Lesson Plan: Design a Classical Building Curriculum Link: D & T From the 1600s on ancient Greek and Roman architectural styles became very popular in Britain. The neoclassical style can be seen in many important buildings nowadays. Children may enjoy designing their own neoclassical building, based on features from a Greek temple like the Parthenon, or later Roman buildings. You can show them building in the local area for inspiration, or look at some of the photos on my website. The picture right is Emmanuel College, Cambridge, designed by Christopher Wren in the 17th century. Its arches and unfluted columns are Roman but the original inspiration is Greek.

Instructions

1. Each child (or group of children) should decide what sort of building he or she wants to design. Most neoclassical buildings are large public or arts-related buildings such as town halls, law courts, museums, art galleries, churches, theatres, libraries, and colleges. Of course a child may want to design a house or a shopping arcade, or something else, which is fine.

2. Everyone should think about what sort of rooms and other features the building must have, including corridors, lifts, toilets, how many floors, etc.

3. The child should draw a basic plan. Any large spaces may need to be supported by columns - so the child can decide what sort of columns: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian? Fluted or unfluted? Columns  which are fixed to the wall, like those in the picture above, are called pilasters.

4. The child should now draw the front of the building (or the front and side if he or she is skilled at perspective). What classical features will the child use? How many columns? A pediment? An entablature? Will there be carvings in a frieze? Nowadays such carvings are usually not painted, although they were in the Greek period. Any statues, or other decorations? Labels may be added to the drawing for the various features. What material will the building be made of? The Parthenon was made of marble, but that is very expensive. Some cheaper stones are limestone and sandstone.

5. You may want to give the children the chance to make their buildings. I will leave it to you to work out how they can do it! But they will probably be better working in groups.

The Portico Library in Manchester, now the Bank pub