Architecture
n
Mary Erickson and Michael Delahunt
Most art teachers would agree that architecture is an important form of visual art, but they do tural vocabulary. Terms include: roof, wall, door, window, chimney, floor (story or level), foundation, porch (entryway), patio (deck or terrace), with one of five assigned environ-
ments: near water, in mountains, in
the desert, on hills, and on plains.
not always include it in their curricu-
stairs, balcony, arch, railing, post (col- Lesson Three
lums. We would like to share core ideas umn, pillar or upright), peak (gable),
In the third lesson, students learn five
from Architecture and Environment,
shutters, trim (decoration), turret
ways that architects can design houses
a teaching resource that we developed (tower), and dormer.
to harmonize with their environments:
out of a long-term interest in teaching
harmony with a place, harmony with
architecture and our fascination with
Lesson Two
local materials, harmony between
the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. This
unit has been taught with great suc-
In the second lesson, students prac-
tice designing houses with building
inside and outside, harmony with cli-
mate, and harmony with budget.
cess at the sixth-grade level.
parts they learned about in lesson one. We model the interaction between
Lesson One
In the first lesson, students describe
a specific house using basic architec-
Beginning to draw attention to rela-
tionships between architecture and
environment, we challenge students
to make their first designs contrast
architect and client by assigning each
student a client whose specific needs
and interests we expect the final
design project to satisfy. Students
