Architecture: We Shape Our Buildings, Thereafter They Shape Us.

The title of this post, attributed to Winston Churchill, is 'shaping' our thinking as we go into the next phase of our city design project. We are applying what we have learned already through the process of designing our own houses, using this to improve our next design ventures. Public buildings, shared by all people in a city must account for the various needs of the citizens. Woven into the design of each of these buildings we are thinking about shaping the building, aware that the design and function of the building will 'shape' us. We are keeping in mind factors we have identified as important in our utopian city. Sustainability; thinking about how our building sits in its environment, how it impacts on nature, how it might enhance the people's lives who use the building. These are some of the important considerations we have front of mind during the design process.

One of our foci this term is developing creativity. Our first idea is not always the best one. Some thinkers on the subject of creativity say that you need to generate thirty ideas before you can be assured you have one good one? We think having about five or six might be enough. Here are some of the ideas in their early stages. Te Tatau Pounamu-Whare Pukapuka Library, The Octoport Transport hub,Local Foods Supermarket are just a few of them.

Working with 'Concrete' Materials on the way to Understanding the Abstract in Maths.

We have been using a lot of concrete materials in Maths in recent weeks. Here we can be seen to be using counters to show the factors of numbers. Kids developed creative ways of demonstrating their understanding, grouping them in interesting ways and using these models to explain their thinking.

Having experiences of the 'concrete' in Maths helps students to access abstract concepts.

Representing ideas visually is an important midway step between the concrete and the abstract. The Array City represents simple multiplication visually. We count the windows of each building, multiplying the width by the height. Kids designed their own buildings and then calculated how many windows in total were in our Array City. This week we are exploring Volume and Capacity which also lends itself to using both concrete and visual aides. Multilink cubes, playdough, cube nets and investigations which involve measuring and weighing water are all hands on learning experiences which help consolidate understanding in Maths.