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M9-Journal Prompts

Module 9 - Architecture

JOURNAL PROMPTS

Directions: Choose one or more of the following prompts and update your class journal by responding to the question or questions in the prompt. Try to write roughly a page on each prompt you select. Refer back to your journal as the course progresses to see if you are experiencing progress in meeting your goals.


Journal Prompt #1: Personal Response to Buildings

What is your personal response to the following buildings? Look at the links for the following buildings and write brief answers to the questions below for each one:

Questions about architecture:

1. Briefly describe this building as you see it, using the language of the elements of art. Three or four sentences are plenty. 

2. Describe how you think this building affects people on the outside of it, or the inside of it, according to the images you see (or, even better, if you have been there).

3. How creative do you think designers of buildings should get?

4. How much impact do you think these buildings have had on the skyline and in the debate on modern architectural design?

Here are the buildings:


Journal Prompt #2: The Visual Environment: Urban Design

The biggest human impact on the environment is in the development of our urban landscapes. Buildings and transportation routes are the most prominent (Marshall McLuhan declared “the road is our major architectural form”). Buildings serve different roles in our lives; shelter, education, work, entertainment and travel all use different building designs. What is a ‘good’ urban design? What is a ‘bad’ one? Do you prefer hard-edged designs or others that use more organic components? What about the use of ‘green’ technologies? How do they enter into your ideas of good urban design?

As a resource, you can viewarchitect Maya Lin’s discussion Links to an external site. of transforming a park in Michigan.

Journal Prompt #3: Gone Green

Using the External Links and any other sources you find appropriate, research and explain three examples of sustainable technologies and ‘green’ architecture. These could include anything from energy production sources to architectural design and engineering or urban planning models.

What are your reactions to these examples? What is the context surrounding them? For example, how will they be used? What are the costs involved? Will they replace or interact with existing designs? Do you think they are good alternatives to traditional design? Include links to the sources you find.