Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

How are you today? I hope you're feeling really good.

My name's Miss Afzal, and I'll be your art teacher for this lesson.

I'm excited about that because today we're looking at architectural design, which is very interesting, I think.

Our lesson is called "Becoming Inspired: Developing an Architectural Design." It comes from the unit of work, "Being Curious About Spatial Design and Architecture." So I hope you're feeling inspired, curious, and if you are, then we'll begin.

The outcome for today's lesson is: "I can develop my own personal architectural design." We have some keywords in our lesson.

Let's go through them: "inspiration" and "scale." What do these keywords mean? Well, "inspiration" is the spark that starts the creative process, leading to unique and innovative designs.

And "scale," the relationship between the size of a building in a design and its actual size.

So these are our keywords: "inspiration" and "scale." Let's be on the lookout for them, let's listen out for them, and let's think carefully about them.

They'll be coming up in our lesson today.

Today's lesson is called "Becoming Inspired: Developing an Architectural Design," and it has two learning cycles.

First of all, finding inspiration, and next, developing ideas into a design.

Let's begin by finding inspiration.

And your practical outcomes might look like this.

Oh, my.

Aren't these intriguing? And this is what you could be coming up with in just a short while.

So, what do you think has inspired these buildings? Pause here and share with someone.

Let's hear about this building from Andeep: "This building is known as 'The Gherkin,' but it was inspired by a sea sponge.

And here's Sofia: "I think this has been inspired by a honeycomb or the globe." I wonder if you had similar ideas to these.

And here's Izzy: "The Shard was inspired by the church spires of London and the masts of tall ships from Canaletto's paintings of London.

Buildings can come in many different forms, with influences coming from a range of different sources.

Architects find inspiration from lots of different places to help them with their ideas.

Frank Gehry has been inspired by fish.

He has created a feeling of movement with undulating surfaces in his buildings.

He enjoys sailing and has used the shapes found on ships and sails in some of his buildings, for example, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Zaha Hadid used calligraphic drawings and paintings as a primary inspiration for representing her architectural ideas, exploring how buildings interact with their surroundings.

So we can see that architects find inspiration from lots of different places.

Let's have a check for understanding.

True or false? Architects will only be inspired by one source.

Pause here and decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected false.

And now I'd like you to say a little more about your answer.

Pause here while you do this.

Perhaps you said something like this: Architects, like artists, can find inspiration from a wide range of different sources and will often combine different ideas into their buildings.

And now over to you.

Where could you find inspiration? Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

You could look around you for interesting patterns, textures, and forms, such as the ones we can see on the screen.

I wonder if that's what you came up with, or maybe something else.

Architects can find inspiration in lots of different places.

So, where else could you find inspiration? You might think about the place where you live.

What is it well known for? What makes it special? What is in the history of the area where you live? What is the landscape like where you live? So pause here and share with someone your answers to some of these questions about the place where you live and where you might find inspiration.

Thanks for sharing.

Let's hear from Aisha: "I love visiting the sea, and I'm inspired by the shape of the shells on the beach." Oh, I love visiting the sea, too.

Here's Alex: "I enjoy dancing, and I'm inspired by the movement and shapes I can create when I am dancing." Oh, my goodness, I love dancing, too.

And Lucas: "I love reading science fiction, and imagining the worlds that are described.

This can give me inspiration." Oh, my goodness, I love reading, too.

Wow.

And Alex again: "I'm inspired by the shapes of leaves and trees I can see on my walks to school." Oh, wow.

I'm feeling so inspired hearing from these three.

I hope you are feeling inspired hearing about each other's sources of inspiration.

Architects can be inspired by nature: Plants, trees, or organic forms. By landscapes or natural formations.

And by natural forms and organic shapes.

Architects can be inspired by buildings or structures: The use of shape and line.

The use of materials.

And historic or cultural inspiration.

Architects can be inspired by art or design: The use of colour and pattern.

The use of form and shape.

Cultural or global influences.

Architects can also be inspired by.

Materials and technology can inspire architectural design.

Their own interests and personal experiences.

The client and their needs.

They can also be inspired by lots of other things.

Let's have a check for understanding.

True or false? Nature can inspire the shapes and designs of buildings.

Pause here and decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected true.

And now I'd like you to say a little more about your answer.

Pause here while you do this.

Perhaps you said something like this: Some buildings are designed to look like trees, shells, or mountains.

Simple ideas often inspire the best designs.

Some architects get inspiration by playing with materials, like manipulating paper into different forms. As we can see on the screen here.

By playing with materials and letting forms emerge, rather than trying to control a design straight away, can lead to interesting ideas.

Can you see the potential for building designs in these structures? Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

I wonder what potential you saw in these structures.

And now it's time for our first task, where we'll be experimenting with paper forms. Using paper or card, play with folding, bending, and curving the paper to create different shapes.

Experiment and create as many different forms as you can.

You might need glue or tape to hold them in place.

Aim to create 10 different forms. You could photograph your different experiments for your sketchbook.

So pause here while you have a go at experimenting with paper forms by folding, bending, and curving the paper to create different shapes.

I'll see you when you're finished.

Okay, great to be back with you.

How did you get on with experimenting with paper forms? Your experiments may have looked like this.

So first of all, on the left there, we've got folding the paper.

Really loving that fan-like approach.

In the middle, we've got bending the paper, so interesting.

And love that.

On the right-hand side, we've got curling the paper.

So intriguing.

Great job, everyone.

And now we're onto our next learning cycle: Developing ideas into a design.

Paper is an easy and cheap material for architects to use to experiment with different ideas for their buildings and explore the designs in three dimensions.

How could paper be manipulated to create a paper model for a building? Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Maybe you talked about bending, rolling, curving, folding the paper.

Architects who have experimented with paper manipulation to help them realise their designs include: Anupama Kundoo uses folded paper to create the design for her shelter structures, Ferrocement insitu Light Matters.

In their design for the Serpentine Pavilion Summer House, Frank Barkow and Regine Leibinger found inspiration from different sizes of curled paper.

Tim Fu experiments with crumpled paper and AI to create the designs for concept buildings in his Crumpled Paper Architecture series.

So we can see there are a number of artists who've experimented with paper manipulation to help them realise their designs.

Let's have a check for understanding.

True or false? Architects only gain inspiration from other buildings.

Pause here and decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected false.

And now I'd like you to say a little more about your answer.

Pause here while you do this.

Perhaps you said something like this: Architects can get inspiration from other buildings, but they can also play with different materials to generate ideas for building designs.

Architects need to think about the scale of their building.

This will change the way the building looks and its purpose.

Scale refers to the relationship between the size of the building in a design and its actual size.

One way architects can show scale is to include figures in their design.

Though we can see some familiar figures, large figures will make the scale of the building feel smaller.

Small figures will make the scale of the building feel larger.

Jun and Laura are discussing the impact of changing scale when designing a building.

Here's Jun: "The change in scale of the figures really affects the purpose of the building.

Where the figures are big, it makes the building feel like it could be a cafe in my local park, but when the figures are small, the building feels more like a large museum or gallery." Let's have a check for understanding.

True or false? Including large figures in my architectural design will change the scale and make the building feel bigger.

Pause here and decide if this statement is true or false.

Well done if you selected false.

And now I'd like you to say a little more about your answer.

Pause here while you do this.

Perhaps you said something like this: If you include large figures in your architectural design, the scale will change, the building will feel smaller; small figures will make the building feel large.

And now it's time for your next task.

I would like you to develop an architectural design.

Using the paper manipulation skills that you have explored in task A, develop one of your forms into a design idea for a piece of architecture.

You could: duplicate some of the forms you made to play with multiples.

Use different coloured papers.

Change the scale of the forms. You may need to use glue to hold the forms in place.

So pause here while you have a go at this first part of your task, developing an architectural design.

Using the paper manipulation skills that you explored in task A, develop one of your forms into a design idea for a piece of architecture.

I'll see you when you're finished.

It's good to be back with you.

So, how did you get on with that part of your task, developing an architectural design? Your design may have looked like this.

Oh my.

Here's Lucas: "Andeep's design is really interesting.

He made more of the curls of the paper to expand his idea.

It reminds me of a rollercoaster.

I think it would make a really fun building to be inside.

Thanks for sharing that, Lucas.

Pause here and share with someone what are your impressions of Andeep's design? Thanks for sharing.

Your design may have looked like this.

Here's Alex: "Sofia's designs are both different.

She enlarged the forms from the first task.

I wonder if they could be combined together to make an even more unusual design?" Oh, my goodness.

I love this thinking, Alex.

And over to you.

Pause here and share with each other what are your impressions of Sofia's designs? And what do you think of Alex's idea of combining them together to make an even more unusual design? Pause here while you have this discussion.

Thanks for sharing.

And now I would like you to create scale in an architectural design.

Using your designs from Task B1, add figures to create scale.

You could work digitally.

You could cut out figures from a magazine and secure them to your design.

Or you could draw your own figures, cut them out, and secure them to your design.

So pause here while you have a go at this part of your task, creating scale in your architectural design by adding figures.

I'll see you when you're finished.

It's great to be back with you.

How did you get on with creating scale in your architectural design? Your designs may have looked like this, some really quite large figures, or some very, very small figures.

Pause video and share with someone, how do you see the impact of the different-sized figures in these two designs? Thanks for sharing.

And now we're onto the next part of your task, reflecting on your architectural design.

Use these questions to help you reflect on your work: What purpose do you think your building design would suit? What feeling does the design create? What element of the design has worked well? How do you think your building design would fit into your local area? So pause here while you reflect on your architectural design, and use these questions to help you reflect on your work.

I'll see you after you've had time to reflect.

Okay, good to be back with you.

How did you get on with reflecting on your architectural design? Here's Laura: "My design would make a great entrance to a cinema.

It feels a bit mysterious, as you can't see into the building.

The curvilinear lines work well, as they create smooth walkways." Wow, I would love to go to a cinema like this.

Here's Aisha: "My design is quite unusual.

It makes me think of the swirls in calligraphy writing.

I think if the figures were smaller, making the building look even taller in scale, it would make a very unusual school building." Oh, my.

It really would.

And here's Sam: "I think this would be a very unusual building in my town.

I imagine it being in the marketplace and people using it as a meeting place, maybe with some benches to sit on around it." I love that idea.

"I've been inspired by movement and the wind blowing in the washing hanging on the line." I love that.

Pause here and share with someone, what's your impression of Sam's architectural design, and how do you think it would fit into your local area? Thanks for sharing.

I think this would fit in so well in my local area, and I can imagine it becoming a very well-loved landmark and a place for people to gather.

In our lesson, "Becoming Inspired: Developing an Architectural Design," we've covered the following: Architects' inspiration can come from lots of different sources, including personal experiences, things they see around them, the natural world, manmade or technological objects, arts, and culture.

Changing the scale of a building can easily be done in the design stage by simply changing the size of the figures.

Larger figures will make the scale of the building feel small.

Smaller figures will make the scale of the building feel large.

Well done, everyone, for joining in with this lesson.

It was great to become inspired together and to develop these wonderful architectural designs.

I love how you engaged with the folding, curling, and manipulating paper to come up with some really unique designs.

I hope you've enjoyed this lesson.

I've really enjoyed teaching you, and I'm looking forward to seeing you at another art lesson soon.

Until then, stay creative.