The links between art and architecture go back a long way: art inspired by buildings and places; architecture enhanced by art. Today artists and architects often work together towards the shared goal of creating a more stimulating environment.
Sculpture that makes reference to the 19th century pupils of the royal military asylum © Joe Miles
For students, the buildings and places that surround them – shapes, textures, colours and patterns – can be a rich stimulus for artwork. As the key stage 3 programme of study for art and design stresses, students need to learn how to develop ideas by working from first-hand observation and experience. Doing this through exploring their surroundings also gives them an opportunity to respond to the school’s location and local cultural influences.
We have collated a list of activities, organisations and resources for you to use with your students to develop architecture-inspired artwork.
Subjects: ICT, art and design, history.
Cross-curriculum dimensions: creativity and critical thinking.
Initiatives: Learning Outside the Classroom, Every Child Matters (enjoy and achieve), PLTS (creative thinkers).
Teaching activities
Make it new
Have there been any new developments in your local town? How does the architecture differ from some of the older buildings and landmarks nearby?
Show the students examples of contemporary architecture from around the world, for example the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Deep in Hull, 30 St Mary Axe (the gherkin) in London or Burj al Arab in Dubai.
Ask your students to design a building for your town inspired by the shapes and forms they see in some of these examples of contemporary architecture. Encourage them to be radical! What particular features inspire them? Can they relate their design to the local landscape?
Find out more about The Deep and 30 St Mary Axe.
Students visit The Deep in Hull © Sally-Ann Norman
Power of pattern
Buildings and streets are full of interesting patterns. Take your students on a tour of the area or get them to explore a local building – a library or church, perhaps, or even somewhere in the school grounds.
Ask them to pick out features that capture their attention, such as a motif on a floor, a detail in a doorway or window frame, or a moulding or carving. Ask them to make sketches and rubbings (if allowed) or to take photos to record their observations.
Back in class, ask the students to think about how they could develop one of these patterns into an idea for a design – perhaps for a collage, a tile, textile design or a papier mâché bowl. Can the pattern be manipulated and combined or developed with colour?
Find an educational workshop or tour near you that looks at patterns in architecture.
Sculpt it
Investigate sculptures in your local area. Ask students to research when and why they were built. What is the mood of each piece? How does it make them feel? If possible, get a local sculptor to talk about some of the ideas behind their work and demonstrate techniques and materials.
Using this as a springboard, ask the students to design their own small-scale sculpture for a specific place in the local area. Encourage them to think about how their sculpture should reflect its setting and the type of mood they want to evoke.
Find out more about the Angel of the North, Anthony Gormley’s inspirational design and Britain’s largest sculpture.
Angel of the North © David Burton / Alamy
A digital journey
Take your class on a walk in the local area and ask them to take digital photographs of interesting features from buildings and structures. Encourage them to experiment with capturing shots from different angles and distances. Give them a list of things to spot – interesting textures, shapes, colours and patterns.
Back in class, ask the students to create abstract images by experimenting with line, colour and contrast. What mood do they want to capture? Anger? Fear? Calm? Give them opportunities to work up their photos into paintings and collages.
RIBApix is a digital database of exceptional images of world architecture. Use it to give your students a new perspective on photographing the built environment.
Artistic differences
Identify an area in the school grounds that would benefit from being brightened up by a mosaic, mural or other piece of art. Ask the students to investigate the space and to record features in photographs and sketches. What are their ideas and feelings about the area? What type of colours, images and messages might be appropriate?
As a class, agree what approach to take and work together to create the artwork. Discuss and develop different design ideas. How could the final outcome draw on and enhance its location?
In the article, Defying the laws of graffiti, students transformed a building site at their school with the help of spray-paint.
Graffiti artist © Alys Tomlinson
Helpful organisations and venues
English Heritage
English Heritage offers a range of resources to help schools make the most of the historic environment. Visit the English Heritage website to find out about site visits, publications and downloadable resources.
The V&A Architecture Gallery
The V&A in London houses a comprehensive collection of architectural drawings, photographs and models that can be used as inspiration for design work.
Use the V&A’s online architectural style resource to explore a range of architectural styles in your class or visit the V&A architecture collection online.
V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership
This partnership brings together RIBA’s drawings and archives collections and the V&A’s architectural drawings, photographs and architectural artefacts – all housed at the V&A, London. Teachers can utilise the study and teaching rooms and educational resources.
Local architecture and built environment centres
There are 23 architecture and built environment centres around the UK. Contact the one nearest you to see how it can help you discover and explore buildings and places in your local area.
Find your local architecture centre now.
Tate Modern
Visit Tate Modern on Bankside, London and explore a remarkable building and a great collection of international contemporary art at the same time. The gallery runs a full programme of tours, workshops and talks for schools.
Students visit Barking Central © Robert Clack School of Science
Teaching resources
Images of England website
A photographic library of England’s listed buildings from the turn of the 21st century produced by English Heritage. Use the website to view over 300,000 images of buildings and places in your area, from lamp posts and lavatories to historic houses and churches.
Great Buildings collection
The Great Buildings website showcases a world of architecture through photographic images, architectural drawings, building models, bibliographies of architects, commentaries and maps and timelines. A great resource to use for research in class.
Index of art historical sites
A digital imaging project that includes photographic images of sculpture and architecture from pre-historic to post-modern. More than 17,000 images are currently online for you to search through by country.
Art and architecture image database
An educational website with images of most of the works in the Courtauld Gallery and Institute of Art’s collection. All images can be downloaded and used for educational purposes.
The Lowry
The Lowry in Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, is a centre for entertainment and arts education. An architectural landmark, it runs workshops on using views from in and around the building to improve students’ observational drawing skills, focusing on light, texture or scale.
Go back to the Dover Grammar School for Girls case study.
