Opinions on architecture speaking activities
architecture vocabulary/ giving opinions
Choose a topic related to architecture such as one from the list below, give your opinion on it, see if your partner agrees, discuss for longer if you like, then take turns doing the same with other topics related to architecture.
Suggested architecture topics to give opinions on
- Abandoned buildings
- Alternative materials
- An eyesore
- An infamous building/ A notorious building
- Apartment lobbies
- Architectural education
- Baroque architecture
- Bathhouses
- Bidding for public infrastructure projects
- Big Ben/ The Houses of Parliament, London
- Brick houses
- Brightly-coloured buildings
- Brownfield sites
- Buckingham Palace, London
- Building regulations, e.g. about earthquake protection or appearance
- Cobbled streets
- Construction industry
Curvilinear buildings - Cycle lanes
- Deindustrialisation
- Demolishment
- Design hotels
- Domestic architecture
- Double glazing
- Elevated expressways
- Embassies
Exposed concrete - Fake bricks
- Gentrification
Getting on the property ladder - Graffiti
- Green architecture
- Green spaces in this town/ country
- Greenfield sites
Green belt - High-rise flats
- Himeji Castle, Japan
- Historically important buildings
- Indentikit housing estates
- Kitsch buildings
- Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan
- Land reclamation
- Loft extensions
- Log cabins
- Luxury apartments
- Minimalism
- Mock Tudor
- Modern rural architecture
- Mortgages
- National heritage designation
- New religious architecture in this town/ country
- New towns
- Olympic architecture
- Open plan living room and kitchens
- Outlet malls
- Paper screens
- Pastiche buildings
- Pedestrian bridges
- Pedestrianised streets
- Plate glass office buildings
- Police boxes
Post-modernism - Power lines
- Preserving buildings, e.g. listing Brutalist concrete buildings
- Public housing, e.g. council estates
- Public spaces in this city/ country, such as town squares
- Public toilets
- Recent modernist architecture
- Redevelopment of whole areas
- Reed matting
- Rental accommodation in this town/ country
- Repurposed buildings
- Resort architecture
- Retro street lighting
- Rundown areas/ Slums
- Rundown housing
- Scandinavian style
- School architecture
- Second homes
- Semi-detached houses
- Shopping centres/ Shopping arcades
- Skyscrapers such as The Shard
- So-called iconic buildings
- St Paul’s Cathedral, London
- Starchitects such as Zaha Hadid
- Statement architecture
- Station architecture
- Suburban housing
- Sustainability
- Terraced houses
- Thatched cottages
- The (old) Imperial Hotel, Tokyo (now in Nagoya)
- The Bird’s Nest stadium, Beijing
- The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
- The CBD/ The skyscraper district
- The Coliseum, Rome
- The Eiffel Tower, Paris
- The Emperor’s palace, Tokyo
- The Forbidden Palace, Beijing
- The general public’s taste in architecture
- The Great Wall of China
- The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy
- The mansions of rich people
- The outskirts of this town
- The town hall in this town
- Tower Bridge, London
- Traditional (covered) shopping streets
- Traditional architecture
- Tropical architecture
- University campuses
- Versailles Palace, near Paris
- Villages/ Hamlets
- Water features (fountains etc)
- Waterfront development
- Wooden apartments
- World Heritage listings
When your teacher stops you, share one opinion you agreed on and see what the class thinks.
Ask about any vocabulary that you aren’t sure about, working together as a class to make related opinions each time.
Change groups. Choose an adjective below, match something related to architecture to that adjective (e.g. a building which you think is iconic), see if your partner agrees, discuss for longer if you like, then do the same with different adjectives below.
When your teacher stops you, share something you agreed on and see what the class thinks.
Ask about any adjectives which you don’t understand, working together as a class to use them to describe architecture each time.
Adjectives to describe architecture
- (Un)affordable
- (Un)exceptional
- (Un)imaginative
- (Un)impressive
- (Un)liveable
- (Un)popular
- Abandoned
- Bad taste
- Beautiful/ Gorgeous – Hideous
- Bland/ Dull
- Breath-taking
- Cutting edge
- Dated – Timeless
- Derivative/ Unoriginal – Original
- Dilapidated
- Disappointing
Elegant - Famous – Infamous/ Notorious
- Iconic
- Important
- Impractical
- Jaw dropping
- Neglected
- Overrated – Underrated
- Over-the-top
- Scandinavian
- Spectacular
- Stunning
- Traditional
- Underappreciated
- Unique
- Wooden
Change groups. Give and respond to more opinions about architecture, this time without looking above and flipping a coin to decide what opinion you and your partner should give.
First person
First flip
Heads= positive opinion Tails = negative opinion
Second flip
Heads = strong opinion Tails = weak opinion
Second person
First flip
Heads = agree Tails = disagree
Second flip
Heads = strong (dis)agreement Tails = weak (dis)agreement
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