The READING A BUILDING Survey can be used in the following way. For example, the component part called Plan can be explained in its simplest form as thinking about the circulation pattern of the building or how one moves through the building. It is good practice in visualization. The plans of some building are easy to read from the outside by looking at the windows and doors: a Center Hall Plan, for instance. Others, you would be able to figure out only by going inside. However, the more buildings that you "know," the more you are able to guess or surmise based on your experience.

As an example, to fill out the survey column labeled "description or how it works," describe the Center Hall Plan as follows: "symmetrical with a hall leading through the house and rooms off both sides of the hall. Generally there are three social rooms (parlor, dining room, sitting room) and one functional space." There are many variations on this theme. A sample for illustrating ‘Iolani Palace follows the COMPARATIVE METHOD template.

Demonstrate how to use this survey on your school building and then have students practice on their homes and one other building from the neighborhood before visiting a field trip site.

Ask students to write a short paragraph or reaction paper based on the cartoon figures and comments on this page. Once they understand this approach to demonstration of their learning, have them create their own cartoon buildings and comments. This alternative method of assessment fits in well with educational reform movement and moves the students beyond basic knowledge base and into application and higher level thinking skills.

The Comparative Method Survey
	Type	How It Works (description)
Plan
Walls
Roofs
Openings (windows)
Doors
Arches
Columns
Ornament
Site
Issues / Challenges

Resource: A History of Architecture by Sir Banister Fletcher
edited by Dan Crickshank and published by Butterworth -Architecture recently received a new award, "The Book of the Century," by the 1997 AIA International Book Awards ceremony. AIArchitecture describes this as the book that "no fan of architecture should be without."

John Lee: Architect, Educator, Parent, Friend
It's time to talk about the loss of John Lee, a friend to Architecture and a friend to CUBE. John's early enthusiastic embrace of the concepts of CUBE strengthened the program and left us a legacy of lesson plans, nomenclature, knowledge and a special way of looking that will not be lost. Who can forget his description of a modillion "Don't be afraid. It's just a dentil growing up to be a bracket." Or the confidence he gave us to name things ourselves if the textbook name just didn't pop into our minds?

John's best demystifcation of architecture came when he introduced the CUBE classes to Sir Banister Fletcher's classic approach to looking at a building and gave us the most important tool that we have in looking at architecture. John's Reading a Building activity, ala Sir Banister Fletcher, begins by identifying the building parts and how they go together. This technique forever frees us from the regional stylistic differences and names which can muddle up the real pleasure of materials and textures and lines and shapes.

Although Reading a Buildingis included in the Walk Around the Block curriculum and we do it at every workshop, it is important to repeat the lesson here and to remember that this skill is the fundamental skill that we need for looking at buildings anywhere, at any time. The addition of a "commentary" on the issues and challenges which face the building moves the activity into the area of Responsible Action, the ultimate goal for CUBE activities.

Thanks, John, for giving us much more than History of Architecture 101. You gave us a way of looking and a way of thinking that will be with us always.

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