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You are ready to buy your first home. Like most first-time home buyers, you don't have a lot of money. Then you hear about a builder that is having a "Free House Design Challenge". The challenge is to come up with a realistic, well-designed 1,600-square foot home. In 1 week, the builder will select the best design, and the winner will receive a free home built in their personal design. You decide that this is too good of an opportunity to give up for a free home!
Besides, you have taken Geometry before, and you have knowledge of geometric shapes and how to calculate their areas. Since rooms of a house are just different geometric shapes, you can extend your knowledge to figure out the area of each room and also the total area of the house.
How will you design this home?
You will be designing the layout of a 1,600 sq.-ft. home. The builder has the following design constraints or minimum requirements. Any design that violates these requirements will be disqualified from the contest.
The total area of the house must not exceed 1,600 sq.-ft.
Single story home.
Rooms must be polygons (e.g., squares, rectangles, hexagons, or any oddly-shaped polygon). It can be circles or semi-circles.
There must be 3 bedrooms, with a closet in each room.
There must be 2 bathrooms, with shower and/or tub, sink, and toilet in each.
There must be a living room (or great room).
There must be a dining room.
There must be a kitchen.
There must be a laundry room.
For storage, there must be a coat closet and a linen closet.
Built-in cabinets, counters, and fixtures need to be drawn in.
There must be a 2-car garage (not included in square footage).
You may add additional features such as fireplaces, patios, etc.
In order to design a home, you must first decide on the shape and square footage for each room required. You must add up the square footage of all the rooms to make sure it does not exceed the 1,600 sq.-ft. total limit. Also consider the shape of the rooms in relation to its function. For example, a long, narrow area does not make sense for a bedroom, but it makes sense for a hall way.
Next, work on the location of each room in the house? Start with the entry (as you enter through the front door) into the house. What room(s) will you first see as you enter the house? What rooms follow as you walk further into the house? Will all the bedrooms be on one side of the house, or will the master bedroom be separated from the other 2 bedrooms? Will there be a hallway anywhere?
Web sites about home designs:
House plans - Custom home design : floorplan design house plans
Building companies:
Floorplan Design Library
Fulton Homes
Del Webb Corporation - Master-Planned Communities
Geometry references:
Your Geometry textbook.
General information:
When you have finalized your home design, formally draw your design on a single sheet of 11"x18" white paper. The paper layout should be "Landscape" (not "Portrait"). Your design must be drawn in pencil. You must use a straight edge to draw any straight lines. On the bottom-right corner of your design sheet, you must have the following information drawn in exactly the boxes shown here:
Make sure your design adheres to all the requirements and constraints described above. Make sure your drawing is neat and clean.
The following rubric will be used to evaluate your work:
|
Beginning |
Developing |
Accomplished |
|
| Overall design | 0
points Room sizes, room shapes, and room placements are not reasonable and/or not functional. |
3
point Room sizes, room shapes, and room placements are somewhat reasonable and functional. |
6
points Room sizes, room shapes, and room placements are very reasonable and functional. |
| Adherence to requirements | 0
points Satisfies very few requirements. |
3
point Satisfies most requirements. |
6
points Satisfies all requirements. |
| Neatness | 0
points Drawing is messy. Did not draw with pencil. Lacks information box in lower-right corner of page. Straight lines in drawing are not straight. |
3
point Drawing is acceptable. Used pencil. Has information box in lower-right corner of page, but information may not be complete. Straight lines are fairly straight. |
6
points Drawing is very well done. Used pencil. Has information box in lower-right corner of page, and information in complete. Straight lines are straight (used a straight edge). |
After you have finished your drawing, turn in your design sheet to Ms. B. for credit.
How can you make your design flexible enough so that you can add some of these additional options to your home design without changing too much of your original design:
State standards covered by this Web Quest:
STANDARD 4: GEOMETRY
Students use geometric methods, properties and relationships as a means to recognize, draw,
describe, connect and analyze shapes and representations in the physical world.
(Proficiency Grades 9-12)
4M-P2. Represent problem situations with geometric models and apply properties of figures
Core – will be tested on AIMS
PO 7. Find the area of a geometric figure composed of a combination of two or more geometric figures, given an appropriate real-world situation and the formulas
