Learning Experience 2: Creating a colonial building plan.
Students are to create their own floor plans of a colonial house or building. They are required to spend time mapping out where doorways, windows, stairs and other features would be as accurate to what would be seen during that time period. The students will submit their plans (meeting the requirements of the set materials, space, technology and constraints of the time period) for a specific style of building (e.g. barracks, governors housing, convicts housing, etc). Additionally they also need to justify the materials, location of rooms, location of furniture and plan to prove the plan’s effectiveness, accuracy and consistency. The teacher will assess the students based on the accuracy of the materials, style, use and justification of their building and plans. The excursion will give first hand information about what a colonial building would have been made of, how it was set up, what was found inside as well as its purpose. The students have the opportunity to walk through an accurate, restored, historic site, which in turn encourages students to discuss, question and connect with their surroundings. Students will be able to work along with their teacher and tour guide to work their way through the house to see the practicality of the layout, each room’s purpose, design choices and materials used. Such learning can then be brought back to the classroom and utilised to further develop their understanding and skills in areas such as communication, planning, justification and explaining their ideas. This activity allows for diverse support through teachers aiding in the planning or simplifying the requirements to be better suited to the child’s skills. This activity can be modified to involve group work, planning and/or discussion as well to deepen the connections made and support students learning together.
Supporting Resources
Using technology to support learning allows children to gain experience in using new apps and improves the student’s skills. One such app that can be used to support the above learning activity is the Floorplanner app. This app allows students to digitally create both 2D and 3D floor plans through an online means, with a range of resources within the app available for students use. Students can utilise this app to make the desired personal house plans and create visual representations of their ideas. This further allows them to explore the lifestyles, living situations and design choices of this era of time.
Link: https://floorplanner.com/
Teachers can also utilises information such as what is found on the Housing Industry Association’s (2021) ‘Australian design through time No. 1: The Colonial Years’ page . This page provides supporting information about how housing and buildings have changed over the years. This aids in students being able to reflect on how designs, preferences, material options and social influences have affected buildings. Additionally this site has a range of photos of different colonial buildings (both recent and old photos/images). This information can be used to assist justification of design choices, in considering what they learnt on the excursion and to assist in planning.
Link: https://hia.com.au/our-industry/housing/projects/2020/04/australian-design-through-time
Books such as Old Colonial Buildings of Australia by Max Dupain (1980) can be used by teachers to be able to gather information and resources for students. This is an older text but thoroughly covers the history of colonial buildings across Hobart and Sydney. This resource is more useful for teachers as the content is quite advanced. This can be useful in the classroom for prompting discussion or to use as examples but teachers need to consider the complexity, length and relatability of the chosen section/s. This can connect students with further ideas that are similar and different to what was seen on the excursion.
Throughout this learning activity teachers can make use of images of authentic Colonial buildings as well as digital floor plans of buildings such as the Parramatta Old Government House visited. These photos can provide examples of building sizes, decoration styles, materials used, location and additional information that can be used to inspire and encourage students in their own designs. These images provide alternative options to what was observed during the excursion and build context of colonial building’s size, use, decoration and materials. This builds upon the previous content knowledge and excursion to build creative, communicative and comprehensive skills.
Word Count: 725