The New Hampshire education curriculum frameworks state: "We live in a three dimensional world. To interpret, understand, and appreciate that world, students need to develop an understanding for space." During a child's twelve years in school, a broad goal of the NH education curriculum framework is for "students to develop special senses". As architects, we agree this sensory development is very important to become a fully productive member of our society. And it can be a lot of fun.

As the appreciation of the need for a thoughtful approach to our built environment has grown due to urban sprawl problems and historic preservation initiatives, "Learning by Design" programs have sprouted up in dozens of cities and states across the nation. AIANH created the "NH Learning by Design" program in 2004. The program is a design education and awareness program, to show our children how architecture and design can enrich their lives and transform their communities. The goals of the "NH Learning by Design" program are:

• To engage children in architectural awareness and design projects with architects and designers
  
  
• To support educators who engage children in interdisciplinary, curriculum-based architectural awareness projects
  
  
• To give children the opportunity and skills to communicate ideas about their built and natural environments

If you are a fourth-grade teacher interested in this program for your class, call Carolyn Isaak at the AIA office, (603) 357-2863 or fill out and return the attached form. We will get in touch with you.

Shoebox Clubhouse

In 2004, we launched our first program with thirty-six design professionals who led eighteen NH fourth grade classes in an exercise to "Design a Shoebox Clubhouse." The design professionals volunteered to teach a three class sessions with the end result being the creation of a "Shoebox Clubhouse” created by each child! Students selected their own shoeboxes and designed their own clubhouses! Each child's imagination and passion directed the result. There were clubhouses for ski teams, soccer teams, girl scout troops, and many other purposes the children came up with!

The workshop allowed the students to explore the design process using mathematics, geometry and a variety of tools (architectural scales, scissors, glue, tape and colored paper) to develop their clubhouses. They learned to communicate spatial idea with words and drawings and assemble a scale model from a shoebox.

A nine year old fourth grade student from the Main Dunstable Elementary School in Nashua included two bowling lanes, an in-ground swimming pool, a homework room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom for her parents, herself and her best friend. She also wanted to have a special room to do school work because she likes it very quiet when she does her homework at night.

A classmate of Victoria’s was very excited about the program and said it made him want to be an architect when he grows up. His clubhouse included 4 playrooms, two television rooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, two sports equipment rooms and a grand hallway.

  

Neighborhood Walking Tours

The American Institute of Architects defines built environment education as the study of architecture, preservation, design, site planning, and the issues and challenges which are a part of these activities. It is saving important buildings and sites, the effects of technology, and planning for the future.

Neighborhood Walking Tours are a self-discovery program for students and teachers. During the course of this program, students tour their home and school neighborhoods and ultimately, the neighborhood which represents their city. A workbook is developed by AIANH volunteers and the classroom teacher of activities that would guide the students to an understanding of the architectural design, city/planning and people processes which influence how our cities work.

In this program, students use the visual history book of the city, its buildings and streets to learn about their own communities. During their study of the city, they learn history, geography, science and art. They practice skills: reading, writing, arithmetic and communication. They ultimately learn about the issues and challenges which face our cities: preservation, new technology, growth, safety and planning for the future.

When the workbook is complete, students have a very personalized journal of their travels through the discovery of their own cities and neighborhoods. The Neighborhood Walking Tours approach gives students a way to look at and evaluate buildings, neighborhoods and cities and to become advocates for a better build environment.

  

Box City

The quality of our built environment involves more than making it work properly. It also demands a level of design that supports and nourishes the aspiration for our society and our culture. To enrich that environment, we must learn about it. We must understand it as a part of history, of both local history and the more remote past, upon which much of it is based.

Built environment education can be viewed as a case of learning about the familiar in a fresh new way, understanding how it got to be that way, and discovering how we might change it. Elementary classrooms are rich laboratories immediately accessible for exploration.

We shape our buildings. Therefore, they shape us. Winston Churchill, 1954

The Box City curriculum is a starting place for an important journey – one where students learn as much about themselves as they do about their communities. A real city is too large in scale for students to handle. By reducing the scale they are able to understand how a city works and the interdependency between the citizens, the buildings and nature.

Box City provides a hands-on, experiential approach to community planning and instill design principles; it helps students understand the development of communities and their present problems and successes. This curriculum allows students to make their own buildings (from cardboard boxes) and then to create their own communities by placing the boxes on a base plan, at the same time learning how geography, economics, ecology, history and cultures have affected their development of the community.

The students create a community the way real communities get built: through a mix of collaboration, regulation, necessity and entrepreneurship. When the community is built, the students evaluate it and compare it with the community where they live.

Box City allows students to think about their own city or town, to dream about what it could be, and it will teach them to take responsibility for their actions and decisions. They will ultimately view Box City as the greatest museum and textbook available.

Future Learning by Design Workshops


Ideas for additional programs that will be developed by AIANH are coming from none other than the students themselves and illustrate their enthusiasm for these types of design-based projects: modeling exercises with sand, clay, wood, paper mache; research projects comparing architectural styles from around the world; sketching studies of different building types to understand the relationship between interior spaces and exterior appearances.