Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Carter, and we're going to be working together on our lesson: Nature and Architecture.

Can you think of any buildings or thinking about how our architecture might be inspired by nature? Well, that's what we're going to be looking at in today's lesson.

In order to be really successful and learn lots in today's lesson, we need to be really putting in plenty of effort, have a go at all the questions, and really just let loose when we're doing the practical tasks so that you can be as creative as possible.

I'm sure we're going to have a fantastic lesson and that we're gonna make some excellent progress.

Let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you're going to be able to say: "I can design an architectural structure, which takes inspiration from nature." I wonder if you're already starting to think about different types of natural forms that could inspire architectural structures.

There are a few keywords that we need to be able to use in today's lesson.

The first one is form.

Form is the visual appearance, structure or constitution of an object referring to the three dimensions of objects.

A good way to think about this, especially when comparing it to shape, is that it's the three dimensional, so a shape would be said to be a circle.

A form would be said to be a sphere, so it's that three dimension.

Structure.

Structure is the built elements such as buildings, streets, roads, parks, and bridges.

And scale.

Scale is the relative size or proportion of an object or artwork to itself or its surroundings.

We've got three cycles in our lesson today.

The first cycle is recording organic structures.

We'll then move on to experimenting with developing layouts.

Then we'll finally we'll look at refining and completing an architectural design.

Let's get started.

Recording organic structures.

In art, we use the term form to describe the 3D appearance and structure or constitution of an object.

Forms can be human made or natural.

Human made forms are created by people and natural forms are created in nature.

Architecture can gain inspiration for their structures from many sources.

Architects throughout history have found inspiration in natural forms and structures such as the honeycomb structure.

Can you think of anything that's inspired an architect near you? Okay.

First check for understanding.

Only modern architects have found inspiration in natural forms and structures.

Do you think that's true or false? Pause the video and decide what you think is the correct answer.

Well done if you said that that was false.

Many architects throughout history have found inspiration in natural forms and structures.

These students are discussing natural forms and structures.

"Shells are an intriguing and complex form, found in nature." "Birds build different kinds of structures which can hold weight." "Seed pods have an interesting form with a specific purpose." "I like the detail and delicacy of the hexagon structure in beehives." I wonder if you can think of a lot of different kinds of structures from nature.

Some architectural structures which are inspired by natural forms include the Pineapple, a National Trust building in Scotland, the Cactus, a Ministry of Agriculture building in Doha, Qatar, the Golden Fish in Barcelona, the Gherkin in London, and the Lotus Building in Wujin, China.

Can you think of any other natural structures that have inspired buildings? Maybe there's something there where you live.

Drawing and recording from natural structures is often the first step in the creative process.

The benefits of recording natural forms include: stimulating creativity, visual problem solving, enhancing observation, enabling quick exploration of ideas, laying a foundation for detailed design.

Can you think of any other benefits for recording? Okay.

Check for understanding time.

Which of these steps is commonly considered a first step in the creative process when inspired by natural forms? is it A: conducting market research, B: creating digital simulations, C: drawing from natural objects, or D: experimenting with new materials? Pause the video and decide which you think is the correct answer.

Well done if you said drawing from natural objects, This natural form has curved lines and spirals and you can see them here, and it also has organic shapes, like those purple shapes I've added on top.

Okay, Task A: You're going to be creating a large or a series of large charcoal drawings of natural forms and structures.

You could: work quickly to explore as many ideas as you can; use the side of the charcoal for large areas and the tip for lines; smudge the charcoal and to rework the forms; and use rubbers to remove marks.

It might be really successful if you work quite large, so rather than just moving your hand to create curves, you can actually move your arm and create much larger natural forms. Pause the video and give yourself plenty of time to produce these drawings.

How did you get on? Did you enjoy making your drawings? Did you like how charcoal was quite soft and actually just by smudging it with your hand, you could remove some of the depth of the mark and rework.

Did you find that using the rubber allowed you to pull out some of the marks and change things around a bit? Well done.

Jacob shares he "likes the forms that I've been able to make.

Using the charcoal, I smudged and refined my drawing of natural structures using different tones." You might have produced something like this.

And Izzy shares, "I focused on the curving form of the leaf.

I smudged some areas to rework the lines, and I used the rubber to create highlights, which I think worked well." Do you think you can see where she's reworked the lines? Okay, so moving on to experimenting to develop layouts.

How could these drawings turn into a building design? I wonder what ideas you have.

Izzy shares, "It could be a direct replica of the forms like the Lotus Building, which is recognisably a flower.

Jun shares, "Or maybe it could change like the Golden Fish building, which does not look exactly like a fish." Architects can create direct replicas of natural forms or they can select and change aspects of their recording to create something new.

Check for understanding.

True or false? Architects can only create direct replicas of natural forms in their buildings.

Pause the video and decide if you think this is true or false.

Well done if you said false.

Architects can create direct replicas of natural form, but they can also change and select aspects of their recording to create something new.

Architects think creatively and experiment with ideas playfully to create their designs.

Architects who think and work like this include: Frank Gehry, who works playfully to inspire his designs; Amanda Levete, Toyo Ito and Dame Zaha Hadid use organic shapes in their designs.

So those are already inspired by natural forms. Antoni Gaudi is well known for his unconventional approach to architecture.

And Elsie Owusu OBE, who works with nature to specialise in conservation.

Okay, check for understanding time.

Which statement is most accurate about architects' creative designs? Is it A: they always follow the same design for every building? Or B: they copy older designs without ever changing them? C: they experiment with ideas and think outside the box? Or D: they only use one material in every structure? Pause the video and decide which you think is the most accurate statement.

Well done if you said C: they experiment with ideas and think outside the box.

What methods could we use to select and change aspects of our recording of natural forms to create new ideas? What can you come up with? Aisha shares, "We could zoom into parts of our drawings and look at the forms close up." Sofia adds, "Maybe we could cut out or crop the parts of the structures we like the most." And Alex adds, "I wonder if we could rotate or turn the images to see them differently." These are all some very strong ideas.

Do you think we could combine them? Okay, so for Task B-1, you're going to cut out the most interesting forms and structures from your Task A recording.

You should: cut neatly along the edges of your drawing; select only the parts you want to use, so you can be selective here; think about the shapes that you want to cut out; be purposeful with your selection and make sure that you're choosing the bits that are most successful; you could cut one drawing into multiple parts.

Teacher tip: Document your work first for the development process.

A few photographs now and you'll be able to see in your project where you started and where you end up.

Pause the video now and start cutting out your work Okay with Task B-2, I'd like you to experiment with the composition of your cutout drawings to create new building structures.

So using those sections that you've already cut out, try out as many different ideas as you can, and you can see in the video here that I've tested out lots of different types of composition, so you could: rotate the drawing sections; you could overlap them so you're making one large structure; you could create of different compositions; and you can document your experimentation with photography.

This allows you to work really, really quickly, but still build up lots of evidence.

You're testing ideas and working out what you like the best.

Once you've done that, glue your most successful layout onto a fresh sheet of paper.

Pause the video and get started now.

How did you get on? Did you make a lot of different layout tests? You might have created something that looks like these.

Gosh, they look all like very different types of buildings, don't they? Can you imagine what they might be used for? The one on the left sort of makes me think it could be like a great big concert venue or maybe a sports venue because it's kind of got that large base shape to fill lots of people; but then the middle one looks more like it's going to be a tall tower, although that archway structure does make it seem rather interesting.

Did you find yourself imagining what might happen in these buildings as you begin to create your structures? Andeep shares, "This is my favourite layout.

I like the tall structure made of natural forms. I was able to create lots of different compositions very quickly, and this felt playful and helped me explore my ideas without judging them first." Did you find it was the same for you? So we're moving on to our final learning cycle, which is refining and completing architectural design.

Architects create designs to communicate their idea to a number of people, including: the clients, so that's the people who are paying for the building and people who want the building made; builders, engineers, planning officials, interior designers and other types of consultants.

Do you think architects create different drawings with different information for these different people? Do you think all of these people need the same information? Do you think some of them need all of the information and some of them just need parts of the information? Okay, check for understanding time.

What is missing from the list below? Architects create designs to communicate their idea to a number of people, including: blank, builders, engineers, planning officials, interior designers and other consultants.

Pause the video and decide what you think is the missing word.

Well done if you remembered the missing word was clients.

Architects create designs to communicate information, such as: their vision for the project; the layout or form; the scale of the project; and any unique features; and think about how all of those things might be really important to those different stakeholders we talked about last time.

The client's going to be really interested in things like the unique features, the scale of the project, the layout, the vision of what it's going to be like.

Builders and engineers are gonna need to know things like the layout, the scale, any unique features that they're going to have to help create.

Okay, next check for understanding.

Which is the most accurate list of information an architect would include in their design? Is it A: their vision, their favourite colour, and the scale of the project; B: the vision, layout, scale of the project and their favourite material; or C: the vision, layout, scale of the project, and any unique features? Pause the video and decide which you think is the correct answer.

Well done if you said C: the layout, sorry, the vision, layout, scale of the project and any unique features.

What's missing from this design? If we weren't in this lesson, would you know this was a design for a building? Laura shares, "We cannot see any building features like windows, doors or stairs." And Lucas adds, "We cannot tell how big it is, the scale or where it is." And they're exactly right.

There's a lot of information missing on our design so far for us to be able to communicate that this is a design for a building.

How could we add building features or an idea of scale? What do you think? Laura shares, "We could draw into our work.

Then we could add doors and windows." And Lucas further adds, "If we draw trees or people, we can show the building's scale.

Those are some really excellent ideas.

Did you come up with them as well? You can alter the size of trees or people to show the scale of a building in a design.

Small figures will make the building look larger.

You can see here the building looks like it's an ever such a big building with lots of small people surrounding it, but larger figures will make the building look small and now this looks like it could be a miniature building, a model maybe.

We are now moving on to Task C, where we're going to be refining your design so that it shows scale and includes building features.

Think about the entrance to your building, how light will get into the building, what the area around your building will be like.

How will you show the scale of your building? You may: draw directly on top of your initial composition or draw on paper and cut and layer it on top of your composition.

Pause the video and get started now.

Well done.

How did you get on? Did you enjoy adding all those different features into your design? Do you think it communicates more effectively the idea of the building? Well done.

You might have produced something that looks like this.

Sam shares, "I like how Andeep has added other building features like the arch over the doorway and the ramp to the entrance.

He's also added trees and figures, so I can see the scale and tell that this is a huge structure." And there's a zoomed-in section so you can see that entrance.

One of the things I really like about this is that Andeep hasn't spent a lot of time drawing super accurate figures.

He's just given us the impression that it's a person and that does enough information for our brains to work out what's happening in the work.

It's incredibly effective.

Did you find you were able to use quite simple shapes of figures to create that same sense of scale in your work? Were there any other features that you added that we didn't think about? In summary of our lesson today, we've learned that many architects throughout history have found inspiration in natural forms and used the structure of organic forms in their building designs.

That drawing and recording forms from natural structures is often a first step in the creative process.

Architects think outside of the box and experiment with ideas playfully to create their designs.

And you can alter the size of trees or people to show the scale of your building in a design.

Well done for all of your work in today's lesson, you've had to think really hard and we've done lots and lots of different steps to come to our final outcomes.

If you've been able to document all of those different stages, you've shown an awful lot of work, and if you haven't, you've still gone through all of that work and should be really proud of your efforts today.

I really look forward to seeing you in our next lesson.

Well done.