Shaping Space Educational Resource

Shaping Space is an educational resource designed to help teachers encourage young people to consider and explore a range of social, environmental, technical and aesthetic issues related to architecture and the built environment.

Starting with their own homes and communities, the programme invites students to look at different types of buildings and towns, explore planning, design, materials, building technology, conservation and preservation in Ireland and in other societies and other ages.

Students can get involved in design exercises, sketching, drawing, plans and models, field trips, surveys and seminars. If the potential for Cross-Curricular Connections is exploited students can produce art or craft work, photographs, film, poetry, music, essays, furniture, landscapes, prototypes, scientific, social or economic reports, public presentations and debates.

Shaping Space is carefully designed to meet the real needs of schools, teachers and students. The programme can be adjusted to suit the needs of individual schools and students, and its format ensures that any school can include a single module or a year-long course within the academic year. Shaping Space is designed for fifteen to sixteen year olds, but it can also be used for young children or for older students.

Shaping Space is a book of almost 300 pages of lesson plans, worksheets, projects and homework assignments. It is designed so that a teacher with no architectural knowledge can take on a Shaping Space module with confidence, and it encourages collaboration between teachers from different disciplines. Teachers of history or geography, art or construction studies, mathematics or music, science, languages and literature, home economics, social, environmental, business, computer or media studies will all find opportunities in this resource.

Shaping Space is structured around three modules:

My Home
Neighbourhood, Village, Town City and
Buildings through History

Shaping Space Downloads

Option A - My Home

Option A - Lessons

Introduction
Lesson A1 - What is a House? - Examines why we need houses. Focuses on the features considered important in a well-designed house.
Lesson A2 - My Favorite Room - Explores the layout of rooms and their contents
Lesson A3 - Surveying Rooms - Examines the proportions of rooms and their features through surveying. Explores the concept of plans and the associated terminology -
Lesson A4 - Layouts and Floor Plans - Explores layouts and plans by examining the position of rooms and the way in which they are associated according to use
Lesson A5 - What kind of house do I live in? - Introduces the range of features found on the façade of a house and examines a variety of house types found in Ireland
Lesson A6 - Plan, Section and Elevation - Investigates the means by which architects represent different views of houses to reveal their external and internal structure
Lesson A7 - What is my house made from? - Explores building materials and their suitability for different purposes
Lesson A8 - How does a house stand up? - Investigates technical problem solving, focusing on different parts of a house's construction.
Lesson A9 - Planning and Aspect - Explores case studies of two families with different needs. Considers appropriate designs and house types. Investigates the concepts of site and aspect.
Lesson A10 - The Planning Game - Explores factors to be considered when planning a site for a group of houses.

Option A - Worksheets

Note: All of the Shaping Space documents linked to are PDF documents. To view them you will need the latest version of Acrobat Reader. This can be downloaded free from the Adobe website.

Option B - Neighbourhood, Village, Town, City

Option B - Lessons

Introduction
Lesson B1 - Buildings in the Neighbourhood - Explores a range of building types found in communities
Lesson B2 - Buildings, Streets and Public Spaces - Explores students' routes to school.
Lesson B3 - The Origins of a Settlement - Explores some of the factors which influence the location and growth of settlements.
Lesson B4 - The Shape of a Town - Explores the physical form of a community.
Lesson B5 - Communities and Change - Investigates a range of issues related to planning for communities undergoing change.
Lesson B6 - The Origins of my Community - Explores factors which have influenced the origin and development of the students' own community
Lesson B7 - Field Trip: Community Study - Explores building materials and their suitability for different purposes
Lesson B8 - Conservation and Preservation - Identifies opportunities for and implications of conservation in the students' community.
Lesson B9 - My Community Now - Takes a critical look at the current state of the students' community.
Lesson B10 - The Way Ahead - Students negotiate proposals for the conservation and development of their own community.

Option B - Worksheets

Note: All of the Shaping Space documents linked to below are PDF documents. To view them you will need the latest version of Acrobat Reader. This can be downloaded free from the Adobe website.

Option C - Buildings Through History

Option C - Lessons

Introduction
Lesson C1 - Building Shelters - Explores some reasons for making buildings.
Lesson C2 - Building with Wood and Stone - Explores the characteristics of materials and some early methods used in construction of buildings.
Lesson C3 - Structural Systems in Buildings - Explores how buildings stand up
Lesson C4 - The Shape of Buildings - Explores the use of geometric shapes in buildings.
Lesson C5 - Buildings in Paintings - Explores one-point perspective, one method of representing space in paintings.
Lesson C6 - Building Portraits - Interior and Exterior - Explores two-point perspective in paintings.
Lesson C7 - The Evolution of Design Ideas - Investigates how some design ideas have developed from 5th century BC to the present day.
Lesson C8 - Field Trip - Involves a detailed study of an important building in the community.
Lesson C9 - Profile of a Historic Building - Focuses on assembling all of the information which was collected to present an in-depth view of the building.
Lesson C10 - Conservation, Preservation and Innovation - Explores the appropriateness of conserving or preserving certain buildings.

Option C - Worksheets

Note: All of the Shaping Space documents linked to below are PDF documents. To view them you will need the latest version of Acrobat Reader. This can be downloaded free from the Adobe website

Guidelines

Information Sheets

Note: All of the Shaping Space documents linked to are PDF documents. To view them you will need the latest version of Acrobat Reader. This can be downloaded free from the Adobe website.