The following is a guide only and indicates how the built environment can support various subjects across the KS 3 and 4 curriculum. It is in no way exhaustive and the built environment can be used in other subject areas.

Cross Curriculum Links 

The built environment incorporates a great range of factors and considerations, and has the potential to support the delivery of cross-curriculum dimensions. In particular, the three key dimensions that it can support would be:

• Identity and cultural diversity
• Community participation
• Creativity and critical thinking

Example Project:

Pupils need to design a small structure for the school community / local vicinity. Such a project could be delivered across three or more subjects, taking a number of lessons per subject. The length and complexity of such a project could vary depending on school need.  Potential subject links on a medium size project could be Geography, Design Technology and Maths, with activities including:

Geography:

• Researching what the users (pupils / local community) need through a survey designed by the pupils.
• Learn about the history of the area and how it has developed over time. Look at how people use the spaces today.
• Analyse a number of sites through using maps and asking a series of questions to identify somewhere for their structure.

Design Technology:

• Research examples of types of similar structures that already exist
• Research materials, colours, textures and designs in order to create a mood board that presents the overall design concept.
• Over a number of lessons develop a basic design solution using drawings and models. Alternatively, for a smaller scheme, design a piece of furniture that would be appropriate.

Maths:

• Analyse the site including measuring the site and the buildings / structures around it, calculate areas and perimeters, identify patterns.
• Calculate the size of the structure and work out how big it would need to be to be fit for purpose.
• Through using information provided calculate how much the structure / item of furniture would cost to make.

Subject Specific Learning

Geography

The built environment can be applied right across the Geography programme of study. People who work in the built environment - whether architects, planners, urban designers or landscape architects – design places that work for the people that inhabit them, and are concerned with how people use and interact with these places.

A wide range of techniques and materials, including maps, photographs, drawings and site visits, can be used to explore how places are created, used and influenced by those who occupy them. Examples of how architecture and the built environment could be used in geography include:

• Exploring how transport links have developed and looking at how they may change in the future so that they are more sustainable
• Looking at different types of housing and why housing types change over the years and varies between different countries
• Taking a key route in the town or city explore what design features have been used to make different parts of the route attractive to different people at different times of day. How can designers make one place somewhere one group of people wants to spend time but somewhere another group wants to avoid?

Design and Technology

The people who design the places and spaces where we live need to work creatively and employ critical evaluation to resolve design problems, developing solutions that meet human needs. Through responding to a brief and working both individually and in design teams they create the villages, towns and cities where we live.

Designing and developing solutions that respond to a local context and reflect the needs and opportunities that a site presents is a requirement across all built environment sectors.

Working from briefs for built environment projects requires pupils to consider the impact of their ideas, and explore a wide range of influencing factors including social, economic, cultural, aesthetic and environmental issues. Ideas include:

• Researching and developing new proposals for their school grounds.
• Research an architectural style and design a piece of furniture that would be appropriate for that style, using today’s materials and construction techniques.
• Make a structure out of a wide range of materials and objects that people normally throw away that they can all fit inside, using buildings from a variety of countries as the precedent.

Maths

Applying maths to the world around us helps pupils to understand just how relevant and useful it is to our everyday lives. It may surprise many just how much maths goes into designing a building - from calculating how big a column needs to be for a building to stand up and working out how big a building needs to be to hold the required number of people, to how much it will cost to build a new stadium.

Using the built environment in the classroom provides a wide range of opportunities to apply mathematical principles and work out logical solutions to real problems. A few examples of how buildings can be used to support the teaching of maths include:

• Using trigonometry to analyse the various components that make up a building – from the pitch of the roof to the angle of the walls.
• Examining buildings and their properties, lines of symmetry, patterns and repeated shapes, dimensions and areas.
• Using a number of dimensions of items such as desks, chairs and cupboards and exploring the minimum. requirements how big a classroom needs to be to hold, 1, 10, 30 and 50 people.

Art and Design

People who design buildings, parks and urban spaces need to respond creatively to a problem set in context and requires designers to investigate, analyse and evaluate information in order to develop design options. Using the built environment as a starting point, pupils could use a range of media to design and communicate their ideas and evaluate their own and others proposals on projects such as:

• Creating a small sculpture for a public space influenced by the history and values of the community.
• Research interior styles from different ages and create a mood board for the design of a room that would be right for time, thinking about colour, texture and decoration.
• Design and make a fashion item from recycled materials that takes it’s inspiration from local buildings – whether a bag, a hat or an item of clothing, and create an advert to help promote the product in the fashion magazines.

Citizenship

The quality of the built environment significantly influences our daily lives. If young people are more aware of the effect of developments on their every day experiences and encouraging them to demand for better design is important to how our towns and cities develop in the future.

Through learning about how towns and cities have developed through the years, young people can explore diverse ideas, beliefs and identities, and how communities relate to one another. Why do some people support new buildings and others oppose them? How do you know who is right? New developments can lead to better places to live and support more cohesive communities, having a significant impact on the people who live there.

Many pupils will not become an architect, urban designer or planner, but they will all be users of the places that are created. Therefore increasing young people’s ability to engage in discussion about where they live is invaluable. Activities can see pupils working individually and in groups, encouraging debate and voicing of different views.

• A Secret Millionaire has a £50,000 budget to improve the neighbourhood around the school. Pupils working in groups need to decide what the best way to spend the money – a community centre, seating, lighting a park and so on. Pupils need to present their ideas to the Millionaire to win the money.
• Run a Planning Committee meeting where the pupils research and prepare arguments for and against a development in your local area, taking on a range of roles such as old person, business owned, young person and local home owner.

Construction and Built Environment Diploma

Understanding the Built Environment clearly forms the basis of this Diploma. Places Matter! Education have been supporting teachers delivering the Design component of the course over the last academic year, and have developed a number of resources that help to teach some of the more difficult subjects – from sustainability to housing, planning to job roles in the sector.