NAME: Holly Lipschultz
1
DATA STRUCTURE Database field Rules Image title Non-repeatable, Required Location Repeatable, Required Description Repeatable, Required Building function Repeatable, Required Time period 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. Image title: I have this field set as non-repeatable, to limit it to one important name or title. Location: 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. Description: 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. Building function: Because some buildings may have more than one function, I made this field repeatable. Time period: 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.
NAME: Holly Lipschultz
2
COLLECTION TITLE: Images of Historical Buildings IMAGES 1- Barn
Image title Red Barn Location Connecticut, New
England, United States
Description English barn, Historical New England architecture, Farm
Building function Farm storage, animal housing
Time period Circa 18th century 2-Taliesin West
Image title Taliesin West Location Scottsdale, Arizona,
Sonoran desert, Southwest, United States
Description Frank Lloyd Wright, Arts and Crafts architecture, Prairie School, U.S. Register of Historic Places, U.S. National Historic Landmark
Building function Residence, House Time period 1937,1930s, 20th
century 3- Shotgun House
Image title Shotgun House Location French Quarter, New
Orleans, Louisiana, Gulf Coast, Southeast, United States
Description Shotgun house, Southern culture revival, Long house, Post-Civil War architecture
Building function Residence, House Time period 19th - 20th century
Image title Schloss Neuschwanstein
NAME: Holly Lipschultz
3
4-Schloss Neuschwanstein
Neuschwanstein Location Hohenschwangau,
Bavaria, Germany, Europe
Description Neuschwanstein Castle, Castle Romanticism, Romanesque Revival architecture, German castle, Palace
Building function Residence, Palace Time period 19th century
5- Summer Palace
Image title Boat of Purity and Ease
Location Longevity Hill, Kunming Lake, Beijing, China, Asia
Description Marble Boat, UNESCO World Heritage List, Chinese garden, Chinese architecture, Garden pavilion
Building function Pavilion, Boat Time period 1755, 18th century
6-Church
Image title Gladstone Church Location Gladstone,
Wairarapa, New Zealand, Oceania
Description Christian church, Early 20th century New Zealand architecture, Rural,
Building function Church, House of worship
Time period 20th century
7- Cathedral Image title Blagoveshchensky
NAME: Holly Lipschultz
4
Cathedral Location Kharkiv, Kharkov,
Ukraine, Europe Description Neo-Byzantine
architecture, Ukraine Orthodox church, Fortress Cathedral, Annunciation Cathedral
Building function Church, House of worship
Time period 19th century 8-Winter Cabin
Image title Winter Cabin Location Perkins, Michigan,
United States Description Log house, Log
cabin, Cabin, Rural, American Frontier architecture
Building function Residence, Home Time period 19th century
9- Taj Mahal detail
Image title Taj Mahal arch detail Location Agra, India, Asia Description Islamic architecture,
Mughal architecture, Arch detail, UNESCO World Heritage list
Building function Mausoleum, Tourist attraction,
Time period 17th century 10- Taj Mahal
Image title Taj Mahal full view Location Agra, India, Asia Description Islamic architecture,
Mughal architecture, full view, UNESCO World Heritage list
Building function Mausoleum, Tourist attraction
Time period 17th century
NAME: Holly Lipschultz
5
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 “Description” and “Building Function.” As an internal rule, I limited the “Description” 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 Neuschwanstein. 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.