Jul 07 2009
The Best Images Of Weird, Cool & Neat-Looking Buildings (& Ways To Design Your Own)
This is a little different from my other “The Best…” lists.
For the sites listed in the first section of this post, I’m planning on having my English Language Learner students look through these accessible sites, identify which images they found particularly intriguing, and explain why — in writing and verbally. It’s an opportunity to practice language-development skills, and I suspect they’ll find the content pretty engaging. I certainly did as I was developing this list!
And for the sites in the second part, they’ll have an opportunity to design their own house…
Here are my picks for The Best Images Of Weird, Cool & Neat-Looking Buildings (& Ways To Design Your Own):
IMAGES:
America’s Favorite Architecture shows the top 150 buildings voted on by “the American public.”
Here are images of “The World’s Most Creative Buildings.”
The Sacramento Bee has a photo gallery of the Winchester Mystery House.
How about the 20 Most Bizarre Houses around the world?
Check-out the World’s Slimmest Houses and Buildings.
50 Strange Buildings Of The World is another amazing list.
And next is 50 Strange Buildings of the World Part Two.
15 Beautiful Buildings Carved from ‘Living Rock’
You can see The Official New 7 Wonders Of The World and other finalists. Most of them would qualify as “buildings.”
How about 8 Of The Best Treehouses In The World.
How about taking a look at some neat Sand Castles?
10 Most Creative Apartment Blocks contains images of some pretty strange apartment buildings.
It sounds bizarre, but Buildings That Look Like Food shows a series of photos of…buildings that look like food.
The Recycled Houses is the title for a neat New York Times slideshow on houses built out of recycled materials.
“Appetizing Architecture” is a series of images showing buildings shaped like food. It is a similar list to one I’ve previously shared, Buildings That Look Like Food, but, though there is some overlap, each has a number of different examples.
19 Weirdest Houses Around the World
It’s hard to believe people actually live in these bizarre homes is a collection of photos.
This year is the fiftieth anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s death. I’m adding two slideshows highlighting his work to this list:
Frank Lloyd Wright, Inside and Out is from The Wall Street Journal.
Frankly Speaking is from The Washington Post.
Looking For Mr. Wright is an interactive slideshow from the Wall Street Journal that takes you a tour of buildings designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
DESIGN YOUR OWN:
There are several sites where students can design their own homes.
One, which has been on my website for awhile, is from the school that Frank Lloyd Wright founded and is called Architect Studio 3D. It’s a nifty application, but it’s only appropriate for very Advanced English Language Learners.
A newer site is called 30 Elm. There, you can look through many pictures of homes and rooms, pick the ones you like, and then write about them. Others can then easily access online what you’ve picked and what you’ve written, and even comment on it.
My Abodo allows you to design the inside and outside of a home and then determine how energy efficient it is. It’s a colorful and relatively simple activity that’s accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners. After they’re done, they can post their creation in a blog or online journal.
Other suggestions are, as always, welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
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Another option is floorplanner, which allows you to create a home using a 2D layout and then see what it would look like in 3D.
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