A House for Me: Materials and Design for Different Climates

Civil and environmental engineers are involved in designing structures. They must take into consideration the climate and type of land where they are building to ensure that the type of structure chosen will suit the environment. If an area is known for earthquakes, precautions must be taken to build a structure that can withstand as much of the impact of the earthquake as possible. If the area is extremely wet, the foundation must be made deep enough and solid enough for the house not to sink or slide.

• The impact climates have on the building of structures
• Details about several types of climates
• Basic structural design
• Basic experimental skills

If you could live anywhere in the world and in the climate of your choice, what kind of a house would you construct? What would you need to build your house so that it could withstand the climate? In the next two classes you are going to use the given materials to create a house of your choice. You will need to choose materials that are suitable for the climate you have chosen to live in. Your house must still be standing after we have huffed, puffed, and tried to blow your house down!!

Background

People in different parts of the world have different materials that they can use to build their homes and other structures. When building a home, they think about how to best use these materials to build a house that works well for where and how they live. In the southwestern part of the US, where people have a lot of clay and little wood, they build houses from adobe, a mixture of clay, straw and water.

An example adobe house.CopyrightCopyright Microsoft Corporation, 1983-2001

Adobe houses have very thick walls that keep them cool in the hot dry desert weather. Adobe houses would not be good in places where it rains a lot because too much water makes adobe crumble. The weather in certain tropical islands in the Pacific ocean is hot, but wet. People there make their homes from materials that are easy to find, such as palm leaves, woven grasses and bamboo. Sometimes they build the houses on stilts to keep them off the wet ground and let the breezes move under the house, helping to keep it cool.

An example igloo.CopyrightCopyright https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igloo#/media/File:Igloo.jpg

In ages past, the Eskimos in Alaska and Canada built their houses out of sod or snow. These dome-shaped houses are called igloos. The dome shape of the igloo makes it very strong and able to withstand powerful winter storms. Some Native Americans built dome-shaped houses made of poles, leaves and tree bark. These houses were called wigwams. Native American tribes that moved a lot often built cone-shaped tepees using buffalo skins or bark. Tepees could be easily built and taken apart quickly. Some Native Americans lived in more permanent structures called lodges made from logs and sod.

A stone house with a sod-covered roof, and a house structure made of wood.CopyrightCopyright 2004 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA. All rights reserved.

When early American settlers came to New England, they found the ground covered with large stones. They used these stones to build houses and walls that you still see in New England today. The northwest part of the US and Canada has plenty of forests, so most houses in these areas are made of wood. In areas of China with few forests, it is rare to have a wooden house. Instead, the Chinese people use tile, concrete and stone to build beautiful pagodas and other structures.

An example pagoda.CopyrightCopyright https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8D#/media/File:YakushijiPagoda.jpg

In parts of Africa, where tall grasses grow, people weave the stems of dried grass together to make thatch huts. In Tibet, some people even make their houses out of wool! They shear the wool from ox-like animals called yaks. The wool walls keep the houses warm through the cold winter months. Most houses in the US today are built of wood, brick, stone, concrete, aluminum or even glass!

An example teepee.CopyrightCopyright https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipi#/media/File:Tee-pee_g%C3%A9ant_sur_le_site_traditionnel_huron_Onho%C3%BCa_chetek8e,_Wendake.jpg

Recommended Resources:

Biomes are distinct ecological communities of plants and animals living together in particular climates. Learn more about biomes at: http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/index.html

See photos of snow-block igloo construction at: https://www.wikihow.com/Build-an-Igloo

See many photographs of teepees at: http://www.photovault.com/Link/Cities/Southwest/Teepee.html

Hoberman, Mary Ann. A House Is a House for Me. The Viking Press: New York, NY, 1978.

Before the Activity

• Gather materials.
• Read Mary Ann Hoberman's book, A House Is a House for Me.

With the Students

Present the Engineering Design Challenge:

1. Have the class think about why people need houses, what materials are needed to build a house, and what the various parts of a house include.
2. Pair students and have each team choose an environment where the students want their house built. Have students figure out what type of climate their house must be able to handle in that environment. Instruct them to design and sketch a house to withstand that climate.
3. Have each group to present their concept to the rest of the class. Have the class comment and make suggestions on each other's ideas.

Build:

4. Have the groups build their designs with the available materials. Have students construct their houses on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper with a grid printed on it.
5. Estimate the area of the house by counting the squares.

Test:

6. Test the houses against the elements that would be appropriate for the climate they built their houses to withstand.
7. Compare each of the groups' houses and discuss what materials are needed in different climates.

Final Evaluation: Use the attached rubric to evaluate student teams' success in three areas: quality of design and construction, performance of house against climate tests, and demonstrated understanding of concepts. Show students the rubric criteria in advance to clarify the grading process.

Have students read and then discuss an example in west Africa where a school was built to work with the climate and local materials and labor to withstand weather conditions ranging from blazing sun to torrential showers. The designer, a native of the community, reverse engineered everything he was taught at school, using principles of heat to figure out natural cooling, and learning to design windows that would protect from the blazing sun but still offer ventilation. See "Homegrown Hero" in the Architectural Digest at: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/diebedo-francis-kere-opera-village-burkina-faso-article.

Kessler, James H. and Andrea Bennett. The Best of WonderScience: Elementary Science Activities. page 20. Boston, MA: Delmar Publishers, 1997. ISBN: 0827380941