Teller Elementary School: Passion Pursuit

Architecture"Every great architect is – necessarily – a great poet. He must be a

great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.” Frank Lloyd Wright

1. Architecture comes in all shapes and sizes, forms and themes, and has existed for many thousands of years. The following are the main styles of architecture throughout history. Pick one style to research, and design a building of your choice in that style. Or create a timeline of these architectural styles. What world events and/or people inspired each style?

Roman Architecture Gothic Baroque Orientalism Neoclassicism

Art Deco Bauhaus Brutalism Modernism Post modernism

2. The Great Pyramids of Giza are the first architectural wonder of the world. How were these pyramids built? How long did it take?

3. Imhotep designed the first Egyptian pyramids. What do we know about him? How will you share that information?

4. How are the Egyptian pyramids similar and/or different from the Maya pyramids in Central America? Have other cultures built pyramids? How do they compare?

5. Columns are essential to every architect. The Greeks devised three types of columns. What are these column types and what do they look like? What do each column type represesnt? Either draw or construct each type!

6. Roman architecture was unlike anything that had come before it. What discoveries led the Romans to focus on interior spaces that no one had ever seen before? Check out the Colosseum, the Temple of Venus, and the Pantheon! A great resource is http://www.historyforkids.net/roman-architecture.html

7. Watch Build Big: Domes to see how the use of arches led to the design and construction of domes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zvL6H4uDuw

8. Much of the design, geometry, and use of themes and symbols in architecture come from the design of churches, temples, mosques, and temples. Check out the some of the greatest (and most stunning) architectural landmarks (below) and then design your own religious place of worship. Write a paragraph about how your design connects with the religious beliefs of those that might worship there.

Pyramids of Teotihuacan - Mexico Temple Complex of Karnak – Thebes, Egypt The Meteora Monasteries – Greece The Temple Mount - Jerusalem, Israel The Temple of the Jaguar – Tikal, Guatemala Angkor Wat – Cambodia Borobudur – Indonesia Delphi – Greece The Ziggurat of Ur - Iraq The Pantheon - Rome

9. To see how cathedrals

are made, watch The Second Voyage of the Mimi, episode 12 (14:45) on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WRnFQgoBAg You may need to watch at home as YouTube is often blocked at school. Also, David Macaulay has a great book about cathedrals.

10. Castles were an early attempt to combine beauty and purpose. Research castles (David Macaulay also has a great book about castles). Either draw (and label) a blueprint of a castle, tell how castles were built, or build your own castle.

11. The Colosseum was built over 2,000 years ago for gladiator games. Check it out! Today, we continue to build huge stadiums, such as the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing, China [pictured below].

Pick a sport and design a stadium that would effectively hold that sport and its spectators. Include appropriate playing dimensions, seating, bathrooms, food vendors, locker rooms for players, and so on.

12. Architects and engineers need to consider weather and other natural forces (such as earthquakes).

See Ms. Bass to learn more about Haiti and the impact of the 2010 earthquake.

Find out about a Japanese company that is using air to earthquake proof buildings.

Interview an architect or an engineer to learn more about this topic. What ideas do you have to help buildings withstand forces of nature?

13. Frank Lloyd Wright was a famous architect who designed many kinds of buildings all over the world. One of his deepest beliefs was that each building he created

should be integrated into the landscape, or site, on which it was built. He made buildings that were in harmony with nature.

Check out Fallingwater below. A client asked Wright to build him a house near this waterfall, which he loved. Instead, Wright built the house right on top of it, telling his client, “I want you to live with the waterfall, not just look at it.”

Pick a location: beach, desert, plains, hills, mountain, snowy area, and so on. Then design and draw a building that best fits in this landscape. Write a small paragraph describing why that building fits its site.

14. If you are interested, read The Wright 3 (by Blue Balliet), a fictional mystery about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House in Chicago.

15. Research any of these architects, their inspirations, and their completed works:

Filippo Brunelleschi Andrea Palladio Louis Sullivan Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Le Corbusier Louis Kahn Michael Graves Norman Foster

Richard Rogers Tadao Ando Zaha Hadid Frank Gehry I. M. Pei Eero Saarinen Richard Mieier Renzo Piano

16. Louis Sullivan, is remembered as the architect that built 256 different buildings and skyscrapers in Chicago. He coined the phrase, “Form Follows Function.” What does

that mean? Can you give real life examples of where the form of an object is closely tied its function?

17. Disasterectecture! Building aren’t always overnight successes. Sometime they are disliked, sometimes they fall down, and sometimes they fall out of fashion. Find some examples of architectural disasters. Ms. Taft might be able to help you interview someone who is involved in documenting local disasters!

18. Your skills as an architect have become well-known. A family has asked you to design their mountain cabin. However, they have some very specific requests about the design of their house. See the attached sheet for the information that you’ll need.

19. Design an ideal playground for your school. See the planning sheet that is attached. Or design an indoor play warehouse.

20. Design the ideal school. See the planning sheet that is attached.

21. How is a building like a human body? How can you create a 3D model to show your comparisons?

22. Check out The Aspiring Architect: An Activity Book for Kids (Ms. Bass has it). See if there are any activities that you’d like to do.

23. Create your own project related to architecture.

Designing a Mountain Cabin

Your skills as an architect have become well-known. A family has asked you to design their mountain cabin. However, they have some very specific requests about the design of their house:

No larger than 1600 square feet One floor, no stairways 3 bedrooms—parents’ room, baby’s room, older child’s room The parents’ room needs to have one wall that is exactly 10 feet long. The baby’s room must be next to the parents’ room and should be perfectly

square. A long rectangular room for the older child, who likes to do cartwheels before bed A closet in each bedroom and 2 extra closets for storage, which can be anywhere in

the house An artist’s studio that is no larger than 80 square feet and definitely not near the

kitchen because of the cooking smells 1 or 2 bathrooms A semi-circular reading nook that sticks out from the living room A separate dining room is not necessary but there should be plenty of eating space

in the square kitchen.

Please create a scale drawing of a house for this family. Incorporate their design specification regarding size, shape, and placement of particular rooms.

Use graph paper for your scale drawing. Label the measurements of each room on the drawing. Choose your ratio: 1 inch = 1 foot? 1 cm. = 1 foot? ¼ inch = 1 foot? Choose a ratio that fits your graph paper and allows you to easily see the rooms. Include a key on your drawing so that others will be able to understand it.

Compute the area of each room and any hallways and label your scale drawing with these measurements. Indicate the total square footage (area) of this mountain cabin.

Playground Design

Determine what you want in your playground. Think about the elements you and your classmates like about the school playground. What structures are played with most often? Are there too few of some items? What is missing that they have played on at other playgrounds?

Measure the Teller playground and determine its square footage. This will be the square footage for your playground, but you can change the shape. What age range or ranges will your playground serve?

Remember that a playground is more than equipment. How many trees will be desirable for shade? Where should grass be and how much of the playground should be grass? Will there be picnic tables, benches, and so on? Will there be playing fields? For which sports?

Begin to brainstorm your ideas with a list or drawings. Don’t forget to research ideas on the internet.

Develop a scale so that your playground fits on one sheet of paper. (Ms. Bass has large graph paper.) Include a key detailing your scale. Have an adult check your scale before you continue.

Ask yourself the following questions: Will your equipment, trees, open space, and other elements fit in the square

footage that you have? Is each piece of equipment age-appropriate for the kids who will use this

playground? Have you gotten feedback from your classmates? What about feedback from

teachers? Is there enough running room around each piece of equipment? If you are

unsure how much physical space is needed around a given piece of equipment, ask to go outside to the playground to take measurements.

Is there enough room around swings and other moving pieces of equipment? What is appealing about this plan? What looks like it will work well? Do you see

any trouble spots? Is there a place for parents or teachers to sit while supervising children?

Create a rough draft of your playground. Take your time in this stage and do not rush through the creation of a draft. You may change your mind – you may come across new ideas – you may erase and erase. That’s okay!! Show an adult your rough draft.

Finalize the layout of your playground, with all of the areas and elements that you want included. Use all of your space. Include a title, key, scale, and your name.

Extensions:

Research the cost of their designs using catalogs and/or websites. Did you include the costs for any benches or picnic tables? What about trees and grass? Calculate a total cost for your playground. Were you surprised at the final cost?

From the scale drawing, create a 3-dimensional model of your playground.

School Design

Determine what you want in your ideal school.

Ask yourself the following questions: Would you arrange students and classes by age or grade? Or do you think

there is a better way of grouping learners? What is the ideal class size? How many classrooms are needed? What electives and specials do you want? What spaces are needed for these

classes? Do you want your school to be small, medium, or large in terms of number

of students? What technology do you want in this school? How will technology impact the

spaces? What other facilities do you want: health office, counseling office,

auditorium, cafeteria, indoor gym, swimming pool, track, sports fields, garden, greenhouse, art studio(s), theater, music and band rooms, language lab, science lab(s), library, parent lounge, etc.?

Ask classmates, teachers, principals, and parents for their ideas, too. Begin to brainstorm your ideas with a list or drawings. Don’t forget to research ideas on the internet.

Develop a scale so that your school fits on one sheet of paper. (Ms. Bass has large graph paper.) Include a key detailing your scale. Have an adult check your scale before you continue.

Create a rough draft of your school. Take your time in this stage and do not rush through the creation of a draft. You may change your mind – you may come across new ideas – you may erase and erase. That’s okay!! Show an adult your rough draft.

Finalize the layout of your school, with all of the areas and elements that you have included. Use all of your space. Include a title, key, scale, and your name.