UNIT 2 – FOUR WALLS

Are you into architecture? What do you like about it?

What are some buildings around where you live that you like? Why?

What is your favourite building in the world (and why)?

Which country has the best architecture?

Some say design is more important than function. Do you agree?

Which period in history has the best architecture?

How important are monuments or architecture (like Big Ben or the Statue of Liberty) in defining a
nation?

Look at the picture and talk about it.

1 What type of building is this? What does it remind you of?

2 What do you think it is used for these days?

Replace the words in bold with the ones the speaker uses.

1 A(n) ordinary, timber, Old West style shop – nothing fancy about it.

2 It fits in very naturally with its surroundings.

3 What's interesting too is the fake front on the building.

4 They were usually bigger and more elaborate ... disguising a more simple structure behind it.

Put these words describing buildings into four categories: material, period/style, impression and
type.

1960s brick characterless colonial concrete

cottage elegant futuristic glass imposing
modern office block plain shack steel
striking tower traditional warehouse
wooden

How many different rooms are there in your home?

Do any of the rooms have more than one function?

If you had more space, what would you use it for?

Do you like compact spaces? How do you feel in them?

Do you take advantage of them? How?

Is there any compact room or space in your house? How do you use it?

Look at the pictures and watch the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feoki_okc0Y

What is the issue related to space in the video?

What is his particular characteristic?

Read the sentences. Then listen to the interview again and choose the best option to

complete the sentences.

1 Jonas Wilfstrand is a specialist in small holiday homes / the efficient use of space.

2 An increasing number of people would like to own / are curious about smaller homes.

3 Dolgan homes consist of one room / a communal space and a bedroom.

4 The Dolgan need to move house easily because of the weather / their animals.

5 In Gary's Chang's apartment you can move / fold away the walls.

6 The interviewer dislikes / has mixed feelings about Chang's apartment.

GRAMMAR

Look at the sentences from the interview (1-8). For each sentence, identify the intensifying adverb,
the word it intensifies and what type of word (adjective, verb or adverb) this is.

1 We're changing focus completely today and looking at small homes.

The word it intensifies = changing (verb)

2 I'm very pleased to welcome Swedish architect Jonas Wilfstrand.

3 I must say some of them are absolutely stunning.

4 People are either incredibly short of space or they simply can’t afford a bigger house.

5 When it's time to find new feeding grounds, the Dolgan move house, quite literally.
6 I was impressed by the fact that they're just so simple.

7 As you probably know, Hong Kong is a really overcrowded city.

8 He entirely rethought the way we arrange living space.

Intensifying adverbs

Form and use

We use intensifying adverbs to make a verb, adjective or another adverb stronger. With adjectives
and adverbs, they go directly in front of the word they intensify.

The views are absolutely stunning.

The design was totally impractical.

The house quite literally shakes when a train goes by.

Intensifying adverbs sometimes go before and sometimes after the verb they intensify.

I agree with you entirely.

I totally understand.

We use different adverbs with gradable adjectives and with ungradable adjectives.

Gradable adjectives can be measured on a scale, e.g. small: a room can be a more or less small.

Ungradable or limit adjectives, on the other hand, are not measured on a scale. They express only
extreme qualities, e.g. empty, wonderful.

As with adjectives, verbs can be gradable or ungradable. For example, agree and like are gradable.
You can agree with or like something to a small or large extent.

When used with an ungradable adjective or verb, quite means 'extremely'.

The views were quite incredible!

Practice

1 Choose the correct option. In one sentence, both

options are correct.

1 The heating bills must be very /(absolutely)hu%e.

2 You'd be utterly sensible/foolish to buy that

house.

3 I don't agree entirely / extremely with his views.

4 If you could help me to set up the meeting

room, I'd be absolutely / extremely grateful.

5 You were quite / incredibly right to complain

about the service.

6 I've had a totally tiring / exhausting day at work.

7 Why is this carpet so dirty / filthy?

8 I'm quite / incredibly certain that picture wasn't

on the wall last time I was here.

9 I really / totally don't want to have this

discussion right now.

10 Watching the way the birds built their nest was

extremely / absolutely fascinating.

Look at the language focus box. Then choose the correct adverb to complete the sentences.

1 Our house is so / utterly cold at the moment. The heating broke down last week.

2 It's completely / extremely sad that so many people live in just a single room.
3 For ages nothing seemed to be happening on the site and then absolutely / quite suddenly the
house went up.

4 I agree with you extremely / completely about the colour of the walls.

5 The price of houses in London is utterly / incredibly ridiculous.

6 It's an entirely / absolutely beautiful apartment.

7 I really / completely want to live in a penthouse apartment in the centre.

8 The design of the house is very / totally clever.

Work in pairs. Look at these adjectives. Which are gradable? Which are ungradable?

Brilliant difficult filthy freezing huge

innovative perfect plain simple strong

Where would you build your dream house? Why?

Imagine a house in the desert. Why would you think somebody would build a house there?

What do you think you have to bear in mind when building a house in that place?

After watching

What are the features of this house?

What do you like and don’t like about this house?

Would you make any change to it?

Vocabulary

Plan

Views of

Single-storey

Corridor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm9XB9D3nzs
What kind of bridge is it and what does it connect?

What difficulties do you think the architects faced in its construction?

What are the alternatives to joining two pieces of land separated by sea?

What were the obstacles to joining Sweden to Denmark?

What solution did the architects come up with?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrEzo6ZKVMU

Choose one of them and talk about that topic next class.

For next class choose your dream building, house or monument (could be existent or imaginary)
and talk about its features. Try to be creative.

How has architecture changed over the last 200 years? What would it be like in the future?

The paper Architect Reading

Why do you think this woman is called 'The paper architect'? Discuss.

Do you think her aim is

a to create unusual buildings

b to be a successful woman architect

c to create buildings people like to be in

Why do many women architects in Britain no stay in the profession?

3 What did her tutor mean when he called her 'a planet in her own orbit'?

4 What characterises the buildings designed by Hadid's contemporaries?

5 What kind of buildings does Hadid like to work on?

6 Why did Hadid try to create a feeling of space in Evelyn Grace Academy?

7 How do visitors to the MAXXI Rome feel when they are inside the museum?

8 What does Hadid say her designs are influenced by?

Find these expressions with wall in the article and choose the correct meaning.

1 bang your head against a brick wall

a fail to persuade others after trying repeatedly

b fail to achieve your own personal goals

2 off the wall

a strange or eccentric

b unstable and dangerous

What do these other expressions with wall mean? Discuss with your partner.

1 Can you ask Jimmy to stop practising on his drums? The noise is driving me up the wall.

2 Over 300 architecture firms went to the wall last year because of the slowdown in construction.

3 The writing is on the wall for St Jude's Academy. Unless their results improve, they will be closed
down.

4 I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when Jen had her meeting with the boss.

5 The first chapter was easy to write, but I've hit a wall now.

9 Think of examples of the following.

1 something that drives you up the wall

2 a situation where you would have liked to be a fly on the wall

3 a company that has recently gone to the wall

Think about a public work or space in your area or in your country. Can you describe it? What do
you like and dislike about it? Is has a cultural purpose or mere recreational? Would you change
something to it, maybe location, etc?

Picture of Crown Fountain in Chicago

What can you see?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgVMYTF16NY

Do you like this public work of art? Why? / Why not?

Why do you think people would like it?

What benefits do you think the city authorities hoped it would bring (to both the locals and
visitors)?

Would you build something like this in your city? Why?