Introduction to Buildings Around the World
There are many different buildings in the world, all with different purposes and all adapted to different climates and cultures. A building can be a home for a family or apartments for many families. It can be an airport, office, a concert hall, a school, a shop or an ice skating rink.
Everybody lives in a house or shelter of some kind but they are all different. Some people live in houses. These can be large or small. They can be built of wood, bricks, stones, concrete or even mud. The roofs can be steeply sloped, especially if the houses are built in places where there are heavy snowfalls. The steep roofs allow the snow to slide off. Other roofs are flat or less steeply sloped.
In towns, some people live in flats or apartments. They do not have gardens. Some people choose not to have gardens. Other people can't afford to have one.
Not all people live in houses as we know them. This is because some people have to use building materials that are easily available. For example, people in Africa and South America sometimes make houses out of grass or mud.
In earlier times, Eskimos built igloos out of ice and snow and some Eskimos still do this. American Indians used to build their tents (teepees) out of buffalo hide. Using tents meant that they could move easily to follow food supplies. The Plains Indians built shelters out of grass and sticks that were plentiful. Some Indians hollowed out houses from the cliffs. Other people live in caravans or tents because they need to or like to move around.
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All people live in houses or shelters of some kind because they all need protection from the weather and sometimes from animals or from their enemies.
For example, people who live in the jungle can build their houses up in the trees to protect themselves from dangerous animals. In areas of high rainfall such as the North of Australia, people build their houses on stilts so they don't get flooded out. Some people who live close to rivers also do this.
In many poorer countries the buildings and houses have not changed for centuries. People still use ready available materials for houses which are adapted best to the climate in which they live. In the richer Western countries there have been huge changes in building techniques. This has enabled people to live comfortably in areas where they could not have lived before.
In very hot climates, people have air conditioning in their buildings and in colder climates like the Netherlands most of us have central heating to keep us warm.
The developments in building techniques have also allowed architects to design some amazing buildings. The Sydney Opera House is one example and in other cities there are huge skyscrapers. Architects create designs for these complex buildings before they are built. They use mathematics to work out how to make their designs safe, functional and attractive. If they are designing skyscrapers they need to calculate how strong the foundations need to be. For the Sydney Opera House they needed to calculate the angles of the sails and how the sound (acoustics) would travel when people were singing.
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Architects work with space, shape and light as well as building materials, costs and climate.
These were all the things we had to look at when we were designing our building project. Ms Hos-McGrane allowed us to choose 24 different shapes and one shape we were allowed to make up ourselves but we did not do this. We worked as follows:
1. First we chose the climate our house would be set in.
2. Next we got a sheet of paper with the shapes we were allowed to use.
3. Then we made the plans for our house.
4. Last we built the house.
Our house design and plans included the following.
1. Use solar heating to provide warmth because we chose a cold climate. We needed to store the solar energy as well.
2. Angle of roof to allow snow to slide off; using triangles.
3. Most walls are made of hexagons and triangles. We decided to build a 2 storey house which was difficult with only 24 shapes.
4. We designed small windows which would keep the heat in.
The following section shows what we did in detail.
The developments in building techniques have also allowed architects to design some amazing buildings.
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