WebQuest

My Architectural Dream House

A WebQuest for 8th Grade (Math, Science, ILS)

mchaput@windhamsd.edu

Introduction

Designing your dream house can be an exciting, challenging, and rewarding experience. A properly designed residence can provide a homeowner with many years of enjoyable and comfortable living. Playing the role of an architect allows you, as the homeowner, to design around your personal needs and desires. How would you as an architect, design your ultimate dream house and decide where it best belongs on your newly acquired piece of land?

Task

Reflecting on your lesson on architecture and site planning, you will form in groups of three to design a house, develop a set of plans, and build a model of your project. Every group project must meet a set of minimum criteria and be presented with the following:

Bubble plan
First and second floor plan
A front and side elevation plan
Wall section
Site plan
Foam core model of house

Each group will present a brief oral presentation on their project demonstrating how they used their creativity in designing a dream house while still meeting the minimum criteria. Refer to evaluation rubric for more information on grading requirements.

The Process

First you will be assigned to a team of 3 students. There should be one person that takes the role of the Project Leader to make sure that all minimum assignment criteria are being satisfied.

Reflect on architectural design lesson and notes to draw a bubble diagram of your conceptual design. Put some thought into room sizes, location, and relationship.

Have a team meeting to make sure that bubble plan meets minimum design criteria and does not exceed maximum square footage allowed for project.

Draw floor plans and elevations to a scale of ¼”=1’-0”. Make sure that the elevations compliment the floor plans with accuracy. Ie: windows, doors, general layout.

Draw a typical wall section showing the construction materials that can most likely be found in your house. Make sure to correctly label all building materials.

Assess the site plan handout and determine where your design best fits on the piece of land. Consider site contents, obstacles, and solar relationship.

Construct a foam core model of your design. Model should be in the scale of ¼”=1’-0”, and should accurately represent your design plans.

Reflect on design process and present an oral presentation on how you interpreted the project assignment, and used that information to come up with your unique design.

Project Criteria

· Your design must not exceed 2000 square feet.

· Every design must have, but is not limited to, 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, kitchen, dining area, and a living room.

· Floor and elevation plans must be to proper scale of ¼”=1’-0”.

· Wall section must accurately represent proper construction materials.

· Foam core model should accurately portray architectural plans and be to scale.

· House must be represented on the site plan provided by teacher.

· Oral presentation describing your design process and finished product.

Helpful Tools and Resources

Sample Bubble Plan ….. Basic sample of hand drawn bubble diagram.

Math Formulas for Area ….. All formulas needed for calculating square footage.

Architectural Plan Designer …..This is a great web site for plugging in design preferences and limitations to view appropriate architectural plans. This site also shows good examples of floor plans and elevations.

Architectural Flavors …..Architectural plans come in many styles. Check out this link to see the many different types of plans that make architecture so unique. View such styles as contemporary, European, ranch, Victorian, and even log homes.

Design Process ….. This is a great article that takes you through the whole design process from the beginning stages of conceptual design to the final site inspection after construction.

Wall Section Sample ….. This is a great sample of a typical wood frame residential wall section that shows how the house is to be built and the necessary materials.

Model Building …..This is a great site for viewing architectural scale models made from foam core and other materials.

Characteristics of a good Oral Presentation ….. This is a great guideline on how to make a successful oral presentation.

Local Architectural Colleges

Wentworth Institute of Technology …..This is a college in Boston which offers degrees in architecture, design, and engineering.

Boston Architectural Center …..This is another great architectural college in Boston.

New Hampshire Technical Institute …..Here’s another college in Concord, NH that offers programs in architectural technology.

Evaluation Rubric

	Excellent 20 pts	Good 18 pts	Satisfactory 15 pts	Needs Improvement 12 pts	Total Points
Overall Project Appearance	Project is well put together, neat, clean, and all parts of project are complete and blend together nicely	Project is complete and compiled together for presentation	Project is mostly complete, but lacks conformity and presentation quality	Project is clearly not finished, messy, and lacks conformity and effort
Design Concept	Design is well thought out and utilized information from lesson plan as well as met all minimum criteria for project	Design is carefully thought out and all minimum criteria has been met in plans	Design is complete, but lacks some apparent information from lesson plan and does not meet all minimum criteria	Design is incomplete or lacks any information from lesson plan and does not meet minimum criteria in design
Architectural Plans	All plans are finished, accurate to scale, well organized, and they compliment each other with blending details	All plans are complete and to proper scale	Plans are complete, but could be lacking scale requirements and accuracy	Plans are incomplete, scales are not accurate, and missing information
Model Accuracy	Model is well constructed and it is an accurate representation of architectural plans. Model shown in detail	Model is finished, neat looking and a good representation of plans	Model is complete, but lacking detail and correct representation of plans	Model is incomplete, messy, and clearly not a good representation of plans
Oral Presentation	Student is completely prepared and has obviously rehearsed	Student seems pretty prepared but might have needed a couple more rehearsals	The student is somewhat prepared but it is clear that rehearsal was lacking	Student does not seem at all prepared to present

· Each project will be graded as a group, so that each individual will receive the same grade within that group.

Conclusion

At the end of this web quest, in conjunction with the prerequisite lesson plan, you will have been exposed to the many different ways to approach a design problem. You will have learned about space planning, spatial relationships, site planning and considerations, architecture, and even how to present an effective oral presentation. Architectural planning involves many disciplines such as mathematics, science, conceptual thinking, and even artistry, but most of all it can be really fun and rewarding.

Credit & References

Special thanks to architecturaldesigns.com for floor plan graphic.

Special thanks to animationlibrary.com for animated graphics.

Special thanks to rubistar.4teachers.org for rubric information.

Special thanks to SERESC for webquest training.

Special thanks to my colleagues Brenda Morrow and Gretchen Williams for their input.

Teacher Page

“We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author’s name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author’s name, you may add ‘Modified by (your name) on (date)’. If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.”

Last updated on August 15, 1999. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page