Overview
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Well-building
hath three conditions: Commodity, firmness, and delight.
--Sir Henry
Wooten
For
thousands of years architects have known that good
buildings stand up to gravity, serve their purpose,
and look good. WQED's Pittsburgh History Series
can take us on a guided tour of these ideas--structure,
function, and appearance--as clues to how the Pittsburghers
who came before us lived, thought, and believed.
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Related
subjects: Art,
math, science, social studies
Grade
levels:
Adaptable 3-12 grades
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FYI:
Background article
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Teaching
Tools
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We've
researched the background information to save you time:
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Choose
tools to construct a lesson or unit to meet your needs.
-
Video about Buildings & Bridges
- Mix
and match segments to meet your goals
- Discussion
and activities
- Use
before, during, or after viewing videos in class
- Resources
- Find
bibliography, web links, and community resources
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The
built environment
As we navigate
our way through Pittsburgh's built environment, we are often oblivious
of some of its most fascinating features. After all, who bothers to
notice a bridge if you're preoccupied by reaching your destination
at the other side? Who has time to appreciate a skyscraper if you can
only think of getting to your business meeting on the tenth floor? Who
thinks of the window frames of a bedroom as anything other than a benignly
familiar sight viewed day in and day out? Who worries about the structure
of the roof overhead unless it is leaking?
Architecture:
The art we live with everyday
Architecture
is the art we live with everyday, yet we seldom give it a single thought.
And according to some architects, that's just as it should be.
They believe a well-designed structure should do its job without getting
in the way.
Unlocking
the door to the past
But if we
do think about the bridges, buildings and homes that distinguish our
city, they can tell us quite a lot about the people who built and used
them. WQED's Pittsburgh History Series can guide us on a
virtual tour of the region's most fascinating architecture. In
the process, we'll learn something about history, art, and science hidden
in the built environment of our own communities. In every structure,
we can decipher clues to the past, and discover hints of the future.
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