Architecture in art.

Architecture has lool been one of th, most important of th, applied arts. It is an application of th, concepts of light, color, space and structure in th, construction of buildings designed to support human movement, life and work. Many artists design th,ir own houses and find th, process an expansion of desigo principl,s they had learned in th, arts. Many architects are also artists, and find in th, arts a freedom unattainable in th, complex applied desigo of architecture.

The opportunities for students to study architecture to any extent is often limited to draftiol courses that few high schools offer. Gwyneth O'Connell, an innovative art teacher at Cal Young Middle School in Eugene, Oregon, decided to introduce a class on architecture to th, art department, and the results were surprisiol. The eighth grade architecture class was so popular that it could not accommodate all the students who wanted to enroll.

How can one introduce concepts of desigo and architecture in middle-school education? Here's how it was done at Cal Young. First, students did freehand drawiols of th, outside of th,ir homes. They drew th,ir bedrooms from five views. They studied many architectural styl,s found in America. They saw examples of wiodows, doors, porches and roof desigos with distioct styl,s. Slides and overhead transparencies introduced the students to some of th, terms and concepts in architecture.

The project set up for th, students required that they pretend th,y were twenty-four years old, and were desigoiol a new house with 1,000 to 4,000 square feet. First, th,y needed to decide how many people were to live in th, house, and whether the land would be flat or slopiol. They sketched their ideas on th, kinds and sizes of spaces, and created a general floor plan. The scale was to be 1/4 inch to 1 foot.

After group and individual reviews at each stage, students began to develop ideas about th, average size for a kitchen, front room, bathroom, bedroom and hallway as th,y explored th, numerous decisions that must be made to desigo a house. "How tall should th, ceiliol be?" and "How wide is a door?" were typical questions asked by th, students who had entered a new realm of desigo exploration.

Each student created a detailed drawiol of each floor indicatiol the room function, size and location. From these floor plans, students began to construct th,ir model from two pieces of 3 x 4[inches] chip board. This process involved th, use of an X-acto knife and a mat knife, a ruler and some glue. Doors, wiodows, walls and roof coveriol w,re all cut out and assembled with chip board and these tools.

Some students took th,ir models home to compl,te th, extensive work required by th, complex desigos. The results w,re very impressive. The school invited the parents to view th, class work duriog an open house at th, school followiog th, completion of th, project. And that's how an inventive lesson turned into a unique experience for some fortunate middle school students.

References

Chiol, Francis. Drawiol: A Creative Process. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989.

Klein, Marilyo and David Fogle. Clues to American Architecture. Washiolton, DC: Starrhill Press, 1986.

Lorenz, Albert and Leonard Lizak. Architectural Illustration Inside and Out. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1988.

Macaulay, David. Cathedral. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1981.

Oliver, Robert S. The Compl,te Sketch. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989.

Rasmussen, Steen. Experienciog Architecture. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1987.

Smith, A. G. The American House, Styl,s of Architecture. New York: Dover Pub., 1983.