Designing a Space of Your Own

Software Based Project # 475

Learn to use home design software. Create a room design or even a whole house design with the software. Explore community and other resources related to design and architecture. Learn about architecture and interior design careers.

Section links for this page:
Computer Resources for Project
Project Goals
Careers
More Activities
Web Resources
Reading Materials
Extended Activities
Fun with Architecture & Design

Computer Resources for Project
Note:  Links from software are for information purposes and are not intended as a recommended sources.

Primary Software

• Punch! 5in1 Home Design
  http://www.punchsoftware.com/index.htm

• Google™ SketchUp®
  Download the free version
  http://sketchup.google.com

Other software that can be used

• Chief Architect
  http://www.chiefarchitect.com/

• Better Homes and Gardens
  http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/

• Valusoft (click “Home & Office” tab) http://www.valusoft.com/store/valusoft/DisplayHomePage

• Archicad (for MAC users)
  http://www.graphisoft.com/

Grade Level
5th grade through 12th grade

Content

• Terms Used in Activities
• What is Architecture
  http://www.alifetimeofcolor.com/play/arch1/index.html
• What is Interior Design
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interior_Design
• Basic space and dimension concepts
• Basic room arrangements and traffic flows
• Basic materials and furnishing
• Keys of a blueprint

Life Skills
Targeting Life Skills Model
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/4H/lifeskills/homepage.html

• Communication
• Planning/Organizing
• Problem Solving
• Learning to Learn
• Marketable Skills

back to top

Project Goals

Getting Started Instructions

Experiential Model
Learning by Doing LG783 (PDF)

Do
Level 1: Use Punch! 5 in 1 Home Design or Google™ SketchUp® software to draw a room, including a door, windows and furniture

Level 2: Expand the structure to create an entire three-dimensional model, including bedrooms, baths, living areas and a garage. Add a roof.

Level 3: Add landscaping, including trees, shrubbery and fencing. Add a deck or porch to the home. Use materials provided with the software to add exterior and interior finishes and ground cover.

Reflect
Now let’s talk about your designs.

Level 1

1. Is the room you have drawn similar to a room in your house? What are its dimensions? How much square footage is in the room?

2. Did you have problems with the software? If so, how did you solve them?

3. Tell me about how you worked with the items in your room such as walls, windows, doors and furniture.

Level 2

1. Does your house model resemble the house you live in? If not, did you look at other models for inspiration? What type of roof does your house have?

2. Have you considered how a family member who is disabled (for instance, a wheelchair user) might get around in your home? Look at the link provided in the “Web Resources” section for information about universal design.

3. Discuss any problems you had with the software and how you solved them. Tell me how you worked with the additional items required to create a three-dimensional model.

Level 3

1. Tell me about your landscaping. What kinds of trees and shrubs did you use? Are they ideal for a Missouri climate?

2. Discuss any problems you had with the software or with designing a landscaping plan. Was it difficult to draw the model? How did you solve any problems you encountered?

Apply

1. Learn advanced techniques of home design. Add other structures, landscaping, and roads to build a town, or explore how much it would cost to build this home in your area of Missouri. Figure how much total square footage your home has. What types of materials could you use if you built the home for $60 per square foot? $80? $100? If you choose to build a town, have you considered how emergency vehicles will get around, or the level of noise in a residential neighborhood, or whether services are placed where they are most convenient to the residents?

2. Consider adding to your design. Add a second floor, stairways, bay windows or skylights. Don’t forget the “bare bones” of the home: the foundation and framing. What extras can you include within your budget? Will all these additions mean your home is still easy to maintain?

3. Create a three-dimensional model to enter in a 4-H fair. Build a scale model of your home using illustration board, chipboard, or balsa wood. Create presentation boards that include photos of you hand-built model or pictures or your Google™ SketchUp® model in order to “sell” your design. Hold critique sessions with your fellow project members. Only positive comments are allowed! After thinking about what was discussed during the critique, are there things you’d like to change? If so, why?

back to top

Careers
Interior Designers
Information about working conditions, educational requirements, employment outlook and specialties in design. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos293.htm
Additional career information
http://architecture.about.com/

Architects
Information about working conditions, educational requirements, employment outlook, and related careers in architecture. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos038.htm
Additional career information
http://architecture.about.com/ and
http://akropolis.net/%7Ezeus/archcareers/index2.asp.

More Activities
Now that you have designed your room or home, do you want to know more about how much it will cost to build it? Or maybe you’d like to know more about what architects and designers need to know such as drafting, art, accessibility, reading blueprints, or history. Maybe you’d like to see what degree programs are offered by the University of Missouri in these fields. Or maybe you’d just like to have fun with some really cool architecture-related sites. Whatever you’d like to explore, the links, activities and resources below should get you started.

In Your Community  

1. Take a trip to a home improvement center and get prices for major home appliances: Kitchen Sink, Toilet, Washing Machine, Dish Washer, Stove, Refrigerator, Doors, Air Conditioner, Ceiling Fan, and etc.
2. Look in the newspaper or contact a home realtor to get prices for houses in your area.
3. Decide which area of the city you would like to live. Why?
4. Use the cost estimate feature of the software to calculate an estimated cost to build your design. If your software does not have a cost feature use http://www.building-cost.net.
5. Contact a homebuilder to get permission to tour a house that is being built.

back to top

Web Resources

• Draw and furnish a room. Have a friend or family member help you measure your room.  Better Homes and Garden
  Note:  Free Shockwave Player is required.

• Take stock of the furniture you have now. Draw your room, including the furniture. If you’d like to rearrange, you can move the furniture around to try different layouts.
  http://www.designaroom.net/ 

• Do you like to experiment with color? Which colors match or clash?  Check out this color wheel to learn more.
  http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html

• How do architects and designers present their ideas? With drafting for starters. Print your own graph paper (PDF).  Grab some drafting tools and get started.

• Architects and designers must study art, art history and architectural history in order to learn the rules for design, and to have inspiration for cutting edge ideas.
  World art history resources
  http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/timelines/worldres.html and
  http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
  Dezignare site
  http://www.dezignare.com/library.html

• As discussed earlier in the project, what if you or a family member were physically disabled, such as being confined to a wheelchair? The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (known as ADA) was passed in order to create guidelines for making buildings accessible to all people. See this site for a comprehensive list of ADA terms and guidelines.
  http://www.access-board.gov/adaag/html/adaag.htm

• Do you like to look at blueprints of homes? BobVila's website is full of blueprints that you can browse.
  http://www.bobvila.com/DesignTools/
  Also learn what the blueprint symbols mean.

• Did you know that video games and architecture can go hand in hand? Two University of Missouri professors are using video game engines to create architectural software! To find out more about degree programs in architecture and environmental design, visit the Architectural Studies Department website at
  http://web.missouri.edu/~umchesarchweb/.

• When designing a floor plan, consider how your family would use the home. There are several details that play into designing a comfortable space in which everyone can have privacy yet come together for family activities. One of those details is lighting. For lighting designers career information, visit the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) at http://www.iald.org/ and click on “For Students” to learn more.
  
  Another detail to consider in floor plans is the kitchen where families often gather together regularly. For ideas, check out sites like Better Homes & Gardens at http://www.bhg.com/bhg/.

back to top

Reading Materials
If you’d like to learn even more about architecture and interior design, check your local library for the titles below. You can ask your librarian about other available titles on these subjects.

Round Buildings, Square Buildings, & Buildings That Wiggle Like a Fish, by Philip M. Isaacson, ISBN 0-394-89382-4, 1988, Alfred A. Knopf
This book has many pictures of buildings both old and new, and gives insight into what makes a building look great, architecturally speaking .

Identifying American Architecture: A Pictorial Guide to Styles and Terms, 1600-1945, by John J.-G. Blumenson, ISBN 0-393-30610-0, 1981, W. W. Norton & Company
Grab this handy book and head out into your neighborhood, town, or on vacation. Have fun identifying different architectural elements in the buildings you see. Can you find a catslide roof? A clapboard sided home? Clerestory windows?

Building Construction Illustrated, by Francis D.K. Ching and Cassandra Adams, ISBN 0-471-35898-3, 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
If you want to know everything there is to know about construction, from the site to the roof, this book is for you. More than 1,000 pictures are included to show the complete process of how a building is constructed.

Model Making: A Basic Guide. By Martha Sutherland, ISBN 0-393-73042-5, 1999, w. w. Norton & Co.

For those who enjoy making models and would like to try tackling buildings or interior spaces, this book is a great way to get started. Tons of illustrations and simple instructions help the model maker build everything from the site model to the roof.

You can also look at magazines of the architectural and design trades for ideas. Some magazines include: “Architectural Digest,” “dwell,” and “House Beautiful.”

back to top

Extended Activities

Keep an “inspiration” journal
Tear pictures out of interior and exterior design magazines that appeal to you, sketch your ideas, take photos of interesting buildings, art, furniture, etc. Use your ideas in a future design.

Explore area real estate listings
Look in your local newspaper for real estate listings, including photos of homes and asking prices. Visit realtor sites for more information. Some sites will include virtual tours of homes. Try the Century 21 for starters.

Find information about related careers
Contractors, builders, graphic designers, art historians, historical preservationists, just to name a few. Check out books from the library or search on the internet. One search engine to try on the internet is Google at http://www.google.com/.

Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
Help a deserving family build their own home. Even if you are too young to work on a construction site, there are ways to help.
http://www.habitat.org/youthprograms/

Build a model of a house
You can use cardboard, chipboard (the cardboard that is on the back of a spiral notebook), balsa wood, or come up with your own materials! The sky is the limit. Can you build a house that is a 1/4” scale model? Great Buildings has 3D models of buildings at http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings.html.

Redecorate/rearrange your room
Make sure it’s okay with your parent(s) first. Take before and after photos. For great no cost decorating ideas, try the BBC site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/. Search for “House Invaders” from the home page. Help a friend do his or her room, then your friend can help you do yours.

Visit a museum
Much of design is inspired by the work of others. In Columbia, you can visit the Museum of Art and Archaeology on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus. On the internet, visit the online Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) architecture and design collection at http://moma.org/collection/depts/arch_design/.

Use the Design Process Checklist
Developed by the Boston Society of Architects/AIA, this checklist helps students form a step-by-step plan (Word document) for solving a design problem.

Learn about sustainable design
Architects and interior designers aren’t only concerned about the look of the buildings they design. They are also mindful that people should be comfortable and healthy inside a space, and that their designs should minimize damage to the natural environment outdoors and maximize energy efficiency. With this in mind, the United States Green Building Council (USBGC) developed a set of benchmarks for what is popularly known as “green” design. These benchmarks are rated using a system called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED™. To learn more about green building visit the USGBC website at http://www.usgbc.org/.

back to top

Fun with Architecture and Design
Whether or not you’re a future architect or interior designer, there are lots of ways to have fun. These optional activities explore architecture and design in ways you might not have imagined!

Build your own roller coaster
Go to the Discovery website, build your coaster, then submit it to be rated on the “Fear-O-Meter.” How scary is yours?
http://dsc.discovery.com/games/coasters/interactive.html

Discover other types of architecture
Buildings aren’t always above ground. Ancient civilizations gave great thought to the final resting places of their loved ones. Visit the Tomb of Senneferi and see how architecture was applied to the everyday lives of the ancient Egyptians.
http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/egypt/tt99/

Apply mathematics
Do you like math? Even if you don’t, check out the Martindale Center to see lots of calculators to help figure material quantities for your estimates.
http://www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators1A_5_Co_AE.html

Check out the world’s largest house
Visit the Taj Majal and can catch the view from the rooftop then go to another site to see more inside and outside views. The orange colored links at that site are the free views. http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen/fullscreen23.html
The free Quicktime Viewer is required.

Is this the world’s smallest house?
See how one architect is helping to find houses for people without them. Do you think his idea will work? Whether you do or don’t agree, this Habitat for the Homeless is one tiny place!
http://www.habitatforthehomeless.org/

Pre-fab homes designed by an architect?
That’s right! Pre-fabricated homes are built in a factory in large pieces, shipped to the site, then assembled into the finished product. This South American architect has set out to revolutionize the design and efficiency of pre-fab homes and recently set up a factory in Missouri. See what Rocio Romero has done to bring these homes into the 21st Century!
http://www.rocioromero.com/home.htm

Become the next Picasso!
First look at some of this famous painter’s works at the Guggenheim Museum.
http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/.
Once you’ve learned all about Picasso and become inspired by his work, you can then create your very own Picasso at Mr. Picassohead. Be sure to add your work to their gallery!
http://www.mrpicassohead.com/

Make art online
When you visit the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA) online projects site you can make your very own animal art! To get you started and inspired, see the “Look at Paintings and Sculpture” link on the left side of the page.

Create your own sculpture
At the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden website, you will find an interactive activity that allows you to make a sculpture. Once your creation is complete you can see how it would look in a museum.
http://hirshhorn.si.edu/education/interactive.html

Tour Dilbert’s house
Fans of this popular comic strip submitted their ideas to create Dilbert’s Ultimate House. As you take the tour, keep in mind that it was created using three-dimensional software similar to the Google™ Sketchup® software you might use in a future activity.
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/duh/

back to top

Lisa Hamilton-Hill, designer, graduate student, Department of Architectural Studies,College of Human Environmental Sciences
Department of Architectural Studies