GO TO:
Introduction
Annotated Bibliography
Pathfinder
Architecture
Through the Ages: Architecture Sites for Kids and Their Families
Created by Nansun Liang | October 17, 2002
Introduction
We
all live in, work in, or walk around buildings and experience architecture
on a daily basis. The design decisions taken by architects in the near
or distant past affect us more directly than any other comparable art
or craft. When form and structure reach harmony, architecture combines
beauty with function. Outstanding architecture works on the Web can
educate students and raise their awareness and appreciations of both
the built and natural environments. This way we can create a generation
of citizens who understand the way in which architecture influences
(and is influenced by) our environment and society. By learning to observe
buildings and structures, spaces, and their relationships, students
will become sensitive to elements like the effects of color, texture,
light and shape, and consider how spaces and places feel when they are
in them. They can learn to analyze their positive and negative reactions
and see if they can connect them to design elements. They can also look
for rhythm and pattern, simplicity and ornament, old and new in their
own environment, think about values expressed in the design and notice
the variety in their communities.
This pathfinder is aimed at students of eight to sixteen years old who
can read with comprehension and search for architecture related information
online for personal interests or school projects. The other aim is to
help their family members who want find similar information either for
helping with school assignments and personal interests or guidance in
broadening the students' knowledge. The pathfinder will help answer
questions like: where can I find some information about architecture
works of the U.S. or the world? What is the tallest building in the
world today? What is Japanese architecture style?
Because sites connected with architecture vary in quality, suitability,
reliability and coverage, I followed 3 stages in my search for information:
firstly, I went to the Architecture and Planning Library at the University
of Texas at Austin, borrowed architecture books and scanned them to
review the famous and representative buildings, structures and architects
of the world.
Secondly, I set up evaluation criteria for my selection process:
-
The information should be reliable and correct, referred by my reference
books.
-
The
language should be easy to read and understand, and preferably interesting.
So many sites by professional architecture organizations are filtered
out since their vocabulary is unsuitable for my intended audiences.
-
If two sites have similar information, the one that is more graphically
attractive or has more interactive links will be preferred.
-
Due
to the need for reliability and authenticity, sites like "pbs.org,"
"discovery.org" or those chosen by credible academic institutions
should have priority in selection.
The
third step, I searched in Google.com by key words "architecture education", "kids or children or young adults",
"Chinese China architecture", also some university web sites, and selected
links that looked promising. I found about 30 sites in this process.
The fourth step was to evaluate the sites, compare them with my standards,
select ones suitable for my audiences, write annotations about them,
and group sources for the pathfinder.
TOP OF PAGE
Annotated
Bibliography
-
The
American Museum of Photography. Of
Bricks and Light. Accessed 1 October 2001.
About 33 pictures are taken by early professional photographers
during the first 75 years of photography history. This exhibition
provides some unique views to look at architecture works. The play
of light and shadows brought by the architecture works and their
surrounding environment emphasizes a connection between architecture
and art, and let the viewers feel the passage of time through the
images of these buildings that may still stand today. A pleasant
site for a retrospective tour.
-
Artifice,
Inc. The Great Buildings
Collection.Accessed 29 September 2001.
The Great Buildings Collection is an international database listing
more than 800 architectural buildings and 432 architects. Time coverage
ranges from prehistory to modern days. There are two indexes for
architects and places, a page of tables of architecture types, timelines,
construction types, climates, contexts, architectural elements and
topics, and editors' choices, all with links to further details.
The advanced search includes access points like construction type,
date, styles and other features. The site also has links in every
page promoting commercial items like books or 3D models that are
related to architecture. The coverage on the Western world is adequate.
The interface is well designed but the content is inadequate when
it comes to Asia or Africa. For example, in "China" site there
are 8 links, only 2 of which have photos, both buildings are located
in Hong Kong. One item is misplaced because it is a Japanese structure.
None of the other 5 links has a photo.
It is useful for a basic knowledge of the most famous architecture
works in the Western world and barely a glance of one building or
two each in Islamic, African, Japanese or Chinese culture. It is
suitable for a school report about architecture in Western world.
-
Boston
College. A
Digital Archive of American Architecture. Accessed 12 October
2001.
An excellent site of American architecture from 17th
century to 20th century with color slides. Buildings
or structures are indexed by categories of time period, types, chronology,
location, and styles. Each structure has a photo, name, location
and basic dimension. There is a special page for Boston and Chicago
architecture, another one for comparative materials in Europe, focusing
on Romanesque and Gothic Architecture and two of LeCorbusier's major
works. Highly recommended for browsing.
-
Burns,
Ian. Ian's
Land of Castles. Accessed 20 September 2001.
What is interesting about this site is not its content, which is
simple and mainly only includes 6 questions and their answers with
photos, but the fact that the site was created by Ian Burns when
he was an 8-year-old boy in 1997. This should make the site attractive
and inspiring to other kids of similar age with similar interests.
It also makes it worthy for a pathfinder. Links included are castle
related materials like books, other sites about castles and medieval
times, and drawings of castles send to the site owner by kids who
joined his "drawing contest".
-
Columbian
Elementary School ThinkQuest Team: Ross, Alex and Matt. Architecture
Through the Ages. Accessed 29 September 2001.
This site is built by ThinkQuest team members from Columbian Elementary
School, Omaha, Nebraska. The purpose is to help the 5th and 6th
grade students of the Omaha Public Schoos in their Architecture
Exposition project. Content is a table that divides time periods
into 7 sections, ranging from ancient Egypt to the present, plus
a short glossary, a list of 6 references, and an album with 11 photos.
Essays about each period are short, providing general and very basic
architectural information for middle school students.
TOP OF PAGE
-
Cube, Center for Understanding the Built Environment. Architectivities.
Accessed 30 September 2001.
The site provides different activities for 3 groups: kids, community-building,
and teachers. Each group has 4 activities listed, linked to detailed
information about the content of the activity and photos. Interesting
readings and ideas about architectural activities like building
a paper "house" hat, or the Box City project that asking school
kids planning and designing their own "cities", then building their
designs with paper and painting the "cities" with colors, illustrated
with photos. An interesting and inspiring site with unique ideas
in architecture activities for kids.
-
Discovery
Channel.
Buildings, Bridges, and Tunnels. Accessed 29 September
2001.
As the title indicated, this is about skyscrapers, bridges, and
tunnels of the modern world. Interactive links brings up short movies
illustrating how to dig a tunnel, exploring the longest suspension
bridge in the world. The main page of each topic provides links
leading to information about next generation of the structure, TV
video, Web links, and this type of structures in the world, accompanied
by essays with data and photos. For example, a chart lists all skyscrapers
that had been the tallest in the world, with links to detailed information
about each building: height, location, current rank, developer,
architect and status. A good site for those who are interested in
skyscrapers, bridges and tunnels, also suitable for school projects.
-
Earthlore.
Gothic Dreams: Appreciating
a Cultural Legacy. 13 October 2001. Accessed 13 October
2001.
A
detailed coverage about Gothic architecture, including pictures
of buildings, and a lengthy "Theme Introduction" about the origin,
style, history, time period, and meaning of Gothic architecture.
"Notre Dame de Paris" is used as the representative feature of Gothic
cathedrals. Then the exploration and developing features of the
style are introduced through other examples. A special page of glossary
of terms and cathedral components gives an in-depth knowledge. In
the last part, the site invites the audience to participate in
"the Virtual Cathedral Project: Rosarium Sophia," which has started
three years ago. For anyone who is interested in Gothic architecture,
this is an excellent site.
-
FHW.
The Federation
of High-Rise Websites.
Accessed 30 September 2001.
Claimed to be "the largest group of skyscraper websites on the entire
Internet," this is a gateway leading to fifteen sites for skyscrapers
all over the world. Features include Chicago's Lake Shore Drive
Apartments by Mies Van der Rohe, Philadelphia City Hall and Dutch
high-rises. Sites with worldwide coverage like "skyscrapers.com"
and "skyscraperpage.com" are detailed and quite exhaustive. The
weakness is that the overall quality is not even: three of the links
are obsolete. One site is in German and the other in Chinese.
-
Frimart
srl. 40
Centuries of Architecture. Accessed 1 October 2001.
An Italian site for 4 architecture styles: Egyptian, Greek, Islamic,
and Romanesque. Each style page is indexed by localities, subjects
and periods. This is the most exhaustive site for Greek and Romanesque
architecture works with photos of architecture details. A serious
drawback is that the majority of photos are in black and white,
making them much less attractive to young audience. Notes on the
Islamic site are in Italian.
TOP OF PAGE
-
Lee,
Alexander, James Arndt and Shane Goldmacher. Architecture
Through the Ages. Accessed 30 September 2001.
Created by three 14 years old middle school students, the site is
a collection of ancient architecture buildings from the Mayan, Greek,
Roman, Chinese, Aztec, Egyptian and classical period. Essays are
written in simple language, but the lacking of photos in some pages
makes it less stimulating. It is adequate for general information
about architecture in ancient cultures.
-
Lee,
Paul. Shanghai
Architecture. 1998. Accessed 1 October 2001.
The
more suitable name for this site should be "Colonial style architecture
of Shanghai". All the buildings are built before 1943 when the Westerners
had much more power than the Chinese in China, and thus symbolize
colonization. The buildings bring a sense of history, development,
modernization and metropolitan.
-
The
Leo Masuda Architectonic Research Office. Japanese
Architecture in Kyoto. Accessed 30 September 2001.
This
is a good site both for a virtual tour and for actual sightseeing
in Kyoto, the capital of Japan from 794 to 1869. With its well-designed
and meticulously maintained palaces and elegant gardens, Kyoto is
considered as a manifestation of the Japanese architecture aesthete
in its purest form. Thirty one architecture buildings including
temples, shrines and the Imperial Palace are presented with photos
and short comments: specific points that need to be paid attention
to, what special treasures the buildings hold, access directions,
opening times and phone numbers are also listed. There is also
a link leading to "Japanese Architecture" site for a broader coverage
of Japan's other architecture styles like castles, shrines and traditional
dwellings.
-
MIT
Libraries. Rotch
Visual Collections: The Kidder Smith Slide Archives on American
Architecture. Accessed 1 October 2001.
A collection of 3400 slides, documenting 305 buildings, accessible
from MIT library site. Time period coverage is from pre-Columbia
to 1978, geographical coverage include Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Three indexes: site name,
architects and artists, and geographic. An excellent site for regional
architecture works.
-
National
Building Museum. National Building
Museum: Main Directory. Accessed 30 September 2001.
This government site focuses on architecture, design, engineering,
construction, and urban planning of the United States. Information
provided is perceived as authoritative and reliable. The content
has substantial information ranging from blueprints magazine, exhibitions,
to publications. The site is not suited for elementary or middle
school aged students but for high school students or adults.
TOP OF PAGE
-
NOVA
Online. China
Bridge. January 2000. Accessed 29 September 2001.
The companion site to the NOVA program, "China Bridge". In 1999
a group of Chinese and American scholars and local Chinese timber
framers designed and build a bridge in Suzhou, China. The designers
tried to copy, as close as they could, one of the most famous bridges
in ancient China from a 900 years old painting. They also tried
to use the same method and materials - mainly bamboo -- to build
it. The site provides information about this story, which has a
successful ending. The link "Bridge the Gap" uses an interactive
game to make viewers "participators" of the program: matching 4
different sites with 4 different bridge models and build bridges.
Further information on bamboo and its broad usage in Chinese culture
is provided. Other parts of the site introduced China's invention
including printing, movable types, paper money, porcelain, restaurants,
tea, gunpowder and compass. A very interesting and recommendable
site for any age.
-
NOVA
Online. Fall
of the Leaning Tower. October 1999. Accessed 30 September
2001.
The companion site to the NOVA program, "Fall of the Leaning
Tower". The pages introduce detailed information about the
Leaning Tower of Pisa: a lengthy history, a pictured interview with
a professor of soil mechanics about the condition of the tower,
and the efforts made to maintain its condition. An interesting page
is where all the past efforts and mistakes made in intervention
with the tower are listed. Like other NOVA architectural sites,
there is an interactive page for conducting a game of three virtual
experiments modeled after Galileo's virtual thought experiments.
Other links in the site include information about other famous architecture
works that need to be protected, like Philae Temple in Egypt or
Borobudur Temple in Java. It is an excellent site for all ages.
-
NOVA
Online. Pyramid.
1997. Accessed 29 September 2001.
Detailed
information of three major Egyptian pyramids (Khufu, Khafre and
Menkaure) including history, inside and outside maps and pictures.
Also included are pictures of the Sphinx and its history, a historical
introduction about Giza with interactive maps, detailed information
about all excavations including maps, and transcripts of NOVA's
broadcasting programs about pyramids. This is an interesting, well-designed,
authoritative and interactive site providing reliable information,
and a strongly recommended source for children, young adults and
families.
-
NOVA
Online. Roman
Bath. January 2000. Accessed
30 September 2001.
The companion site to the NOVA program, "Roman Bath". The program
is about how a group of engineers, archeologists and historians
designed and build a Roman bath in modern Turkey, using ancient
materials and methods as much as they could. Photos showed the process
of planning, picking a site, making concrete, laying the tiled floor
and finally using the bath to take a bath in ancient Roman fashion.
Interactive links in another page, "A Day at the Baths," lead viewers
for a virtual tour of the Baths of Caracalla. A game in "Construct
an Aqueduct" guides the viewers to build a "virtual" aqueduct that
will support the Roman city of Aqueducts with clean water. Other
pages include information about the Roman's water distribution system
and real Roman recipes, and links to teachers' guide and resources
leading other sites related to the topic of ancient Romans.
-
PBS.
Frank Lloyd Wright.
Accessed 29 September 2001.
The best site about the most famous American architect Frank Lloyd
Wright. All ten of his major works are listed, each with drawings,
pictures of exterior and interior, critical response, parallel architectural
movements, short introduction of Wright's life and his personal
photos at the time that specific work was being designed. It can
be a very satisfactory reference site for a high school paper.
TOP OF PAGE
-
Shillingburg,
Patricia. Architecture
for Kids: A History of American Houses. 1998. Accessed
29 September 2001.
The site focuses on American houses, most of them constructed by
builders without architectural training from plans drawn by architects.
Time coverage ranges from Colonial times to the present, divided
into five sections with essays and photos. The site is in the process
of being updated. At present half of the main pages have no content.
The essays are clear-written and easy to understand. It is useful
primary for a basic knowledge of American houses in different periods
and their styles.
-
The
Scribe. Castles on
the Web. 12 July 1995. Accessed 30 September 2001.
An
exhaustive gateway site for castles of the world and many miscellaneous
topics about castles. Put together by one person with a pen name "the Scribe", the content lists not only castles, but also palaces
and great homes, abbeys and churches. The category "Castles for
Kids" leads to interactive pages with games, sites and software
about castles. The best part is Castle Tours, in which castles all
over the world are listed with beautiful photos and detailed and
lengthy introductions, sometimes signed by authors. It is a good
reference site for anybody at any age who is interested in castles.
-
ThinkQuest
Team 23378. Seven
Wonders of the World.Accessed 30 September 2001.
The site lists seven man-made structures in the world in places
ranging from Brazil and China to the U.S. with detailed information
about each one with photos and interactive maps. The time period
covers from 14th century to modern days. In the sense
of architecture, the creators divide space around us into distance,
height, depth, and discuss these topics in different pages. They
then divided architecture structures into four types according to
their functions: "spiritual needs," "protection," "public usage"
and "utilizing nature's power to serve people." The information
is easy to read and concise. The game page provides simple interactive
games that can be used to test how much the viewer has learned from
the site, or just for the fun of it. The "Wonder Experience" page
links to other famous architecture works. It is an educational and
engaging site for both students and adults.
-
Thomas, Jeffrey L. The
Castles of Wales.
1 October 2001. Accessed 30 September 2001.
This is an excellent site introducing medieval castles of Wales,
with many links leading to various information about the site creators,
ancient Welsh abbeys and language, Welsh men who build these castles,
their times and rebellions and other sites. Large numbers of excellent
pictures and two virtual tours are offered. Two hundred twenty seven
castles counted in the index, the majority has photos, and all entries
are signed. Other information listed in the content include historical
essays, castle terminology, Britain's castle studies group, "fun
stuff" like "mystery castle of the month" and other "odds &
ends". This is one of the most exhaustive and well-designed sites
I have seen, and valuable for anybody who is interested in the castles
or specifically the castles of Wales.
-
Westerhoff,
Jack and Beth Stevens. Gargoyles Then
and Now.
July 1994. Accessed 12 October 2001.
Basic knowledge about Gargoyles: what is a Gargoyle, natural and
unnatural history of Gargoyles, and then a tour of cathedrals in
Europe as to where can Gargoyles be found, who they represent, what
they look like and what they are doing as the way they are presented
in sculpture. Very interesting facts about Gargoyles! One blemish
is that half of the pictures are in black and white.
TOP OF PAGE
Pathfinder
Today
people live in, work in, or walk around buildings and experience architecture
on a daily basis. The design decisions taken by architects in the near
or distant past affect them more directly than any other comparable
art or craft. Outstanding architecture works on the Web can educate
students and raise their awareness and appreciations of both the built
and natural environments. Then we can create a generation of citizens
who understand the way in which architecture influences (and is influenced
by) our environment and society.
This
pathfinder is aimed at students of eight to sixteen years old who can
read with comprehension and search for architecture related information
online for personal interests or school projects. The other aim is to
help their family members who want find similar information either for
helping with school assignments and personal interests or guidance in
broadening the students' knowledge.
Where
can I find general information about architecture works of the world?
The
Great Buildings Collection
Architecture
Through the Ages (ThinkQuest)
Architecture Through
the Ages
(Lee)
Of Bricks and
Light
40 Centuries
of Architecture
Where
can I find sites that focus on American architecture?
National
Buliding Museum: Main Directory
Frank Lloyd Wright
Architecture for Kids:
History of American Houses
Rotch Visual Collections:
The Kidder Smith Slide Archives on American Architecture
A
Digital Archive of American Architecture
Where
can I find information about the tall buildings of the world?
The Federation
of High-Rise Websites
Where
can I find information about Far Eastern architecture?
China Bridge
Japanese
Architecture in Kyoto
Where
can I find information about castles?
Castles
on the Web
Ian's
Land of Castles
The Castles of Wales
Where
can I find information about Gothic architecture?
Gothic
Dreams: Appreciating a Cultural Legacy
Where
can I find information about ancient architecture works?
Fall
of the Leaning Tower
Roman Bath
Pyramid
Seven Wonders
of the World
Are there
sites about architecture activities for kids?
Architectivities
If
you need further information, please contact me at nliang@ischool.utexas.edu,
or ask a reference librarian for assistance.
TOP OF PAGE
|
