Key Stage 2 art and design · Great artists, architects and designers

KS2 great architects in history: a guide for parents

In Key Stage 2, children are taught about great artists, architects and designers in history, with the aim that they understand how these art forms have developed over time. For architecture this means looking at famous buildings and the people who designed them, and noticing how shape, structure and materials change from one period and place to another. The curriculum names no particular architect, so your child’s school chooses.

Great architects in history, explained

The national curriculum gives one short instruction for this area: pupils should be taught about great artists, architects and designers in history. It lists no names, buildings or dates. Schools therefore choose, and their choices often come from other subjects. A class studying the Romans might look at a bath house or an arch, a class studying the Victorians might look at a railway station, and many schools use buildings in their own town. Any of these meets the curriculum, so don’t worry if your child studies different buildings from a friend’s.

An architect designs buildings. That means deciding how a building looks, how people move around inside it, what it is made of and how it will stand up, usually working with engineers and builders. Children learn that every building is a set of answers to questions: what is it for, who will use it, what materials are available, what does the weather do to it, and how much can be spent? They also learn that big buildings are never made by one person. Stonemasons, carpenters, glassmakers and many others are craft makers whose skill is part of the result.

Over time, buildings change, and that is the “historical and cultural development” the curriculum asks for. A school might compare rounded arches with pointed ones, thick stone walls with iron and glass, or a plain brick terrace with a building covered in curves and colour. Examples a school could choose include Christopher Wren, who designed St Paul’s Cathedral in London after the Great Fire of 1666; Joseph Paxton, who designed the glass and iron Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851; Antoni Gaudí, who took charge of the Sagrada Família church in Barcelona soon after work began in 1882, and spent the rest of his life on it, though it is still not finished; and Zaha Hadid, whose buildings have flowing curved shapes. These are only examples, and no school is required to use them.

Lessons are practical. Children look at photographs and, where possible, real buildings, then sketch the outline, count and draw the windows, and describe shapes and patterns. They often make models from card, boxes and tubes, which links to maths work on shapes and symmetry. Teachers listen for vocabulary such as arch, column and dome, and for children who can say what a building is for and give evidence from what they see. Nothing here is tested, but a child who learns to look up at buildings tends to keep doing it.

Words your child will hear

Architect: A person who designs buildings and plans how they will be built.
Facade: The front of a building, the side people see first.
Arch: A curved structure that spans an opening, such as a doorway, and carries the weight above it.
Dome: A rounded roof, often shaped like half a ball.
Column: A tall, upright support, often round, that holds up part of a building or is used for decoration.
Plan: A drawing of a building seen from above, showing the layout of rooms and walls.
Elevation: A drawing of one side of a building as seen straight on.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught about great artists, architects and designers in history
Aim: pupils know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: reading a building

Your child has a photograph of St Paul’s Cathedral in London and is asked to write a short fact file on the architect and the building. How might they work it out?

Look at the shapes first. At the front there are two towers and rows of columns with a triangle-shaped top above the main doors, and a large dome rises behind them. The building is nearly the same on the left and right, which is called symmetry.
Find out who, when and why. The earlier cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Christopher Wren designed the new one. Building began in 1675 and was finished in 1710, so it took about 35 years.
Ask what it is made of. The walls are built of pale stone from Portland, in Dorset. Ask why: stone is strong and lasts for centuries, and it suits a building meant to last.
Think about purpose. A cathedral is a large church where many people gather, so it needs a big open space inside. A dome gives a high, bright ceiling, and it can be seen from far across the city.
Record it. Draw a quick elevation of the front, with a half-circle dome on top of a wide block and two towers, and label three features with one word each.

A model fact file might read: “St Paul’s Cathedral was designed by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was built between 1675 and 1710 from pale Portland stone. It has a large dome, two towers and columns, and the front is symmetrical. The dome makes a tall, light space inside and can be seen from across London.”

Common mistakes and how to help

“The architect built the building”

Fact files say a building is “by” an architect, in the same way a picture is by an artist, so children assume the architect laid the bricks. In fact an architect draws and plans while many other people do the building.

What helps: Say that the architect is like the author of a plan and the builders, stonemasons and engineers are the team who turn it into a real place. Draw a plan together and imagine who you would need to hire.

Thinking a famous building was made by one person, quickly

Books and fact files tend to say “designed by” one name, so children imagine one clever person finishing the job in a short time.

What helps: Use dates to show the real scale: St Paul’s took about 35 years to build, and work on the Sagrada Família began in 1882 and still isn’t finished. Ask how many people might have worked on it across that time.

Believing that only big, old or famous buildings have architects

The examples in a classroom topic are usually cathedrals, palaces and landmarks, which suggests that ordinary buildings just appear.

What helps: Go outside and look at your own street, the local shop or the school. Someone designed each one and made choices about windows, doors and materials. Ask what you would change.

Thinking buildings are designed only to look nice

Pictures of famous buildings make appearance the obvious thing to notice, so children describe only what they look like.

What helps: Always follow “what does it look like?” with “what is it for?”. A tall window may let in light, a thick wall may keep out cold, and a wide door lets crowds through. Good architecture does both jobs at once.

How to help at home

Take a building walk. On a walk with an adult, look for arches, columns, domes, chimneys and symmetrical fronts. Choose a favourite building and a least favourite, and say why. Take a photograph to sketch from later.
Draw the front of your own home. Sketch the front of your house or flat as an elevation, from the garden, from the pavement with an adult, or from a photograph. Count the windows and doors and look at the shapes. Add anything you would change if you were the architect.
Build a model from recycling. Cereal boxes, cardboard tubes and tape make good towers, domes and bridges. Set a brief such as “a house for a very tall giraffe” and talk about what the design needs to do.
Compare two buildings. Pick an old building and a new one nearby, perhaps a church and a shop. Talk about the materials, the shapes and the date of each, and how you can tell which is older.
Borrow a book on buildings. A library book about famous buildings gives your child pictures of structures they can’t see in person. Ask them to tell you which one they would visit and what they would look at first.

Builds on

Key Stage 1: Artists, craft makers and designers
Key Stage 1: Comparing artists’ work

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Ancient and classical art
Key Stage 3: Medieval to Renaissance art
Key Stage 3: Baroque to Impressionism
Key Stage 3: Modern and contemporary art