This week’s challenges are designed for you to complete at your “architecture study site” of choice. This could be your school building or another in your neighborhood. It does not have to be a community ‘landmark’ or architecturally significant building, but it could be!

Please upload a digital photo to the site to accompany your responses to the Challenges.

Since Petra and others in the book believe the house talks to them, use speech balloons to communicate what you think this building would say if it could talk. In other words, what mood does it convey to you? Is it friendly or unwelcoming to visitors? Does it fit in with its neighboring buildings or keep its distance? Use the 5 elements of architectural language- shape, scale, color, materials, and texture - to support your answer.

Scan and upload a collage of various speech balloons your students created. Or, send it to us by mail.

Your response will consist of two parts:
1) Download the attached worksheet “Investigate a Building” (in
Color or in Black and White . Have students individually complete this sheet and send at least one sample.

2) Ask students to critique the building according to Frank Lloyd Wright’s design principles. To do so, they should answer the following questions. Please write and send a sample of your responses.

• Does the building appear to be in harmony with its site? Do shapes or materials reflect the natural or urban environment of which it is a part? Explain your answer.
• Does the building function well for its intended purpose (as a home, office, etc)? If so, why? If not, how would you improve the architecture to make it more user-friendly?
• Do ceiling heights change and provide feelings of shelter as well as openness?
• Can people enjoy views of the outside while inside? Is there a sense of “the outside coming in”?

Go to this great source for graph paper: http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/ Print square graph paper and indicate the size of the square as .25 inches.

Using a 1/4”= 1 ft scale, create a scale floor plan of one room of the building. Measure walls, furnishings and room openings like doors and windows. Use floor plan symbols (find them on https://www.floorplansfirst.com/symbols.cfm). In addition, indicate on the plan the area and perimeter of the space. Scan and upload one floor plan or send it by mail.

Extra 15 bonus points! Invite an expert to join you on your tour. The expert may be the architect, an historian, or a user of the building. As a group, develop a set of questions to ask your guest. After the presentation, write a paragraph about how your understanding of the building changed and increased after listening to the expert.

More extra 15 bonus points! Scan and upload, or send by mail, a student’s sketch of the exteriors of the building.