Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to what is our fourth lesson in the design technology, 3D computer aided design unit.

My name is Mr. Wicken and it's great to see you here today.

Now in today's lesson, we're going to look at who are architects and what is architecture and more importantly, what does it all mean? And what do they actually do? We'll look into some famous architects as well and understand what made them so famous and how they influence the world around us.

So let's have a look at today's learning objectives.

So before we look into the learning objectives for today's lesson, make sure that you've done the intro quiz as always with these lessons.

It's really important that you get that done before we carry on.

So if you haven't done it, go and get that done now and then come back to this point.

Okay, great.

Now let's move on to the learning objectives.

The first thing we'll look into is, what is actually architecture? What does it do? How does it influence the world around us? And why is it so important? Then we're going to look into who's some famous architects and what has made them so famous from the world that they have created.

Lastly, we're then going to then look into some famous structures all around the world.

Why they're famous, some interesting facts about them and actually, when were they built? and finally, as always, we're going to finish with the exit quiz.

So those are the things we're going to look into in today's lesson.

Now, we need to make sure we've got the resources to be in a complete this work.

So, as always, make sure that you've got an exercise book or some paper.

It doesn't matter what size the paper is as long as you can write on it.

Then you're going to need a pen.

Again, doesn't matter what the colour is as long as it's comfortable and working, I'm happy.

And finally, in today's lesson, you're going to need a computer or some sort of internet enabled device so that you can do the research that you're going to need to be successful in today's lesson.

Now, if you haven't got those pieces of equipment ready would you like to pause the video here and go and get them? Great.

Now we're all set up for today's lesson.

So let's start by looking at the keywords.

Now, the first key word we're going to look into and one that I've already mentioned is architecture.

Architecture.

Let's say it together, so I'll say it and you repeat it.

Architecture.

Architecture.

Architecture.

Great.

So what actually is architecture? Well, architecture is the art or practise of designing and constructing buildings or structures.

So probably right now you are sitting inside a building and that building would have been created by somebody who works within the architectural sector.

That sector is what creates the buildings and structures.

Now there's another word that that's really important to think about, structures.

Structures is another key word for today's lesson.

So let's say that together.

Structures.

Structures.

Structures.

Great, well done.

So what actually is a structure? A structure, realistically, is just a building or an object that has been constructed from several parts.

So a house might be a structure.

Same as a school might be a structure but also a statute could be classed as a structure because they are made from different parts.

So those are today's key words and we need to make sure we're remembering them, architecture and structure, because they're going to be really important.

Okay, let's go into the first area of learning.

So the first area of learning in today's lesson is, what is architecture? It's a really good question and one that we've got to make sure we explore to be able to complete the learning from today.

So the first thing we're going to do is I'm going to ask you a question.

Which of the following would not be designed by an architect? Now, if you think back to the keyword that we've just gone over, we need to think about what an architect does within architecture.

So the first one would be houses, places where people live.

The second, schools, where people actually go to get educated.

The third, religious buildings, places of worship take place within them.

And finally, roads, built areas that carry lorries, cars, all sorts of transportation up and down.

So after those four, which one would not be designed by an architect? Great, roads, because roads, actually in this situation, wouldn't be designed by architects.

They would be designed by somebody else and that's called a civil engineer.

We'll look into that possibly in a future lesson but today we're going to focus in architects.

So architects within architecture would design houses schools and religious buildings.

So it's looking to the architecture in a little bit more detail.

Architecture is a word used to describe the design and planning of buildings and other types of structures.

I've got a great photo behind me of a city.

It's quite a famous city.

Do you know which one it is? That's right.

It's New York City and all of their buildings in New York have been designed by architectures.

And they've got some world famous structures there which are breathtaking to see.

And this photo, I think, just sums it up.

The beauty of the architecture in New York City is just something to behold and one that I would recommend seeing.

So architecture is the designing and planning of these things.

But actually, architecture has been around for a very long time.

You might not realise it.

The earliest surviving written work by an architect or somebody within that field, dates back to the Romans.

And that's a very long time ago.

You're talking about 2,000 to 2,500 years ago.

Now architecture back then was based around three key principles.

The first one is durability and it should be a strong and long lasting building.

That was the first area that the Romans believed architecture should have, okay? The second is utility.

It must have a need for that user.

So if we're thinking about a school it must be able to house people to be educated in.

And the third thing that the Romans believed architecture should do is it should be beautiful, right? It should look good.

And I absolutely agree with those three things because I believe that if you take those three principles within architecture you can create something that is not only long lasting and meets the needs of the users, but also is something beautiful to behold, like New York City.

Now I'm going to ask you to pause the video here and what I'd like you to do is some sketching.

With your pen and your pieces of paper or your exercise book, I'd like you to sketch your house that you're in right now.

And made sure that when you're sketching it you're including lots of detail.

I want to see the windows, the doors.

I want to see any of the plants that you might have, what your door number is, if you've got a doorbell or a door knocker, great, sketch those things into it.

Try and make it look as realistic as you can.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

There might be mistakes.

It might not look fully as it is.

That's the whole purpose of just sketching your house to start with because, like with architecture, you have to start somewhere and some rough sketches is perfect.

So if you want to get your equipment now and pause the video here, I'd like you to go and sketch your house and then we'll come back and we'll move on to the next area of learning.

Good luck.

Welcome back.

And I hope we had lots of fun sketching your house.

And I really look forward to hopefully seeing those beautiful sketches that you've created of your houses.

Now let's move on to our second area of learning in today's lesson.

And that is, who are some famous architects? Now architects actually, like TV and film celebrities, are renowned within the architecture community as being the best of the best, the of top of the bunch.

If you think of your favourite TV or film star, usually it's because they are one of the best within that area and that's the same with architects within architecture.

Some of them are really famous and actually they are helping to push the design of buildings and structures forward to revolutionise the world of architecture around us.

So let's have a look into some.

I've got four famous architects that span many, many years, probably longer than you realise, that actually have really helped shape and change the world around us.

Now, the first we're going to look at is Sir Christopher Wren.

Now he was alive a long time ago between 1632 and 1723.

Sir Christopher Wren was born in Wiltshire, England and is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.

Sir Christopher Wren is probably most famous for designing St.

Paul's Cathedral in London.

You may have seen that on TV programmes or if you're lucky enough to be in London or have visited London, you may have seen St.

Paul's Cathedral.

Sir Christopher Wren is also known for designing another famous structure in London which is the Monument for the Great Fire of London.

Now, I'm sure you've probably learned about the Great Fire of London in your history lessons, but if you haven't it's worth having a look into.

It was a terrible event that happened in London many, many years ago and Sir Christopher Wren designed a monument that is now still there in place in London to commemorate those who sadly lost their lives.

The second architect we're going to look at is Frank Gehry.

Now he's still alive, thankfully, to this day and he's producing amazing work.

He was born in Canada and again is a very famous architect around the world today.

He's famous for some of his really wacky and unusual shapes and he's also really well known for producing what are napkin designs.

Simple, very rough sketches that actually are really really wacky and out there but in the end do come to be an actual building, very similar to what you've just done with the sketching of your house, a very simple, very quick, roughly realistic look at your house and that's exactly what he has done.

Now he is also very famous for designing some great structures in the world.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, in Spain, is another great structure that he is designed that is really unusual, probably something that you've never seen before know unless you've been there, which is fantastic, and again is truly unique in the shape and the form that it is presented as to us in the world today.

Now the third architect we're going to look at is Lord Norman Foster, or Lord Foster, as he's also known as.

He is still, like with Frank, still alive.

So he was born in 1935 and he's still working and practising to his day.

He was born in Manchester, England.

So he was born further north which is great because actually architects can come from all shapes and places in the world and that's really important to remember.

It doesn't matter where you are, who you are, you can do whatever you want to do.

Lord Foster is a very well known architect and still, as I said, practising today.

Many of his buildings that he's created actually make the London skyline today.

Now one of his most famous designs is the Millau Viaduct in France.

And actually it's not a building, it's a bridge.

So it's a structure.

And again, this is where that learning that we've done before of both buildings and structures comes together.

Now, the Millau Viaduct is the tallest bridge in the world and it is allowing cars and lorries and buses and all sorts of different wheel transportation to go from one side to the other on what is a very high platform, ie, the road.

He was also knighted by the Queen and is a lord so he sits in the House of Lords down in Parliament.

Our final architect we're going to look at is Dame Zaha Hadid.

Now she is one of the most influential architects of the 20th century.

She very sadly died in 2016 and was a true loss of the world of architecture but her work and her legacy lives on to this day.

She was a British Iraqi architect, so she comes from two different countries in the world because of her family and her heritage and dynasty, which is great.

Again, really, really pushing forward the boundaries of architecture with her style.

And her brand of curvy shapes and design in her architecture is what made her famous.

She is most famous for designing the aquatic centre at the London 2012 Olympic games.

If you've seen it or you've been there, you will know that the shape of the roof is beautifully curved and it's really unusual and is something that stood out at the 2012 Olympics.

Now, she has won countless awards and one of the most famous ones is the RIBA Stirling prize, the Oscar of the architecture world, definitely.

The big prize, the one that everybody wants to win.

So those are four architects that I've just briefly spoken about, but what I want you to do now is I want you to pause the video and I want you to go and do some secondary research.

Now we've spoken about secondary research before.

What is secondary research? That's right, it's research that you're going to go and gather from sources that already exist.

So you are going to go and have a look into those four architects in more detail.

I would like you to produce a mood board as we've done in a previous lesson.

So there should be lots of pictures on a page of these four different architects.

And what I'd like you to do is take those four architects and find images of the buildings and structures that they have designed and created.

That way you can get a really clear idea as to what they have created over the years that they've been working.

If you think back that we started with Christopher Wren and then we finished with Dame Zaha Hadid, there's a huge timeframe of architecture there, many, many, many years.

So you will see a real change in the design and structure of the buildings.

So I want you to pause the video here.

I want you to go and find as many images as you can on those four architectures and then we're going to come back and we're going to finish off with the last area of today's learning.

Good luck.

Welcome back and I hope you found lots of really useful images on the four different architects to give you a much clearer picture as to what they designed and why they are so famous within architecture.

Now let's move on to the last area of learning for today's lesson, famous structures.

Famous structures are actually something that really does help us better understand human history.

Without those famous structures that are there we would find it incredibly difficult to be able to understand different communities and different worlds that have lived before us.

If we think about the Egyptians, actually the reason why we know so much about those Egyptians is because the pyramids and the tombs and the structures that are still there to this day to look after all the different documents, actually look after the mummies and sarcophagus and also jewels and other great objects that we've been able to discover to find out about that different time in human history.

So we can really understand through these famous structures the culture of those different people.

Very often those structures, those buildings are what you would call the silent witnesses of history, ie, they are there in the background as everything's going on around them, that actually are witnessing the changes over time.

Now, what do I mean by silent witness in a bit more detail? Well, I want you to consider that this place.

Whereabouts is this place? That's right, it's in London, England.

Now, what actually is this building? What is its purpose? Correct, it's the Houses of Parliament and this is where all the MPs that people vote for actually sit and do their work.

It also houses the Lords.

So Lord Foster actually goes here as well and he sits in the Houses of Lords.

So you have the MPs and the Lords and this is where the Prime Minister comes and tells us all the stuff that's going on in the country, in the world.

Now, this building has been around for a very long time, about 250 years.

And over that time there's a lot of things that have happened.

If you think over the last 250 years we've had different kings and queens, we've had two different World Wars, there have been countless numbers of Prime Ministers and different MPs, there's been revolutions, there's been evolutions and everything else in between.

And all through those different years the one thing that has stayed absolutely the same is that building.

That building has stayed there with all the different people that have come and gone.

So they are the silent witness actually by just sitting in the background, watching everything happen as it comes and goes.

As they always say, if the walls could talk, they'd tell some stories.

Could you imagine the stories that those walls would tell us? There'd be some really interesting ones.

I'd love to listen but unfortunately those walls don't talk.

So that's what I mean by silent witness.

That building, that structure has been there for a long time and it's watched things change over the years.

Now, here's what I want you to get on with.

I'd like you, using the worksheet that's available to download, to complete what tasks are actually in there.

I want you to name the four famous structures that have been put into the worksheet and I want you to tell me where they are in the world.

So not only what the name of the structure is but where they are in the world, like we just did with the Houses of Parliament.

What I'd also like you to do is to find at least one interesting fact about those four different structures and buildings.

I want that fact to be anything that you find interesting.

Doesn't matter how big or small it is.

I want you to write it onto the worksheet to show to me that you have found something that you find interesting about one of those four structures.

So this is what the worksheet looks like.

You've got four different buildings and structures.

You need to tell me the name, actually what it's called, where it is in the world and one interesting fact about all four of these different structures.

So if I could ask you to pause the video here in a moment, go and get the worksheet to complete, find out the three bits of information from the four different structures, and once it's done, we're going to come back, I'm going to conclude the lesson.

Good luck.

Welcome back and I hope you had lots of fun getting the answers to the worksheet and you found out what the four different structures are, where they are in the world and some interesting in bits of information about each one.

And that's it for today's lesson.

Thank you so much for being here.

I hope you've really enjoyed learning about architecture and architects.

In today's lesson we've looked into what actually is architecture and you had a go at sketching your own house.

We then looked into some famous architects and why they are famous.

And you then researched, by creating a mood board, their work over the different years they were active.

And finally, you've just completed the worksheet on the four different famous structures from around the world and actually what makes them so interesting as structures.

As always, I'd love to see the work that you've produced.

And if you can get permission from your parents or carers please share your images online, using the hashtag #LearnwithOak.

I hope that you carry on learning through this unit and you've enjoyed what we've done today and I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.

Goodbye.