Ce blog a pour objet de vous aider à pratiquer votre anglais au moyen d'articles et de vidéos, à la fois distrayants et éducatifs, liés à l'actualité des pays de langue anglaise.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Pause architecture : Skyscrapers


1 Le contexte
La course au bâtiment le plus haut, le plus original, le plus audacieux, le plus etc... a toujours existé. Dernièrement le Shard à Londres ou 1WTC à New York ont fait la une mais d'autres très rapidement prendront la suite...
Voici quelques documents qui vous permettront de faire le point sur les plus célèbres skycrapers, leur histoire, leurs caractéristiques, les défis que les ingénieurs et architectes ont du relever.
En guise d'introduction voici un court texte trouvé sur the kidswindow.

'Engineers, architects and builders who work on tall skyscrapers have to make certain that their structures will not tip over no matter what kind of weather or other problems occur.[...]

From the Egyptian Pyramids to European cathedrals and castles people have wanted to build something grand and beautiful. Today skyscrapers are popular because you can put a lot of building on a little bit of land if you build UP instead of OUT.

When a skyscraper is about to be made the ground has to be inspected. It must be judged strong enough to hold the weight of the completed building. Then digging begins for the basement foundation. This underground part of a skyscraper is much larger than many people realize. This is what supports all of the skyscraper's weight.

Today iron and steel is used to make a steel skeleton for skyscrapers. These materials are very strong and flexible. This makes the building sturdy and still lets it sway a little in high winds. The skyscraper needs to have some sway to keep from being damaged.

Workers use vertical metal columns and horizontal beams to create a framework for each floor. Diagonal metal beams are sometimes used to give extra strength to the skeleton of the building. This is very similar to how you build things with your own building sets at home.

The entire skeleton design of a skyscraper is known as the superstructure. The superstructure rests on the basement substructure. Substructures are built on foundations of concrete and steel that are very thick. Large metal pilings connect the substructure floor with the bedrock layer of the earth deep underground. This makes the substructure strong enough to support the heavy weight of a skyscraper.

Today most outer walls of skyscrapers seem to be made completely of glass.

2 Les documents
2.1 Quelques sites

2.2 Deux power point sur l'architecture moderne (texte et photos)

2.3 Un reportage sur la construction d'un skyscraper


3 Let's make the most of it !
3.1 Le musée des 'skyscrapers'
Le site propose des fiches de travail selon votre niveau d'anglais, le niveau de votre classe
- textes
- fiches
- webquests
3.2 Les documents ci-dessus
a) lire le texte de l'introduction avant de regarder la vidéo (document 2.3)
b) relier les photos du diaporama 1 au texte d'introduction
c) utiliser les diaporamas pour construire une fiche lexicale sur le thème de l'architecture et des skyscrapers

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