DATA STRUCTURE Database field Rules Non-repeatable, Required Because of the academic nature of this database for the architectural students, I made most fields required since the students will need as much information as is available about the various structures. : I have this field set as non-repeatable, to limit it to one important name or title. : I set this field as repeatable to allow for granularity in searches. Students may not yet know the specific locations of certain structures, and may likely search using broad terms, such as New England instead of using Connecticut. Specific locations for the structures is still important to include in this database, to provide students with the option to include more specific locations if they so choose, in their class assignments. : This field will be the most populous for all the pictures, since it will provide information on the building s style, the name of the architect where available, and other details. An internal rule not reflected in this field is limiting the number of descriptors to the 5 most relevant terms, to avoid overloading the database too much when more pictures are added. : Because some buildings may have more than one function, I made this field repeatable. : To allow for granularity, I ve allowed this field to be repeatable. Originally, I made this field optional, since some buildings may not have a specific time period, especially for the non-famous structures (a Connecticut barn verses the Taj Mahal). This was to avoid issues where being required to put down the time may result in less-than-reliable information. However, it would be extremely useful information for architectural students to have, and I was able to find a time period for all the structures. So, now, this field is required. 1
COLLECTION TITLE: Images of Historical Buildings IMAGES 1- Barn Red Barn Connecticut, New England, United English barn, Historical New England architecture, Farm Farm storage, animal housing Circa 18 th century 2-Taliesin West Taliesin West Scottsdale, Arizona, Sonoran desert, Southwest, United Frank Lloyd Wright, Arts and Crafts architecture, Prairie School, U.S. Register of Historic Places, U.S. National Historic Landmark Residence, House 1937,1930s, 20 th century 3- Shotgun House Shotgun House French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana, Gulf Coast, Southeast, United Shotgun house, Southern culture revival, Long house, Post-Civil War architecture Residence, House 19th - 20 th century Schloss 2
NAME: Holly Lipschultz 4-Schloss 5- Summer Palace Hohenschwangau, Bavaria, Germany, Europe Castle, Castle Romanticism, Romanesque Revival architecture, German castle, Palace Residence, Palace Boat of Purity and Ease Longevity Hill, Kunming Lake, Beijing, China, Asia Marble Boat, UNESCO World Heritage List, Chinese garden, Chinese architecture, Garden pavilion Pavilion, Boat 1755, 18th century 6-Church Gladstone Church Gladstone, Wairarapa, New Zealand, Oceania Christian church, Early 20th century New Zealand architecture, Rural, Church, House of worship 20th century Blagoveshchensky 7- Cathedral 3
NAME: Holly Lipschultz Cathedral Kharkiv, Kharkov, Ukraine, Europe Neo-Byzantine architecture, Ukraine Orthodox church, Fortress Cathedral, Annunciation Cathedral Church, House of worship 8-Winter Cabin 9- Taj Mahal detail Winter Cabin Perkins, Michigan, United Log house, Log cabin, Cabin, Rural, American Frontier architecture Residence, Home Taj Mahal arch detail Agra, India, Asia Islamic architecture, Mughal architecture, Arch detail, UNESCO World Heritage list Mausoleum, Tourist attraction, 17th century 10- Taj Mahal Taj Mahal full view Agra, India, Asia Islamic architecture, Mughal architecture, full view, UNESCO World Heritage list Mausoleum, Tourist attraction 17th century 4
NARRATIVE: In order to properly serve the architecture appreciation students, I focused on their class goal of studying how the building function is connected to the architectural style. Therefore, the two most important fields in this database are and Building Function. As an internal rule, I limited the field to only the five most relevant terms, making sure to include the type of architecture. Many buildings have more than one function, but internally I limited it to the two most relevant terms. At a first glance, it may seem redundant to include similar values such as residence and house, I chose to do so in order to make it easier for the students to search the database, because they are more likely to search using the keyword house, rather than residence. Also, just because it is a residence does not mean it is a house, as in the case of the Schloss. Similarly for the values church and house of worship. If a mosque were included in this database, this would have allowed me to input the values house of worship and mosque. This allows for a level of granularity in the searches. In order to contextualize the images, I chose to provide the location of the structure, and the date of construction. This will allow the students and professor to talk about the impact that region and time period has on the style of architecture. I briefly considered including technical photographic information in the database, but because of the constraint of only five fields, I decided to leave it out. While such information can be helpful other students, it is irrelevant to the architecture appreciation class education goals. At first, constructing the database seemed like an overwhelming task, but that changed as I spent several days just brainstorming, letting the ideas stew around in my mind before I act on them. After the brainstorm session, taking the database construction task piece by piece made it a highly enjoyable project. When I worked at a public library for years, I would be the go-to person for any organizational projects. In fact, most of the time I would be the one explaining to my managers why a certain section needs reorganization, how I planned to reorganize it, and how it would benefit all the library workers and patrons. So, organizing pictures was just an extension of that fun library task. 5