[Betsy Ures]

I love this idea! I recently went to Atlanta (where I grew up) and got to enjoy the new urban trail called the Belt Line. It was also repurposed from unused rail and underutlized land. It was full of people skating, biking, walking, and running. We need to utilize underutlized spaces to provide alternatives to car travel. My students love to go to the park and walk around, but traffic violence is a looming threat to safety. I woult like to see commercial buildings be transitioned to affordable housing and unused land to parks and pathways to connect neighborhoods!

LINK: https://beltline.org/

 

[Betsy Ures]

I agree that the west is slowly adopting some of the concepts of the East! The shift toward open concept is liberating when entertaining guests. I would like to see more public spaces be made available such as parks, gazebos, trails, and community centers. Or at least apartment buildings could be designed around courtyards like the "tulou" dwellings of China. People are easily isolated when public spaces or shared community spaces are not available.

[Betsy Ures]

I have spent a few days at the Huntington Gardens especially enjoying the Japanese and Chinese Gardens. One thing that students would enjoy is identifying the way water and plants intereact with built structures. For example, the Chinese Garden has a large pond that is filled with lotus flowers and stones. Students can do some sketches of the different natural elements and discuss their drawings and add color upon return to campus.

[Betsy Ures]

This is an interesting and innovative legal approach! In the US, corporations are given legal rights like people, so it would make sense to extend legal protections to our natural resources! This would be a large shift from oil companies having the ability to destroy Native American land without much legal backlash. Thank you for sharing this concept with us.

[Betsy Ures]

The tweet from BART is so interesting! Public infrastructure has to be invested in during population growth, but that doesn't seem to happen at an appropriate speed. I liked looking at the cities in the lecture that were designed around water. The spine of the city became a canal system, which I'm sure has become crowded with boats and people during population booms. I would love to hear case studies about cities repsonding to population growth in a different way than in the west. 

[Betsy Ures]

I appreciate your description and images of the two different types of roof tiles. The butterfly tile reminds me of the spanish style roof of my school. I have never talked to students about the justification for the overall style of our school nor the materials used. In order to help students develop an interest in architecture and design, we could do a architectural tour of school campus.

[Betsy Ures]

In the second lecture, I enjoyed the focus on city planning in terms of reflecting the values and priorities of the society. The Chaghan model has a grid system, which resulted in people forming micro-communities through public spaces and roads between dwellings. The Fujian Hakka Dwellings was also created micro-communities, but through cylindrical dwellings with internal courtyards. The City of Suhou and Wuzhen each have a waterway that is central to transportation of people, goods, and sharing of culture. It is interesting to contrast the designs of these places with some of our major cities designed around interstate systems or roads. I would like to see more public, community spaces in my community that allow for non-retail centered activities! We have privately owned malls and venues, but they reflect the priorities of businesses rather than working people.

[Betsy Ures]

This also stood out to me. I work near downtown Los Angeles, and empty office buildings are slowly reopening, but I don't think it's possible to utlize all the space since people have shifted to working remotely. We have towers that could be converted into living spaces, but there is no financial incentive for this to be done (hopefully one day). I would love to hear student ideas and see designs for converting empty floors to sustainable housing for working people. Our downtown area has been designed for commuting workers and corporations, and it should be for everyone. It's neither efficiently planned nor sustainable to keep it as is.

[Betsy Ures]

This is a topic I've personally been wondering about. How can we increase transparency around the negative impacts of tourism, while maintaining the benefits of sharing culture, nature, and more? As a class project, students could create a brochure guide for low-carbon travel. It is possible to travel within certain distances using transit and railroads, but it's costly and takes extra time. Discussing this will probably lead to students becoming advocates for alternatives to air travel, and more comprehensive transit. 

[Betsy Ures]

I also found the description of Chinese and American residental structures and their access to the outdoors very interesting. Having a shared internal courtyard in dwellings shows a value system where community is more valued over individual privacy. Many of my students, like me, live in apartment buildings or in duplexes, and they might enjoy discussing the various types of design and how it affects their daily life. Students could then use graph paper to design their own dwellings.

[Betsy Ures]

I found the images and diagrams of different pagoda structures very interesting. Looking at the Chinese and Japanese pagoda design side by side, it didnt register that they were so different until this lecture. They have a similar profile, but utilize different material based on aesthetic preference and functionality. I think students would be able to look at them side by side, like is done in the lecture, and make observations about the differences and similarities. 

Additionally, the use of wood and appreciation of the natural world in Japan is very special. My elementary students may not have seen a large wooden structures like the temples and castles in Japan, but share a love of nature. We can discuss the upsides of building with wood and the downsides. A field trip to the huntington gardens would be ideal, but we could also take a virtual field trip. We can identify concepts to look for like: Zen brushstrokes, zen gardens, zen walkways, natural materials, etc.

Do any other elementary teachers have experience with teaching about East Asian architecture?

Thank you for the informative lectures! 

[Betsy Ures]

Hello fellow educators! My name is Betsy and I have been an LAUSD teacher for 9 years. I work at an elementary school in central Los Angeles supporting English learners and supporting struggling students. I have taken a few USC China Institute Courses before and I love studying and learning about architecture.

[Betsy Ures]

I have not really focused on Islam in China before when I taught 7th grade history. I found a good video that would help students connect history content with the real world.

Video: https://ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/islam-china-story-of-china/islam-china-story-of-china/

Standard: WH.7.2.4 Discuss the expansion of Muslim rule through military conquests and treaties, emphasizing the cultural blending within Muslim civilization and the spread and acceptance of Islam and the Arabic language

I am wondering how else I can teach about the history of religions & languages through a focus on specific populations and everyday practices/routines. 

[Betsy Ures]

The 5th grade English Learner students (that I work with the most) enjoy looking at visual art and having discussions about it. The korean artist Sin Saimdang would be an excellent artist to introduce and share the context of her life alongside a structured discussion around her works. Most of the 5th graders have a a lot of appreciation for current Korean culture, but are not engaged with much of Korean history, just like me. Students can read and share the main ideas from a 5th grade-level text about Sin Saimdang and then engage in a constructive conversation about her paintings. After viewing and discussing her works, students can create their own Chochungdo painting (a painting genre started by Shin Saimdang, depicting plants and insects) after taking a nature walk on campus.

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[Betsy Ures]

The board games you've shared would make for an excellent visual when teaching about Japan. Students will be able to discuss what they see and make inferences of the meanings of each image on the board game. Then we can use google translate to determine the actual meaning. Thanks for sharing!

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