The Architecture Handbook: A Student Guide to Understanding Buildings

The Chicago Architecture Foundation is pleased to announce that its high school architecture textbook and curriculum is now available for teachers, students, and design educators.

The Architecture Handbook: A Student Guide to Understanding Buildings focuses on the design and construction of residential architecture. The 400-page full color student edition and a 600-page teacher edition are the first books of their kind in the country.

Through hands-on activities, The Architecture Handbook teaches both the fundamentals of architectural design and technical drawing. Students also build knowledge and gain skills through group design projects, sketching, model-making, mapping, research, critical thinking, problem solving, and class presentations.

	Green architecture, the case study home, 10 famous homes The F10 House -- a sustainable green home designed by EHDD Architecture -- serves as the book’s in-depth case study. Throughout each chapter, students also compare and contrast their own home with the F10 House and 10 famous contemporary and historic homes in the US and around the world, such as Fallingwater designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe, and the Magney House by Glenn Murcutt.
	Content The Architecture Handbook explores critical architectural concepts throughout 6 projects based on architectural drawings. Students investigate how a home is located on its block, how it sits on its site, how and why the rooms are arranged, why a home looks the way it does, and how homes are constructed.
	Reading and mathematics Reading and math are integrated throughout the book to reinforce essential student skills. Each of the 23 chapters includes a 500-700 word reading with comprehension and analysis questions, as well as 10-15 math problems that tie directly to the big architectural ideas.
	Teacher edition features A 600-page teacher edition in a 3-ring binder contains all student pages, more than 60 step-by-step activities, as well as connections to state drafting standards, core subject academic standards, and technological literacy standards. The teacher edition also includes a CD-ROM with activity image sets, a full set of construction drawings for the case study home, and 4 integrated projects: social sciences, life science, language arts, and chemistry.