Architecture, Building & Planning Essay Writing Guide: Useful Strategies

At the moment, architecture and building are among the most written about issues on the globe. The reason is quite simple – the omnipresence of the technologies and innovations can’t be denied, as well as the podium on which it itself is based i.e. architecture. Basically, the architecture essay replicates the key principles and the structure of a traditional college essay with a couple of unique points. Writing an essay on architecture requires you to gather a significant amount of information in order to get a reasonable understanding of the subject matter. Like no other paper, this essay requires student’s complete consistency, precision, and lucidness in presenting the facts. Collecting information for an architecture and building essay is not a big problem. Nonetheless, crafting an essay itself is a sort of art and special attention should be paid to the process of researching and writing itself. Below, we provide an architecture essay guide with a range of strategies and architecture essay tips that will help you create an excellent paper.

Understanding Architecture, Building and Planning

For your topic you should clarify what architecture actually is. The term comes from the Greek word – “arkhitekton” meaning architect. In other words, architecture is all about the process of designing, planning, and constructing building and the other structures of the kind. In other words, the term principally signifies the knowledge of techs, tools, systems, machines used to handle various architecture issues.

According to Merriam-Webster, architecture is “the art or science of building; specifically: the art or practice of designing and building structures and especially habitable ones” with the use of techniques, materials and tools to guarantee more productive and pleasant life.

Choose Your Topic

For your architecture essay, you have to pick the sub-field that you’re interested in the most. However, ensure you don’t select something too problematical or innovative. Since architecture has already become an integral part of everyday life, there are some styles that are going to turn your essay into success:

• The Victorian Era. The Victorian times (mid to late 19th century) were quite significant due to the fact that many architectural styles like Tudor, Gothic Revival and Romanesque returned. It’s a well-known fact that many homes were built in the Victorian style during the industrial revolution.
  Look over the topics below to find one that interests you:
  • Changes in the Building World That Had an Impact on the Look of Victorian Buildings;
  • Unshakeable Religious Overtones as the Reason Why Gothic Failed to Become a Universal Style;
  • The Key Principles of The ‘dollhouse’ Effect;
  • The Queen Anne Style Rules and Peculiarities.
• Romanesque. Romanesque architecture emerged in Europe in 10th century. Known as Norman Architecture, this architectural style has the most famous feature that is the rounded arch that is usually seen in the churches built in Roman style.
  Look over the topics below to find one that interests you:
  • The Influence of Romanesque Architecture Style Between 1075 and 1125 in France;
  • The History of Romanesque Churches;
  • The Crusades to Inspire Great Building Programs;
  • The Spiral Style as One of the Significant Motifs of Romanesque Design.
• Baroque. Baroque originally comes from Italy, where this style actually occurred in 16th century. The so-called departure from the Romanesque style appealed to the human senses. The more emotive architectural style was the celebration of the Catholic state.
  Check the topics below to choose the most suitable one:
  • Baroque Architecture in Italian Churches;
  • Baroque Architecture: Introduction of Irregular Decoration and Design;
  • Baroque Architecture and Its Association with Colonialism;
  • Francesco Borromini – the Master of Curved-wall Architecture.
• Tudor. Meet the final architectural style from the medieval period in England, between 1485 and 1558. The so-called transitional style comprised mixing elements of a Gothic style with Renaissance features. Below, we list some topics to help you write an outstanding essay:
  • ‘Stockbroker Tudor’ and Its Popularity in Washington D.C., during The 1920s;
  • ‘Fairy Tale Cottage’ Look to Get Much Buzz Even Today in The US;
  • The Key Differences Between Tudor and Early Gothic Style Architecture;
  • False Half-timbering as One of the Most Recognizable Features Of A Tudor House.

Be Proficient with Your Research

As mentioned above, information on architecture is plentiful, and chances are you’re going to get lost in searching for answers. Meditate for a minute and turn your mind and attention on. Be clear about what your essay topic is. You may have been assigned one or you may have chosen one yourself. Let’s say, your job is to provide an essay on “Bauhaus Movement in the Modernist Designs.” With the task in hand, collect the relevant details. Ensure to remain precise in what you search for – you have library resources and online websites at your disposal. Make sure to discard all the useless details that you’ll 100% face. Search for relevant information as carefully as you can to cover your topic and the questions your target audience may have about it. Review articles, academic papers, books and journals to fill all the knowledge gaps and take notes in the process.

As to the topic discussed before, your target audience will be most likely interested in the following issues:

• Understanding the Bauhaus concepts;
• The details the designs of Bauhaus architecture (flat roofs, cubic shapes, open floor plans, steel frames, etc.);
• The impact of Bauhaus;
• The most outstanding artists representing the area in the 20th century.

At some point, you may want to narrow your topic, if you have collected too much information. At the same time, if there are too little relevant details on the chosen topic, ensure to make it more general. Do not rely on the outdated resources as you sort out the research materials.

Stay Clear on Your Objectives

When you get on with writing, ensure to remain clear on what your architecture essay objectives are. Is it an argumentative essay? Make sure to provide enough reasons why Bauhaus concepts are still en vogue nowadays. Is your essay a narrative story? When writing about English designer William Morris, remember that you are sharing emotional and sensory details with the reader. If you’re assigned with the task to accomplish an expository essay, explain the topic in a straightforward and logical manner. Put down all the objectives of your essay on a piece of paper. Thus, the process of writing will become straightforward and you won’t have to change the course of writing every time you turn to writing.

The Introduction Of an Architecture Essay: Examples by Our Writers

A professionally developed introduction will engage your target readers and create interest. Just like in case of any other academic assignment, the introduction of the architecture essay states a compelling and significant position. With the given topic “Bauhaus Movement in the Modernist Designs”, feel free to begin the story with the attention grabber like “Bauhaus artists invested a great amount of energy in holding legendary and surreal costume parties. The party like that usually began as an improvised event that later turned into a grandiose party like “Triadic Ballet” of Oskar Schlemmer, in 1922”. A paragraph or two would be enough to introduce the story and include a well-worded strong thesis that you’ll have to discuss in the course of the essay:

• Bad Thesis #1: Bauhaus translates from the German language to ‘house of building’.
• Bad Thesis #2: This essay will consider the advantages and disadvantages of Bauhaus development.
• Bad Thesis #3: Bauhaus is interesting because its ideals are spread worldwide.
• Good Thesis #1: The Bauhaus was a school established in Weimar (Germany) in 1919 by a German architect, Walter Gropius, who planned to link creativity and manufacturing as they had been falling apart.
• Good Thesis #2: Bauhaus design is exceptional and problematic at the same time. Aesthetically, uncluttered, simple and clean forms appeal to many. At the same time, a lot of people feel this disquiet and discomfort due to the so-called devoid of life.
• Good Thesis #3: Nowadays, the representatives of the field keep spreading Bauhaus idealistic concepts all over the globe. For example, a lot of Jewish architects of the Bauhaus school contributed to the White City of Tel Aviv.

The Supporting Paragraphs

The body of the essay comprises well-developed and logically arranged key points that are related to the thesis statement directly. You have to make yourself clear by providing your position – the questions that you’re exploring and why you’ve answered them that way. You do this throughout your essay by making claims and supporting them with detailed and concrete examples/evidence.

Your task here is to convince your readers that your point of view is correct since your supporting examples are, according to “The Craft of Research”, “accurate, precise, sufficient, authoritative, and perspicuous”.
The most important thing to keep in mind about supporting your claims is that you give the sources for claims that you provide. To do that, you have to refer to the literature within the essay content. For instance, you might make the following statement in your project: “The designs representing Renaissance architecture style were intended to reflect the ideals the elegance of domestic life, while the basic clues were taken from the Roman ruins.” (Francis Hegarty, John Amoore, Paul Blackett, Justin McCarthy, Richard Scott, 2017).

In the process of writing, you’ll have to decide how passionate you’re about your viewpoints. You can either take a solid stand and support it, or become an observer who slowly moves to the conclusion point after taking into account many positions. Anyway, ensure you have your own opinion, based on the research you’ve performed.

The Conclusion

The conclusion is used to wrap up the key idea of the architecture essay and to restate the thesis in a creative way. The final part should, therefore, convey a strong sense of closure and completeness, as well as the lingering possibilities for your topic, its possible implications.
In other to set a solid sense of The End, the author might do some of the following:

• Conclude your architecture essay by linking the ending paragraph to the first, perhaps through reiterating a phrase or a word used in the introduction.
• Conclude the paper with a sentence that is comprised of one-syllable words. The point here lies in the fact that the simple language creates the so-called effect of understated drama.
• Conclude the essay with a sentence that had parallel or compound structure. Thus, you’ll be able to set a sense of balance that will help your readers feel like the end of the complex debates couldn’t be better.

As an option, you may conclude your architecture essay by considering the implications of your discussion, argument or analysis. What does your argument suggest, involve or imply? For instance, an essay “What Is Behind the Rebirth of Gothic Architecture?” might open up with the idea that “The gothic style in the field of architecture and building stopped being chosen for a reason; the reality is that it was rejected and set aside for centuries.” In the concluding section, you might make the new but related statement that the situation has changed at the present moment.

There’s no need to apologize. If you can boast of having efficient knowledge in the architectural area, you know more about the topic than you can possibly squeeze into a 5-page college essay. Therefore, by the time you’re done with the assignment, you may be having certain doubts about what you have actually written. And in case you haven’t become the architecture guru yet, you may find yourself in the middle of more doubts that you could imagine as you approach the final point of the essay. Block those doubts. Don’t even think about weakening your authority by saying something like, “this is just my own point of view; there might be some other viewpoints that are better or more reliable…” Stand your ground until the end.