Need
As the steward of two Frank Lloyd Wright architectural gems
in the Chicago area, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust
knows a thing or two about architecture. The organization
also knows, from 14 years of offering its summer Youth Architecture
Workshops, that the study of architecture is an exciting way
for middle-school students to learn spatial concepts, gain
visual literacy, and practice mathematical calculations and
measurements. Only a small number of the students, however,
have been able to participate in the workshops each year because
of the historic sites’ lack of space. With the creation
of Architect Studio 3D, the museum has been able to break
through the physical constraints of its sites and offer learning
and excitement about architectural design to middle-school
students across the country and beyond.
Goals
Architect Studio 3D is an interactive Web-based activity that
enables users to become virtual architects, finding design
solutions that meet the needs of virtual clients and virtual
building sites. The user selects a client seeking a residential
design—from a range of people with specific needs—selects
a site location, and designs a floor plan in real time using
tools on the Web site. Users draw walls to create rooms and
hallways and click and grab symbols for various elements,
like windows, doors and sinks, to place in the floor plan.
The Web site gives virtual architects different digital views
of their work in progress, including floor plans and elevations,
and enables them to take a virtual tour of the house once
it is designed, furnished, and landscaped.
In addition to the design studio, there is a
design gallery where virtual architects can post their completed
projects and receive star ratings from Web site visitors.
The site also includes an architect’s handbook, a visual
glossary called “Designing for People and Place,”
a section on the life and works of Frank Lloyd Wright, and
curriculum and program ideas for teachers and librarians.
A major goal of Architect
Studio 3D is to show middle-school students that architects
design for their clients, not themselves. They design to meet
the needs of people and the particulars of place. Listening
to clients is a part of the process. The project’s creators
also wanted to convey an understanding of the tools and techniques
architects use; describe the components of residential buildings,
such as plumbing, light sources, and heating and cooling;
and teach how to read and create floor plans and elevations.
Strategy
The museum knew that its target group of 11- to 14-year-olds
is technologically savvy, and that only a technologically
rich interactive experience would sustain their interest.
From its previous work, the museum also knew that young people
need creative expression and activities that lead to achievable
goals. Using 3-D modeling software developed by Educational
Web Adventures (St. Paul, MN), the museum took on the challenge
of presenting spatial concepts in a virtual environment.
The project team’s design effort was shaped
by focus groups and an evaluation logic model. At the start,
members of the team had envisioned activities to design homes
with multiple levels and even communities. Completing the
logic model required the members to clearly state the educational
goals of the project. It gave them a signpost to keep the
project from veering too far a field.
Focus groups conducted with middle-school students
led to additional changes to the project design. Students
suggested that they be given an unlimited budget for designing
their buildings. The building sites they preferred were also
extreme: mountaintops, beachfronts, and forests, but not suburban
settings. When their structures were complete, the students
wanted to tour the furnished houses, so furniture was added
as elements that could be placed on the floor plan.
The museum contracted with an evaluation firm
to develop an outcome-based evaluation plan with front-end,
formative, and summative evaluations. It also teamed with
educators for project input and to assist with the “For
Teachers and Librarians” page of the site. A teacher
in Florida helped with the descriptions of how the study of
architecture connects with math, language arts, visual arts,
science, social studies and sample challenge activities for
students. A youth services librarian in Louisiana helped develop
librarian activity suggestions, such as an architecture month
display and a living history program.
Results
Since Architect Studio 3D’s launch in April 2005, the
site has recorded more than 125,000 sessions by users, with
a spike in sessions after the start of school in September.
The large majority of sessions last for more than 20 minutes,
suggesting that users are completing their design activities.
Most of users are from outside the Chicago area, some as far
away as the United Kingdom.
The Web site briefly included a survey to test
one of the project’s learning goals. More than 100 users
completed an activity in response to the survey, which showed
that 98 percent of them had learned how to correctly place
elements such as a window or door on a floor plan. An analysis
of the completed designs in the Design Gallery showed that
users had also grasped the idea that their designs must contain
features that help to meet client needs.
In January 2006, the project evaluator conducted
focus groups with twelve students, aged 11 through 13. According
to preliminary results, all of the students understood the
concept that architects design for people and particulars
of place. They had also gained a basic understanding of architectural
spatial relations and the design process, and they had become
more familiar with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Students’
comments reflected their learning: “I never realized
that it was so hard being an architect because you have to
measure out everything and pay attention to people’s
style”; “[Architecture is] more than building
something; you get to put your ‘art’ into it.”
The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has
presented the Architect Studio 3D project at a variety of
museum, technology, and educational venues. Not only is it
generating interest among other historic sites as an education
tool, it has stimulated a new kind of interest in the Frank
Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. With the cutting-edge online
offering, the museum has expanded the local community’s
perception of the institution and generated greater interest
in its museum’s educational programs.
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