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Architect

 

Teacher note: A number of students contributed to these pages on Colonial times. Each contributed deferent information or a different perspective. You may find that each article adds to your understanding and research base.

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By Nick C. (2002)

An architect is a person who designs buildings on paper and gives it to the builder. Some things he makes are drawings for barns, town hall, houses, etc. There are a number of steps in building a house. The first step is for the architect to come up with a design. Some designs are the New England that is built primarily one room deep two story houses with a central chimney although single story hall-parlor houses were built to. Another style is the Georgian, which is built of wood or brick which ever was locally available.

Characteristics include symmetry around the central of the house, pediment dormers, pediment windows, and quoints at the corners. The last style he could of possible chosen was Adam that is later style during the Revolutionary War and was also very much like the Georgian style. Next they cut the lumber that was needed. Some woods they used were red oak, chestnut, white oak, hemlock, red maple, and white pine.

The other many steps are as follows they seasoned the wood (it was dried outside). Then when it's all dried, they size the wood up and then make the joints on the end (they used joints to connect pieces of the wood together). Now their wood was set, they picked out a place and laid a foundation. Next they put up the frame of the house. The roof was then put on after you had the frame of the house, then the walls and floors were put in. After that they could of put the stairs in if it was a two-story house. And the rest they left to the cabinetmaker.

The architect and the builder used many tools. Some tools the architect used were quills, ink, straight edge, compass, French curve, triangles, t-bars, protractor, and paper. And the builder uses level, chalking and line, square, marking square, auger, plane, gouge, wedge, mortise axe, slick, mallets, claw hammer, keyhole saw, bow saw, felling axe, chisels, draw knife, brace and bit, froe, adz, hatchet, and broad axe. Those are the tools they used.

This was seen all over the town and community, but not every single day. But architecture was more common in the town than the country because more people lived in the town than the country; so more people needed houses.

This person had to have skills with wood and the structure of the house so it would not collapse. They also needed to know what types of designs and tools were used to build the house.

Plus a society could not go with out this because this is where they lived. This craft also gave people a shelter, which was necessary for survival, and it also could provide luxury by having a mansion. And this could be used by all classes except for the one's who could not afford it..

Today what would satisfy me the most is the final outcome of the house. I think someone might do this job because they get to see people enjoy the homes they built for them. This craft is still useful and they build the houses almost the same way, just with a little more technology.

This craft was used in the first settlement Jamestown because it was necessary to survive, and has been used for thousand's of years. No resources were used except for trees. It may have gotten a little more popular over the years, but the styles definitely changed. In colonial times only men built the houses, but as time progressed soon women were allowed to help build the houses.

This is my report on colonial Architecture.

Bibliography

Web Sites: 11/12/02 "American Architecture"

Books: Home Building and Wood working in Colonial America 11/12/02 By C. Keith Wilbur

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ARTICLE # 2

COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE

By Sharif S. (2002)

Architects, the people that design and supervise the building of a public or

Georgian Brick

private building, which perform the craft of architecture have many steps in order to successfully make a design and model of a building. Step one is to first find out what the person wants in his/her building like the style. Here are some popular styles in the colonial time:

GEORGIAN- this style was mainly in the time of 1700 –1780. The Georgian style was named after the king George's of England. This style is normally found with multiple chimneys, roof balustrades, and pediment dormers. In the south the style was changed to make it more symmetrical. The south also made the first floor of the house higher for better ventilation.

Cape Cod Colonial

COLONIAL-this style dominated the early 1800's. This is a rectangular and symmetrical. Home with bedrooms mainly on the second floor. This style included gabled roofs, equally sized panes that are fine framed, double hung windows, and had columns. There was also a main hall that led from the front of the house to the back of the house. Normally the style was to have a chimney in the middle of the house, which later changed to a chimney on each side of the house.

ADAM or FEDERALIST- this style was named after Robert Adam an important architect. His designs were based on his trips to Italy and Rome. Some of his ideas to include into a house were urns, geometric designs, swags, and garlands. Adam was very influential to America in the times of 1780-1820. This style can be found all over the Atlantic coast as it is used for all kinds of buildings. The doors had semicircular window over the door and above that it had a crown molding and some of the doors might even have side moldings. The windows would probably have a three part Palladian-style window.

NEOCLASSICAL was the next popular style. It took many elements from the classical times of Greece and Rome including a pediment, and tall columns. This style was frequently done in white or buff siding, brick or stone. The best example of this is the White House.

The persons building could be from a bank to a library to a house. Normally though an architect would only build houses for upper classes because the upper classes wanted fancier houses, but the lower class believed as long as you have four walls around you and a roof its good enough to be called a house. The second step is to draw a picture or make an outline of the building from the information you got from doing step one. Keep in mind that your outline needs a scale, border around the outline, and measurements for all pieces of wood or anything you believe that you think the builder needs to know. Step three is to perfect your outline and add anymore details necessary. The forth step is to now make a miniature model from the outline that you made before. After you finish with all these steps you need to present your work to the builders and the person who asked you to design their house. And there you go you have finished your steps to designing a building.

Architects used many tools. Some of their tools were compasses (to make triangle), rulers, french curve (to make curves), t-bar (another type of ruler), triangles (to make certain slants), tissue paper (to show designs on), paper, feather pen, and protractor (to make angles). Those are most of the tools architects needed to do their job.

Architects never really stayed in one place they always moved around. You would normally find architects in big cities were they could find a good slice of the action to build and make enough money to have a good living. That doesn't mean architects weren't in smaller towns.

This person would have to be good in drawing, math, and would have to know a little in building skills. For example structures and much weight different types of wood can hold.

Architects were very important to society. This craft makes houses, which I believe in a necessary element to survival. There comes to a point though that houses become a luxury. For example if you have a house that's the size of a mall. No, this craft is not useful to just one class of people, but it normally was useful to upper class who wanted a house with detail. Like I stated above the lower classes believed a house is just protection all around you. This craft was necessary to society because it provided a shelter to people from harsh weather. This is how this craft is important to society and how it benefits society.

In my opinion I would choose to do this craft in this current time.

Honestly when I grow up I would like to be an architect that's a reason why I choose to research on architecture. Reasons why this craft might be worth doing is that it pays pretty good, and if you enjoy drawing maps or building with Legos this job might just be the job for you. Yes, this job is still the same as it was in the colonial times except the fact some tools have changed.

Also yes this craft is still used for the same thing and we don't use something instead. This is my report on architecture and overall this craft is fun and interesting.

http://www.monticello.org/house/index.html

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This site is created and maintained by Holly Geddes.
Last updated on April 1, 2003