Several schools within NSERVE use the Chicago Architecture Foundation's (CAF) curriculum, The Architecture Handbook: A Student Guide to Understanding Buildings, the first high school architecture textbook in the nation. The Architecture Handbook makes strong career connections for students and provides an introduction to the fields of architecture, construction, structural engineering, interior design, urban planning, and landscape architecture. CAF is dedicated to educating the public about architecture and serves K-12teachers and students in the Chicago region and across the country through its innovative curricula, field trips,high school skill-building workshops, teacher professional development workshops,and family programs. |
|  Evanston High School students working with the
Chicago Architecture Foundation curriculum |
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| The exact model of Maple Beach in Winnetka (on exhibit there),
designed by New Trier High School architectural students.
The site was redesigned by students to afford access to the beach
according to the guidelines of the American Disabilities Act. |
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| Check out New Trier's Architecture & Engineering page |
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| The Architecture Handbook: A Student Guide to Understanding Buildings focuses on the design and construction of residential architecture. The 400-page full color student edition and a 600-page teacher edition are the first books of their kind in the country. Through hands-on activities, The Architecture Handbook teaches both the fundamentals of architectural design and technical drawing. Students also build knowledge and gain skills through group design projects, sketching, model-making, mapping, research, critical thinking, problem solving, and class presentations.
The Architecture Handbook has been awarded the prestigious 2009 Honor Award for Collaborative Achievement from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This award recognizes projects and people that have a beneficial influence on or advance the architectural profession. |
The Architecture Handbook explores critical architectural concepts throughout 6 projects based on architectural drawings. Students investigate how a home is located on its block, how it sits on its site, how and why the rooms are arranged, why a home looks the way it does, and how homes are constructed.
The F10 House -- a sustainable green home designed by EHDD Architecture -- serves as the book’s in-depth case study. Throughout each chapter, students also compare and contrast their own home with the F10 House and ten famous contemporary and historic homes in the US and around the world, such as Fallingwater designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe, and the Magney House by Glenn Murcutt.
Reading and math are integrated throughout the book to reinforce essential student skills. Each of the 23 chapters includes a 500-700 word reading with comprehension and analysis questions, as well as 10-15 math problems, serves as the book’s in-depth case study.
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Saturdays in the Studio 2009-2010
Saturdays in the Studio is a series of architecture and design workshops for all high school students in the Chicago area. The workshops provide hands-on skills related to architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning, amount others, and are taught by professionals in those fields. All workshops take place year-round, on the third Saturday of each month (unless noted) from 10:00am - 2:30 pm. Advance registration is required.
Chicago Model City Exhibition
This 25-by-35-foot model of the city will be open for viewing, free of charge at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. The display portrays more than four square miles of the city, from the lakefront on the east to Halsted Street on the west and Oak Street on the north to 16th Street to the south. It contains an exact model of every building in the area. There are more than 1,000 of them, from a 3-foot-high Sears Tower down to old two-story store-fronts. This exhibit will run from June 10 - September 20, 2009. Ultimately, the foundation plans to permanently display the exhibit, changing as buildings come and go. |
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