Follow-up to 2008 AIA Convention / Session TH 29:
Tens of thousands of high school students across US take an
architectural drafting course each year. While students who
emerge from these courses often become highly proficient in CAD and
rendering software, many students lack both an understanding of
architectural concepts and the skills to look critically at the
built environment around them. Many high schoolers are also
not typically exposed to the design process, sustainable
principles, or influential contemporary and historic buildings.
To address this challenge, the Chicago Architecture Foundation
(CAF) has recently published The Architecture Handbook: A
Student Guide to Understanding Buildings. As a college-prep
architecture textbook for high school students, the book is the
first of its kind and has broad applications for classrooms across
the country.
CAF + AIA + CPS
This ground-breaking project-led by CAF- set out to radically
change the way that architecture was taught to 1,500 teenagers in
the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the country's third-largest
school district. A strong and unique 3-year partnership that
brought together AIA members, public high school teachers and
students, career and technical education officials, and local
universities has led to dramatic curriculum reform.
History of the project
The Architecture Handbook grew out of two important
factors. First, over the past 26 years, the Chicago
Architecture Foundation and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have
worked closely together to run an architecture competition for
Chicago high school students. Throughout the school year, AIA
members and architectural interns assist in running CAF's
architecture skill building workshops, participate in a series of
architect school visits, and serve on the competition's
jury.
Second, CAF staff gained experience writing and publishing
Schoolyards to Skylines: Teaching with Chicago's Amazing
Architecture, a K - 8th grade teacher resource book.
Published in 2002, the book is used throughout the US and in 6
countries. In 2005 the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
honored Schoolyards to Skylines with an Institute Honor for
Collaborative Achievement.
The need for The Architecture
Handbook
Based on the strength of these two primary factors, CAF opened a
new dialogue in August 2004 about the current state of
architectural education in the high schools across Chicago.
At the time, teachers and students in CPS were using a drafting
manual written in 1951, when becoming a draftsman was a viable
career path after high school graduation. In the 21st
century, however, the skills expected from students in any
occupation have changed, from those requiring replication,
repetition, and memorization, to skills more relevant to an economy
based on innovation, flexibility, and creativity.
The people and the process
As project initiator and developer, the Chicago Architecture
Foundation brought together teams of architects, teachers and
administrators, students, and CAF staff to chart a new direction
for the curriculum. Over three years, three primary advisory
teams came together to brainstorm ideas, develop content, and test
lessons and activities.
More than 40 members of Chicago's architectural community
volunteered their time and energy to the project. These
architects helped inform the content and design of the curriculum
and added their valuable professional expertise. Ten of these
volunteers were also paired with a CPS teacher to visit their
classroom and test out activities from the book.
Ten teachers from Chicago Public Schools participated as part of
a pilot team to test the book as it was being written. For
two school years, these teachers used a working draft of the
curriculum and met monthly to discuss what worked and what didn't
work.
From the onset of the project a core of 6 students came to CAF
every Monday for an entire school year to test out activities and
give feedback. Their input was critical to the success of the
materials and the process.
Student edition content and
features
The Architecture Handbook is organized into 6 projects:
The Block Plan, the Site Plan, the Floor Plan, the Elevation, the
Building Section, and a Design Project. Chapters within the
projects focus on the critical concepts found in each type of
architectural drawing.
The Architecture Handbook uses the F10 House, an 1800 sq.
ft. award-winning green home in Chicago, as its case study
building. The house-designed by EHDD Architecture and named
as an AIA COTE Top Ten Project- takes its name from the concept
that it was designed to reduce its environmental impact by a factor
of 10 compared to the average American home.
Sustainability and green architecture are woven throughout the
entire book. Students are introduced to issues such as:
connections to public transportation, permeable landscapes,
floor plan design, passive heating and cooling systems, module
construction, green roofs, and recycled materials.
As the theme of the book is "homes on the block," students are
also introduced to 10 significant homes in the U.S. and around the
world. Each chapter in Projects 2 - 5 compares the F10 House
with one of these famous homes and with the student's own
home. Students compare and contrast homes by Wright, Le
Corbusier, Palladio, Mies van der Rohe, Murcutt, Legorreta, and
Perkins+Will.
Throughout each chapter, architecture vocabulary / definitions
and an extensive list of resources help students investigate ideas
further. The 'On Your Way Home' and 'Talk About It' sections,
as well as the 'Try It!' activities, help students make connections
to their own world.
Reading and math are integrated throughout the book to reinforce
essential student skills. Each chapter includes a 500-700
word reading with comprehension and analysis questions, as well as
10-15 math problems that tie directly to the big architectural
ideas.
Teacher edition features
A 600-page teacher edition in a 3-ring binder contains more than
60 hands-on classroom activities.
The teacher edition also includes a CD-ROM with activity image
sets, a full set of construction drawings for the case study home,
and four integrated projects: social sciences, life science,
language arts, and chemistry.
To find out more about the textbook, see sample lessons and a
table of contents, or order copies, please visit www.archhandbook.org
Contact Information
Jennifer Masengarb, author, and Krisann Rehbein, project
coordinator for The Architecture Handbook are Education
Specialists at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. education@architecture.org
312.922.3432 x246
Jennifer Masengarb, Chicago Architecture Foundation
Krisann Rehbein, Chicago Architecture Foundation
Travis Soberg, AIA, LEED AP, Goettsch Partners, Chicago
Yamani Hernandez, Chicago Public Schools, Education to
Careers
