Recommends the study of architecture as an early introduction to the interdisciplinary study of history, geography, economics, sociology, and art. Maintains that this study can increase interest in local history and citizenship. Profiles pilot programs that have incorporated architecture into social studies instruction. (MJP)

Focuses on making the distinction between aesthetics and pragmatics within the realm of design education, particularly architecture. States that aesthetics is typically associated with beauty, while pragmatics is a way to demonstrate that a frank approach has been utilized. (CMK)

Describes an exercise in which students analyze architectural barriers in campus buildings to understand that people with disabilities are excluded from everyday social interaction. States that through the active learning exercise students link their experiential understanding of environmental obstacles with theories and concepts about conformity…

Historians, architectural historians, folklorists, archaeologists, geographers, and preservationists are engaged in documenting and interpreting the material record of human occupation through systematic study of the built environment. "Vernacular architecture" as an object-oriented approach to cultural and historic research is discussed…

Discusses the unique perspective that the built environment brings to the study of history. Presents questions that can be used to analyze a building to examine identification, form, function, and impact. Suggests that studying a building is like conducting a micro study of the development of a society. (DK)

Provides a case for teaching children about local architecture. Describes a specific example called the Kentucky Project as a humanist approach to built environmental education that enabled middle and high school students to study their architectural heritage through a program of videos and related teaching materials. (CMK)

Describes an adobe conservation project used with seventh- and eighth-grade students at the Zuni Pueblo (New Mexico). States that the project motivates students as they participate in experiential learning. Addresses the objectives in a traditional architecture curriculum and contends that the adobe conservation project demonstrates the place of…

Describes how learning environments can be more educationally and optimally useful if the architecture of the built, natural, and cultural environments are used as teaching tools. Discusses how structures and the surrounding landscape can be used to teach physics, geometry, and other disciplines, enabling students to learn how to evaluate the…

At the Rural Studio--an off-campus program of Auburn University--architectural students use scavenged and donated materials to create innovative houses and other buildings for poor, rural, primarily African American communities. Materials such as hay bales and old tires are recycled to create full-blown modern architecture, which also fulfills…

Describes the use of puppet theater in an Alaskan elementary school focusing on the design and implementation of a play on the history of Alaska. Reports that the play's focus was on the change in architectural structures as a means to explore events that transformed Alaska. Provides recommendations for a similar project. (CMK)

Project offers grades 3-8 students hands-on design practice creating built environments to solve a society-based architectural problem. Students plan buildings, draw floor plans, and make scale models of the structures that are then used in related interdisciplinary activities. (Author)

Reviews "Native American Architecture," by Nabokov and Easton, an encyclopedic work that examines technology, climate, social structure, economics, religion, and history in relation to house design and the "meaning" of space among tribes of nine regions. Describes this book's use in a college course on Native American architecture. (SV)

Profiles Maria Israel who served as Assistant Keeper for the Point Loma Lighthouse at San Diego (California) harbor in the late 1800s. Maria's husband, Robert Decatur Israel, was the lighthouse keeper and wives often filled the position as assistant. Discusses the role of the United States Lighthouse Service and includes several photos. (MJP)

Describes a project with mixed ability learners attending Deacon's School (Peterborough, England). The project, which emphasized critical response to the built environment, involved students making "pop up cards" based on firsthand observation of local architecture. Students were encouraged to learn about art and design through reacting,…

A Native Canadian architect talks about his building projects, how they were influenced by his cultural traditions and the teachings and advice of the Elders, the spiritual nature of creativity, giving a building power by designing it as a living being, and linking tradition with the latest technological tools. (SV)