Architecture Everywhere: Investigating the Built Environment of Your Community

Written to introduce students to the built environment, this guide supplies educators with a program to teach architecture as a unit or as a topic with interdisciplinary connections to social studies, language arts, visual arts, media production, journalism, and more. Explorations of how modern homes and communities have been shaped by such forces as sense of place, historical and cultural connections to buildings, and ethnic traditions lead students to understand the modern man-made world. Rather than encouraging students to passively accept information, this guide encourages investigation through many different activities including carving, researching, drawing, designing, and interviewing.

Joseph A. Weber is a professor of art education at Southern Illinois University. He lives in Edwardsville, Illinois.