AIS Washington DC Exhibit Spring 2011 Aidan Montessori School

AIS Washington DC Exhibit Spring 2011
Architecture in the Schools Exhibit Opening at the John A. Wilson Building May 11, 2011
Aidan Montessori School
Teacher: Lydia Mosher
EYP Designers: Erin Carlisle, Michelle Kohlberg, Andrew Radman, Jasmine Shah & Lam Vuong
Environmentally Responsive Houses
Throughout the Spring 2011 semester, students in Ms. Mosher‟s class at Aidan Montessori School studied a variety
of topics ranging from building systems (structural, mechanical, electrical & plumbing) to sustainability and green
design strategies.
For their final project, students split into groups of three and chose a biome of the United States to research:
temperate rainforest, eastern woodland, mountain, desert, tropical, polar/ tundra or grasslands. Students then utilized
their skills from previous lessons to design a house according to program requirements developed by the EYP
Designers. Working together, the students combined their individual plans into one house that was responsive to their
respective biome and included at least three sustainable design features.
Each group of three included an architect, a landscape architect, and an interior designer. The architect created the
“lumber list” and constructed the walls of the house; the landscape architect designed the surrounding terrain to be
responsive to their biome; and the interior designer created furniture for the house as well as material and color
boards. As we progressed through the semester, students created and kept personal journals with sketches, writings
and handouts. The developed world continually becomes conscious of its impact on Mother Earth; it becomes
imperative that design is responsive to its environment. Our hope is that after this course, through the medium of
architecture, students might be more perceptive of how to live and design a more sustainable life.
Brightwood
Elementary School
st
1 Grade
Teacher: Olubusola Ayangbesan
Volunteers from STUDIOS Architecture
Constructing Superstar Neighborhood
The eight-week semester focused on linking basic concepts in architecture with the students‟ environment.
The semester began with an introduction to architecture and geometric forms found within different building
types. During this first session, the students were each given their own sketchbook and construction hard
hat. Throughout the semester the students were encouraged to document their lessons in their sketchbooks
as a way of recording the semester‟s activities. The following week the students learned about concepts of
measuring and scale. For example, did you know the height of the Washington Monument is equivalent to
37 giraffes or 7 blue whales? The knowledge they acquired from that lesson was used in subsequent
sessions about architecture and interior design at the scale of their classroom, their school building and
neighborhood. All of the lessons provided the students with a fundamental understanding of architecture,
programming and their built environment. This knowledge was applied to their final project, a 3-D map of
their ideal neighborhood.
The students began their final project with a walking tour of their school‟s neighborhood. While on the tour,
the students took note of the different types of buildings and shapes that make up a neighborhood. The
students identified certain amenities in a neighborhood which included a school, fire and police stations,
grocery store, restaurant, movie theater, bank, church, residential buildings and even a car wash. Upon
completion, the students were given the opportunity to get
a taste of landscape architecture which included adding
trees to their planned central park. Finally, the students
voted to name this new community “Superstar.”
Burroughs Elementary School
Grade 5 – Ms. Gloria Brown
Volunteers from HOK
Project: PlayPark
During the Spring 2011 semester, students in Ms. Brown‟s class at Burroughs Elementary School studied the process
of creative problem-solving through architectural design. The students learned about the most fundamental
architectural elements and methods, including solid/void relationships, scale, math/geometry, lines/planes and
volumes. They were also introduced to biomimicry and developed a broad understanding of what it means to use
nature as a basis for design – focusing on more organic, free-form, and fluid forms of geometries.
Throughout the semester, the students developed an understanding of those architectural elements that existed
around them. They became more aware of their surroundings and the architectural language their school
neighborhood reflected. Incorporating studies of geometry and natural forms, through hands-on-activities, the
students studied the different methods by which designers design. For example, students built bee hives from Dixie
Cups and discovered the design basis of repetition to form a whole.
Using an existing open field area adjacent to their school building as their “site,” the students came up with a masterplan for their ideal playground. They incorporated the tools they learned throughout the semester to develop ways to
execute their ideas. The final project is a scaled model to reflect the design of their ideal play area, allowing for the
creative use of spaces and forms for different kinds of activity. The site was divided into 3 zones –underground, at
ground, and above ground. Each zone is interrelated with one another and contributes to the overall design of one
collective playground.
Burrville
Elementary School
Teacher: Ms Isom, focus Math
Volunteers from FORM Architects
Isom City
We began the semester looking at shapes and lines that
make up the world and buildings around us, as well as
practicing using building elements, such as floor tiles
within the classroom, to measure the area and perimeter of given spaces. By focusing on these shapes, lines, and
areas created, the children began looking at the world around us as a makeup of smaller components coming
together to make the whole.
The final project brought together the geometry touched on above as well as the concept of scale. The students
began the final project by working in groups to scale up a section of a map provided to them. They were provided
with only rulers and pencils to measure and draw in the streets on a larger blank sheet of paper.
The following week the children were assigned a plot of land on the map and a building type, ie. commercial,
residential, public service, etc. They were told to create a building using various materials in which each story of the
building was equal to 2”; they spent the next few weeks designing their buildings and making sure that windows and
doors were to scale and fit within each story.
Once the buildings were complete the students broke up back into their groups to place their buildings on their plot of
land and landscape around them. The end result is a to scale model complete with perpendicular, parallel, obtuse,
and acute intersections of streets, a traffic circle, and scaled buildings made up of various shapes and lines that come
together to make up the greater whole of Isom City.
Cleveland Elementary
School
Ms. Lubkeman's 4th Grade Class
AIS volunteers: Pam Jordan, Julia Siple & Tracy Wharton
from Quinn Evans | Architects
FINAL PROJECT: Urban Animal Living
The students will each design an apartment for a specific animal. These will then be assembled into apartment
buildings with and an urban streetscape.
Each student is given a different plastic scale animal for whom they are designing an apartment. These animals are
different shapes (geometry) and sizes (scales) and have different ways of eating, playing, and sleeping. The
students will develop individual apartments with furnishings based on the characteristics of their specific animal.
Each apartment is created in a shoebox and designed to be open on one side. Each student will have to use the
lessons of scale and geometry introduced throughout the winter.
Once the apartment units are complete, the students will be divided into three groups; each group will assemble their
units into an apartment building, complete with one public function of their choosing (library, restaurant, veterinarian,
etc) and an urban streetscape. Each group will present
their building to the class at the end and discuss
concepts introduced during our recent neighborhood
fieldtrip.
Matthew G. Emery Education Campus
th
7 Graders
Teacher: Kristen Hayes, Art Teacher
Volunteers: Lauren Trice and Andrew Kracht
“Art and Architecture:
The National Museum of African American
History and Culture”
The primary focus of the final project is how Art inspires Architecture. With this concept in mind, we
decided to construct models of the upcoming new Smithsonian, The National Museum of African
American History and Culture, using the artwork of the African-American masters as inspiration. This
project involves a building that is not only really going to exist on the National Mall by 2015, but is also
one that directly involves the ancestry and futures of the students of Emery and their community.
The final projects will focus on how architecture is part creative inspiration and part function. The students
have been learning about structure, working through the creative process, developing “bubble” diagrams,
and creating concept models. Each student has incorporated their ideas for the National Museum of
African American History and Cultural into an Art-inspired building design.
Dr. John Hayden Johnson Middle School
District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS)
Teacher: Mrs. Cynthia Miller - 6th Grade
Volunteer Architect: Patrick Williams, AIA, Moody●Nolan
Project Title: “Water Sustainability for the City”
The Spring 2011 semester began with an introductory approach to architecture discussing the structural elements of
column, beam, wall, cantilever, frame, arch, truss, vault and space frame. The recent modernization project at the
school, done by the volunteer architect's firm, provided a unique opportunity to present to students a view of the past
that has become their present. As they began to relate to the architecture around them, students then practiced
making models of frame, arch and vault elements.
At the start of Week 4 students toured the neighborhood surrounding the school which includes the newly built
Henson's Ridge community. They were able to identify many of the architectural elements introduced in class, saw
the foundation and slab of what will be at least six or eight new townhomes, and discussed the concept of
sustainability, first in regards to the habitation practices of various world cultures and how they evolved, then to the
present-day sustainability practices in architecture. The focus was on water resources.
For the final project, the students expanded on the earlier models to build a community model with buildings and
structures focusing on elements that assist with and provide for protecting water resources, e.g., green roof,
aqueduct, underground pipe irrigation, etc.
Oyster Adams Elementary School
3rd Grade
Teacher: Fiona Murphy
Volunteers: Dennis Daisey, Julia Fauerbach, Jamie Lee, & Rocio Carvajo from SmithGroup
Project: Container City: A Sustainable Community
Through the use of „found‟, recycled and reused objects, students at Oyster Adam designed and
constructed buildings to contribute to a sustainable community. Early on in the semester, students were
shown various types of architecture that reused recycled components as building materials. One of the
first projects the students worked on included the transformation of a found object into something new.
Each week the students learned about different components that made up a building and its design. The
key elements the students learned about exposed them to shapes, form, structure, scale, material,
texture, and building types. Each class discussed how each of the elements could and were used in
different buildings.
For the final project, each student was given a 5”x 10” box representing a recycled shipping container and
was asked to transform the container into a new use. The students selected a building type of their
choice and using the shipping container as its base, designed a structure that was then incorporated into
a larger sustainable community.
J.O. WILSON
Elementary School
Art Class with Kindergartners
Teacher: Elizabeth Wyrsch-Ba, Art Teacher
Volunteer: Maggie McManus, Architect
Project: “My Ideal classroom”
The idea behind the eight weeks of this semester with the kindergartners was to give them an understanding of what
an architect does and how architecture affects the world on all scales. Each week we have focused on different
scales: from the city, to the neighborhood; to a school, and finally a classroom and even the furniture within the
classroom. For their final project we are asking them to build their ideal classroom in diorama form. The children
have been introduced to the concepts of 'plan' and 'section' and a diorama will give them an opportunity to look at
architecture in both ways. We will provide them with boxes (very graciously donated by AIS), and they will spend time
painting, collaging, designing and sculpting their idea of an ideal classroom. These boxes will then be displayed much
the way that their school, J.O. Wilson is designed; back to back, stacked 2 stories high. For the final presentation we
will place this school on a large 2D city that the children designed and collaborated on in one of their earlier lessons.
We are very excited with project, and the children have been so enthusiastic and cooperative throughout the
semester!
Architecture in the Schools (AIS) is a program of the Washington Architectural Foundation
www.aiadc.com
AIS Northern Virginia Exhibit Spring 2011
Student presentations (Hoffman Boston Elementary School)
Arlington
Traditiona
l School
Veronica Perez : 5th Grade
Art
Volunteers from Lawrence
Mason Architects
Final Project : An
Acropolis for Arlington
The Students in Ms.
Perez‟s 5th Grade Art class
came well armed with a
sound knowledge base of
Greek and Roman History,
Mythology, and Architecture. Through the several weeks we‟ve worked together, we‟ve
examined Architecture across the globe, and through time. In addition we‟ve ventured into the
parallel world of “animal architecture” to see what our nearest neighbors have been building,
and why.
Students have learned the Architects‟ “tools of the trade”…the plan, section, and elevation.
Beginning with drawings and analysis of smaller objects, they eventually tackled the task of
drawing up their Art classroom. This exercise required strong spatial analytical skills that most
students were clearly challenged by, yet executed with great ability. Along the way, they have
also challenged their structural skills, testing constructions of their own making for soundness
and stability with surprising results.
Their final project was a two part exercise…The first portion of which consisted of the study of
several typologies of Greek temples, and thereafter an effort to “design” one of their own. After
several iterations, the students had honed their 2-dimensional design skills and were set to the
task of working in groups to build in 3-dimensions one of their designs. This process proved to
be far from linear for most, requiring a handful of revisions and adjustments upon the
way…much as was the case with the Greek and Roman Builders they have studied through the
year. The final result is a series of temples “inspired” by the structures they have studied as
well as those things which they decided worthy of a temple…such as sports, video games,
shoes, Shaquille O‟Neal, and so on…as with the Greeks, a good and motley crew.
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Baileys Elementary School
AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITY, Mostly 4th Graders /Teacher: Linda Lindgren, School
Librarian Volunteer: Perry Cofield, Design Ways & Means
Project: “The City Goes Round in Circles”
In this broad introductory to a small group, the first four sessions were somewhat pedagogical,
with jpegs of the Volunteer‟s architectural travels around the US. We introduced the concept of
time zones in Architecture: Past, Present, Future, and Timeless. Then various jpegs of
elements in their many guises: Column, Beam, Wall, Frame, Arch, Truss, Cantilever, Space
frame, etc.
The students made a collage of interior spaces that appealed to them taken from magazinesthis part of the Project. The second half of the eight weeks introduced broad planning
principals: The fractal, the grid, the similarity of water networks on the earth, in trees, and their
similarity to neural systems. The students learned how to draw trees.
The mini-city model the students are building will contain a small downtown core based on an
early New England Green, a small beltway, and geodesic dome houses in the suburb. A
beltway will have toy cars with flags for each indicating the players in making the environment:
Government, Civil Engineers, Architects and building design Engineers, Landscape Architects,
You, and the Press (to name a few).
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Fort
Hunt
Element
ary
School
________
Architect: Mr. Finn,
BOWA Teacher:
Ms. Bonnet
3rd Grade Students
Final Project: Model
of the Forbidden City
The third grade students at Fort Hunt Elementary School have built a model of the
buildings in the north-south axis of the Forbidden City. Located in the center of China‟s
capital, Beijing, this complex was home to the 24 rulers of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The Meridian Gate, the entrance that was used only by the emperor, the central
building, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and the private residence of the emperor‟s
families are represented here. As preparation for the build, the concepts of symmetry
and balance were illustrated and discussed by using a map of the Forbidden City. Each
child was given an identical map and then, using a collage technique, colored only
those the components that they thought were the most important. Through this process
it was decided that our structure could not include all of the buildings that were in the
original because the scale would be so small that no details could be shown. All of the
work was done by the students except for the details that required a blade. Red was
chosen for the outer wall color because it is a good luck color. The blue was decided
upon though through a direct democracy. See if you can find the states of North
Dakota, Nevada, and New Mexico that were used as the templates for the stone
structures.
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_________
Hoffma
n
Boston
Elemen
tary
School
Second Grade
Barbara Papantoniou (Project Edison Coordinator) Hoffman Boston Elementary School
Adrienne Harwell (Art Teacher) Hoffman Boston Elementary School
Architects: Cannon Design: Teera Games, Chad Barrington, Matt Thacker and Rhett James.
Project: Famous Americans
The Famous American Architectural unit began with a study of the elements of architecture.
How do buildings stand up? What are some basic architectural structures that are found in
buildings (dome, arch, column)?
The students then began a discussion on what is a monument? What kind of architecture would
best represent the accomplishments of the famous American they were studying? How would
their monument impact the environment it would be built in? How would it relate to the streets
and other buildings that are in the city?
The final project began with the students identifying the “big idea” for the monument of their
famous American. The students sketched their individual ideas and then incorporated one part
of each of their sketches into one design for their monuments.
From design to modeling, the students took their designs and created their monuments out of
clay. They then placed them on the city street where they live, Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA.
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Louise
Archer
School
2nd graders
Teacher: Sara
Harper, Advanced
Academic Resource
Teacher
Volunteers: Kenneth
J. Cahoon, Omari
Davis
Project: “The Global Village”
We began our adventure with a discussion about animals and how they create, design,
and utilize their habitat to live and protect themselves from their surrounding
environment. Students studied various photographs of the animal in their “home” to
analyze, infer, and draw conclusions about the animal‟s lifestyle and environment.
To extend this idea, we began discussing the students‟ home as compared to the
homes of the animals around the world. We found an interesting array of similarities
and differences between the two; this extended to a discussion about how students in
the United States live as compared to other parts of the world. Our 2nd graders created
and sent cards to students in The Gambia, Africa describing their homes. We‟re hoping
to hear back from them soon!
For our final project, the global village, we are depicting the wide variety of
environments available for people to inhabit around the world. Students used
computers and sketch books to generate visual representations of shelters that would fit
appropriately into these environments. Finally, they utilized recycled materials to create
a shelter appropriate for the environment in which they chose.
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Mount Vernon Woods
Architect: Don Lipscomb, Del Studio Architects
Teacher: Jennifer Hine
Students: 5th Grade Advanced Academic Program
Project: Streetscape to Scale
Project Summary: Students were exposed to key concepts of architecture, sustainable
design and global awareness as they designed and built models of houses in the United
States and China. Here is an outline of the project:

For the first few weeks of the project, we led students in discussions and handson experiences involving structures, materials, sustainable design and scale.

Students did some research using visuals and books on residential architecture
in different cultures and countries.

Based on their research and background knowledge, student teams chose a
country and location for their model house. Most teams chose to build a house in
the United States. After creating bubble diagrams and scale drawings of their
houses, student worked in their teams to build model houses on the scale ¼ inch
= 1 foot. Students included at least one “green” feature in their home design.

Finally we put our houses together to create a streetscape and added
landscaping.
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Work in progress pictures – final project pictures available later
Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy
Alexandria City Public Schools / AIS Exhibit at Lyles-Crouch
5th Grade Art Classes Teacher:Sharon Paton Volunteer:Lori Arrasmith Quill, Architect
Project:
Designing a Small Dream House
The 5th grade students at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy spent 10 weeks in Art class
studying the basics of architecture and designing their own small dream house.
Each year the LCTA Core Knowledge curriculum includes the study of world architecture. By 5th
grade, the students have a background in the Art and Architecture of Japanese Gardens,
Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece and Mali, China, the Pueblos of the Native Americans, Gothic
Architecture, the Taj Mahal, domes, minarets and mosaics and American Architecture such as
Monticello and Alexandria landmarks.
Classes met weekly for an overview and related design project on topics that included structural
principals, architecture form, spatial organization, types of spaces in a home, how architects
represent their ideas, and how to draw and build models to scale.
The students spent 4 weeks designing and building models of their own small dream house.
Each student created their own program of spaces and designed the house to be responsive to
their house‟s solar orientation.
At the end of the semester the students had a walking tour of Old Town architecture and field
trips to the Virginia Tech Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center and The National Building
Museum.
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Mary Kay Lanzillotta, AIS Director and Jean O‟Toole, AIS Northern Virginia
Architects Serving the Community
th
421 7 Street, NW
Washington DC 20004
www.aiadc.com