designed by Le Corbusier following his concept of Unité d'Habitation. Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation concept was materialised in four other buildings in France with a similar design.
