You have been selected to design a house in the following city in China: _________________________________________ You need to research houses that are designed for your climate region. Good luck. We will be testing your design in class to see how well it stands up to the elements.

US Dept. of Agriculture:

Engineers design different types of houses for different climates Steps of the engineering design process:  Ask › Where is my house, what materials?  Imagine › Brainstorm different designs › Select a design  Plan  Build  Improve

© Abigail Watrous Examples of homes in rural China. What materials do you see? What house features do you see? The two homes (and the wall) in these pictures are made of bricks, which can be nice and cool in the hot summer, but chilly in the cold winter. Lots of people in rural China use the small circular coal briquettes (in the lower left picture) to cook their dinners and heat their homes; this type of coal is cheap but the indoor air pollution it causes can have bad health effects on people’s lungs.

© Abigail Watrous More examples of homes in rural China. Notice that not all homes in China are made of bricks. Some, like the two on the right side, are a mix of brick and concrete. The one in the top left, which is in southwestern China, has some beautiful woodwork in the kitchen. The one on the bottom left is made of mud bricks (adobe-like).

China This map shows three cities in China that are located in three different climate zones. Urumqi is in far western China in a hot and dry climate. Harbin is in the far north of China and is quite cold and snowy. Guangzhou is located the south with a tropical climate (wet).

 You are going to design a house for one of three climates: › Very cold › Desert › Tropical  Then, you will build and test your house. How do you think these houses should be different from each other?

 Latitude  Altitude  Number of rainy/snowy days  Average summer temperature  Average winter temperature

Test: Your house must be able to keep the roof from caving in when we put a lot of snow (weight) on top. We will use flour for our snow.

Test: Your house must keep dry a piece of tissue paper inside when we pour water (rain) on top. We will use a watering can.

Test: Your house must be able to keep an ice cube from melting as we heat the house with a hairdryer

 Floorplan: rooms, doorways, windows…  Elevation: foundation, porch, roof shape and overhangs... detailed plans materials sketches dimensions Top View (floor plan) Side View National Park Service: Park Service:

1. Choose the climate you want to design for 2. Fill out the information on part 1 – Researching your climate region 3. Fill out he information for part 2 – designing and drawing your house 4. When approved by your teacher, build, test and improve your house (Remember the inside of your house needs to be accessible). 5. Turn in your final house design ready for testing!

You may use what you have available: cardboard, poster board, foam board, sticks, straws, Popsicle sticks, toothpicks, golf tees, old cloth, foil, felt, straw, rocks, clay, wood, beans, Play-doh, string, duct tape, paper clips, tile, clay, hay or long grass for grass corkboard, saran wrap You may use glue or tape to stick items together.

 Image sources are usually noted on individual slide pages  If not noted, source is Microsoft Clipart: 2004 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA USA. All rights reserved. Resources: francis-k%C3%A9r%C3%A9-repurposes-european-techniques-his-native- country