Architecture

AIA CINCINNATI

ARCHITECTURE BY CHILDREN PROGRAM

The theme for 2008 - 09 is ...

Transportation Hub

More information will be posted as it becomes available!

For more information about the Architecture by Children program, go to <http://www.aiacincinnati.org/Committees/ArchByChildren>.

To access Google's SketchUp, go to <http://sketchup.google.com>.

2007 - 08 timeline:

January 2008 - presentations by the architects

January, February, and March 2008 - project work period

April 5, 2008 - projects dropped off at the downtown public library; public exhibition all week during regular library hours

April 12, 2008 - 12:00 noon award reception and ceremony; 12:30 presentation; children receive their t-shirts

Our finished models ...


		Monday Class

		Tuesday Class

	Congratulations to all on a job well done!	Wednesday Class

Reception and Award Ceremony...





	Zeus's Golden Eagle Lair First Place Winner in the Category of Most Successful Use of Green Design Solutions for grades K-4!

Theme for 2008-09...coming soon!

The theme for 2006 - 07 was "Thinking Green." Teams of students designed a building and/or other space for one or more city blocks of "infill" over Fort Washington Way that would provide an amenity for Cincinnati and help connect downtown Cincinnati with the riverfront. Designs incorporated one or more sustainable "Design Challenges" in the areas of energy, water, lighting, heating/cooling, etc.

The challenge: the space to design was one - four covers over Fort Washington Way.

picture from http://www.kzf.com/TransportationMunicipal/FtWashingtonWay.aspx

picture from http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/transeng/pages/-7181-/

Our progress and final models:

Congratulations to all Thinking Green Collaborative Design Teams on a job well done!

Competition Results ...

Architecture by Children

Reception and Awards Ceremony

March 10, 2007


one of our students assisting with preparations for the awards ceremony	Honorable Mention for the Future Architect Award Treetops of Cincinnati

Master Craftsman Award Nature Conservatory	Most Creative Use of Materials Award Sports Extravaganza

Congratulations to the three winning

design collaborative teams!

The winners of the blue ribbon awards above participated in a presentation of their projects to the design charette team on August 11, 2007, at Paul Brown Stadium for real development!

2005 - 2006

MUSEUM

Project Description:

A museum by its nature is typically a building defined by the objects that are collected and displayed within its interior space. The museum's purpose is to collect, preserve, and exhibit objects pertaining to a similar interest for the study, education, and enjoyment by the public. The museum is most often a work of art in itself, despite the importance of the contents it houses. The building serves not only as the necessary backdrop to the objects within but also as an architectural icon within the local community. The design of a museum is specialized due to its requirements to serve the public, its need to protect the contents within, and its desire to reflect the regional characteristics of the museum's location. Each museum has the opportunity to be a one-of-a-kind design and of various shapes and sizes, all determined by the needs of the items displayed within and the needs of the community.

Think of the many museums located regionally and throughout the world: art museums, history museums, sports museums, transportation museums, etc. All these buildings have a unique visual image that immediately comes to mind when you hear its name, and no two of these museums are the same. Many renowned architects have been commissioned over the years to create these works of art. The design of a museum can be a rewarding process that will allow the designer the opportunity to create a functional, usable sculpture for display.

For virtual museum tours, click on this link: Virtual Museum Tours.

Fall 2005 Sunday Family Museum Tours:

TOUR ONE

A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of The Contemporary Arts Center November 6, 2005

Mr. Mark Stedfeld from KZF Design, the project architect and manager for the Contemporary Arts Center (corner of Sixth and Walnut Streets), met with the attendees in the black box theater of the museum. Before he took us on a tour of the museum including parts that guests do not normally see, Mr. Stedfeld explained in his student-focused presentation that the architect of the building, Zaha Hadid, twisted what we take for granted to make this building an unusual experience with its cutting edge architecture.

Key points from Mr. Stedfeld's presentation:

I. What is a musuem?

	"U see 'em!"
	a place that houses a collection
	Is your house a museum?

II. What does an architect do?

	He/she designs buildings.
	They design change.
	They are visionaries.

III. How do you design a museum?

	Who do you talk to? (curator and people who run the museum)
	What goes into the museum? (What is needed to define the space: courtyard, auditorium, cafeteria, kitchen, repair shop, restrooms, offices, storage, space for children, mechanical room, etc.?)

IV. How do you arrange the space?

circulation (in a linear fashion, in a loop fashion, in a ramp fashion, etc.)

V. How do we imagine what the museum will look like?

	renderings
	models
	paintings
	animations

The three main elements of this museum:

1. urban carpet and glass to bring the streetscape into the building - rolled concrete "carpet"

2. galleries that Zaha Hadid called volumes - she arranged "boxes," some inside and some outside, that hang on the rolled concrete "carpet" (Look for these in the pictures.)

3. ribbon stairs - how we move through this space (Again, look in the pictures.)

VI. Steps for the children to follow when designing their museums:

	What needs to be in the museum design?
	Visit other museums. Read museum brochures. Research museums on-line.
	What will the museum exhibit?
	What is the best way to exhibit the items?

Pictures of the tour courtesy of Christian (Monday class) and Mrs. Swisher:









	... Check this museum out!

TOUR TWO

A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of The Cincinnati Museum Center November 6, 2005

Tour notes submitted by Sarah (Tuesday class)

My favorite part of tour was seeing the model of Cincinnati during WW2. I liked how it showed the city in the day and night. There were moving trains and mini people.

In 1988 they started planning the museum. They started with a train station, and they wanted to make it into three museums. They put all museums off the rotunda, one on each side (Cincinnati History Museum and the Natural History and Science Museum) and one in the back (the IMAX theater). In 1995 they built the Children's Museum. They made the entrance also off the rotunda and built it underneath.

Our tour started in the newsroom. This is where people would go to watch the news. There were wires on the bottom of the seats for men to put their hats.

Next we went to the History Museum ramps where they had the model of Cincinnati. The model was good for storytelling, because parents and grandparents could tell their children about what Cincinnati used to be like and people can see how the city changed. It was hard to build the model because the ramps went down, and Cincinnati goes up a hill.

Our next stop was where we went to learn about the Public Landing. They had the "Queen of the West" boat and people dressed up and told stories about what it was like in early 1900's. For someone to get a cabin and food on the Queen of the West, it would cost $15 to go to New Orleans. It would take 8 days to get there or 11 days to get back. If they didn't have enough money, they could get a ride for $3 but wouldn't have a cabin or food. For $1.50 they wouldn't get a cabin or food, and they would have to work on the boat. If you wanted to get your picture taken, you would have to be still for one minute. The buildings in this part of the museum needed to look taller than they were because there wasn't enough room in the bottom floor to fit two or three story buildings. They made the buildings look taller by making the second floor windows smaller than the first.

Our last stop was the rotunda. We learned what they were thinking about when they made the museums. We tried the experiment of someone talking to the wall at each corner (by the drinking fountain) with someone on the opposite side listening. We could hear what they were saying. They had to take some of the murals down to build the museum. They moved them to the airport. We also saw a Lego model of the museum that showed us where the trains pulled in, where the observation tower was, and where the buses and taxis pulled in and out.

Pictures of the tour courtesy of Sarah (Tuesday class):


wire rack under the seat for men's hat	model of Cincinnati

Public Landing replica	Sarah's "whisper test" in the rotunda

model of Cincinnati	Public Landing replica

model of Cincinnati with ramps	a real trolley

The Museum Center rotunda	The Museum Center rotunda

The Museum Center rotunda	The Museum Center rotunda
	... Check this museum out!
Lego model of The Museum Center

Visits by our architects:

Monday classes with Mr. James Gears from SFA Architects:

Tuesday class with Mrs. Tonia Edwards from the Hamilton County Building Department:

Wednesday class with Mr. Chris Kepes from Chris Kepes Architects LLC:

Thursday class with Ms. Jessica Earley from Muller Architects:

Exploring with shapes was ...









	... fun!!!

Our plan and elevation drawings are complete! Now, it's time for our design critique with our architects to cultivate feedback and the constructive criticism necessary to resolve any issues before constructing our museum models.

Design Critique Pre-Meeting (questions/ideas that were discussed):

1. Does the elevation drawing meet the goals of the ABC design project? How does it/does it not?

2. What is the intended style of the design of the museum? Is it appropriate for the museum’s purpose? Does it achieve the desired effect? How might it be improved?

3. “Walk through” the floor plan(s) starting at the entrance. Where in the design are there problems? Identify changes needed.

Design Critique: This fifteen-minute design critique meeting with the architect was focused on evaluating the team’s existing ideas (plan and elevation drawings) and identifying future direction or changes in order to drive the design forward. Each team continued to focus on the goals (based on the ABC criteria) and began to focus on specific “engineering” constraints in order to solve specific issues.

Post-meeting: Each team held a post-critique meeting to clarify any issues or questions that had not yet been answered and addressed these issues and questions.








... future architects hard at work!

Architecture by Children Museum

Reception and Awards Ceremony

April 29, 2006

Click on the Student Projects link at the top of this page

to view all of our wonderful museum models!

Congratulations to the four winning design collaborative teams!

Most Creative Interpretation of the Theme for grades 5 - 8 was awarded to fifth graders Rebecca, Annie, and Maggie for The Expressive Expression Museum. This team also won an Outside the Box "HEADing for Greatness" Award.

An Outside the Box "Clear Vision" Award for grades 5 - 8 was awarded to fifth graders Maddie, Erin, and Megan for The Weird Museum.

An Outside the Box "Dreamy Dragon" Award for grades k - 4 was awarded to third graders Brittany, Justin, Nathan, and Carter for The Fantasy Museum.

Click on the museum below to download and view a slideshow of our winners at the award ceremony.

2004 - 2005 Theme

Bridges

Step One: Preparation (introduction to architecture, developing background knowledge, and presentation by architects)

Step Two: Programming (defining "bridge," developing collaborative design teams, determining client, listing design criteria, and researching design elements)

Step Three: Design Development (developing design description, creating design schematic drawings, creating design plans, gathering construction materials, construction of the product, finalizing the project description, and publishing the exhibition label)

Welcome to the Bridge Design Collaborative! The success or failure of any project/product is determined by three factors: the competence of the people who are involved, the quality of the information that the team assembled, and the effectiveness with which the information is communicated. It is equally important that your collaborative team be well-organized and that your project be well-planned, so that all the design team participants have the right information to make the right decisions at the right time. People, information, and communication are the essential ingredients of a successful building project!

Bridge Break and Awards Reception - April 23, 2005

professional bridge break competition 11:00 a.m.

student bridge break competition (grades 3 and up) 11:45 a.m.

awards ceremony 1:30 p.m.

presentations by architects and desktop critiques:

... creative minds at work!!!

2005 Products (from all five G/T classes):

Congratulations to all on a job well done!

professional bridge break:




structural design/student bridge break:


Click here to view a video of the first place bridge break.





design products:



The bridge above (that says first place) won "The Most Creative Interpretation of the Theme" award and will be built as a foot bridge! Wow!!! (See description of awards below.)

The bridge above (on the right) won honorable mention in the category of "Future Architect." (See description of awards below.)
Congratulations to: ... The Terrific Truss group for first place in the bridge break. Their one pound bridge held forty-eight pounds! ... The Zebra Bridge group for second place in the bridge break. Their nine pound bridge held three hundred four pounds! Even Mrs, McDonough was used as a weight! ... The Bridge Kepes is the Best Bridge group (named after their architect!) for third place in the bridge break. Their one pound bridge held twenty-three pounds! ... The Time Warp Twister Train Bridge for the "Future Architect" Honorable Mention Award! ... The Friendship Bridge group for receiving the "Most Creative Interpretation of the Theme" Award! Their bridge is one of four that will be built as a foot bridge by Turner Construction Company, displayed at The Roebling Bridge Fest in June and auctioned off later in the summer with some of the proceeds going to the West Clermont G/T program. WOW!!!
Well done!!!