Tiny Home In A Biome

Art & Earth Science Team Up To Create Scientific Outposts

I partnered with our Earth Science teacher for a project-based learning experience. (PBL) The Earth Science students explored different biomes and created packets to explain environmental condition for our art students to design a “tiny home” to fit within a specific biome. These would be scientific outposts for someone to live and study the environment. The outposts must provide the scientist with a place to eat, sleep, work, and include a bathroom. The outpost must be designed in a way that it would not disrupt the native plants and animals of the environment as that might affect observations. Art students were put in groups of 3 or 4, and used the packets to design individual outposts on graph paper that were then sent to the Earth Science students to critique and select a final design to be made into an architectural model. Each group was given a different biome to design for. We decided that outposts should be no larger than 600 square feet, and though most decided to build a single structure, others did 2 story structures, dividing that 600 square feet. 

This also meant that students were using some math and geometry skills to draw their floorplans. Some designs were like container homes, long and narrow. Others went for hexagon or octagon designs. I used standard graph paper with students where 1 square is about ¼ inch. For this design, one square was equal to 1 square foot. For standard graph paper, 600 square foot would be about ½ a sheet. This was helpful in students not working too large or small. I did not require students count squares, as long as the final design was about ½ a sheet. We calculated that round buildings should be no more than 26 squares wide, octagons about 28 squares, and hexagons about 30 squares. 

Final architectural models were made from “ghostline” foam board (or HERE on Amazon) that had half-inch pre-printed grids. We used the same method where 1 square was equal to 1 square foot. This seemed a manageable size. I reviewed expectations of razor use with students, and as they worked in groups we divided jobs into 4 parts: Writer, Interior/Exterior Designer, Draughtsman, Builder. The writer completed a google doc (contents below) that included details about the design, sharing editing rights with the “Designer” who was tasked with adding design samples to the document, like flooring samples, exterior building textures, etc. The Draughtsman oversaw re-drawing the floor plan for the Builder to cut and glue together. 

The Google Document the "writer" had to complete included the following which you can copy and paste into your own document if you like.

Your Biome is: 
Period: 
Group Members Are... 

• Writer: (Share editing rights to this document with Designer) 
• Interior/Exterior Designer: 
• Draughtsman: 
• Model Builder(s): 

How does your design fit into the biome? 
What does your design do well? 
What might still be an issue, problem, or limitation of your design? 
Exterior Description: 
Sample Images: (Cladding, Brick. Stone, Landscaping…)  
Interior Description: 
Sample images (flooring, wall colors, textures, rugs, appliances, decorative accents…) 
Color rendition/drawing of tiny outpost in its environment: 

For more art education resources you can use in your classroom, please visit: firehousepublications.com