Architecture vocabulary/ Giving opinions
Choose a kind of architecture to describe or a word to describe some architecture and give your opinions on that topic or using that word. Does your partner agree with your opinion?
Possible opinions on architecture topics
Abandoned buildings
Alternative materials
An eyesore
An infamous building/ A notorious building
Apartment lobbies
Architectural education
Baroque architecture
Bathhouses
Bidding for public infrastructure projects
Big Ben/ The Houses of Parliament, London
Brick houses
Brightly-coloured buildings
Brownfield sites
Buckingham Palace, London
Building regulations, e.g. about earthquake protection or appearance
Cobbled streets
Construction industry Curvilinear buildings
Cycle lanes
Deindustrialisation
Demolishment
Design hotels
Domestic architecture
Double glazing
Elevated expressways
Embassies Exposed concrete
Fake bricks
Gentrification Getting on the property ladder
Graffiti
Green architecture
Green spaces in this town/ country
Greenfield sites Green belt
High-rise flats
Himeji Castle, Japan
Historically important buildings
Indentikit housing estates
Kitsch buildings
Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan
Land reclamation
Loft extensions
Log cabins
Luxury apartments
Minimalism
Mock Tudor
Modern rural architecture
Mortgages
National heritage designation
New religious architecture in this town/ country
New towns
Olympic architecture
Open plan living room and kitchens
Outlet malls
Paper screens
Pastiche buildings
Pedestrian bridges
Pedestrianised streets
Plate glass office buildings
Police boxes Post-modernism
Power lines
Preserving buildings, e.g. listing Brutalist concrete buildings
Public housing, e.g. council estates
Public spaces in this city/ country, such as town squares
Public toilets
Recent modernist architecture
Redevelopment of whole areas
Reed matting
Rental accommodation in this town/ country
Repurposed buildings
Resort architecture
Retro street lighting
Rundown areas/ Slums
Rundown housing
Scandinavian style
School architecture
Second homes
Semi-detached houses
Shopping centres/ Shopping arcades
Skyscrapers such as The Shard
So-called iconic buildings
St Paul’s Cathedral, London
Starchitects such as Zaha Hadid
Statement architecture
Station architecture
Suburban housing
Sustainability
Terraced houses
Thatched cottages
The (old) Imperial Hotel, Tokyo (now in Nagoya)
The Bird’s Nest stadium, Beijing
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
The CBD/ The skyscraper district
The Coliseum, Rome
The Eiffel Tower, Paris
The Emperor’s palace, Tokyo
The Forbidden Palace, Beijing
The general public’s taste in architecture
The Great Wall of China
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy
The mansions of rich people
The outskirts of this town
The town hall in this town
Tower Bridge, London
Traditional (covered) shopping streets
Traditional architecture
Tropical architecture
University campuses
Versailles Palace, near Paris
Villages/ Hamlets
Water features (fountains etc)
Waterfront development
Wooden apartments
World Heritage listings
Adjectives to describe architecture
(Un)affordable
(Un)exceptional
(Un)imaginative
(Un)impressive
(Un)liveable
(Un)popular
Abandoned
Bad taste
Beautiful/ Gorgeous – Hideous
Bland/ Dull
Breath-taking
Cutting edge
Dated – Timeless
Derivative/ Unoriginal – Original
Dilapidated
Disappointing Elegant
Famous – Infamous/ Notorious
Iconic
Important
Impractical
Jaw dropping
Neglected
Overrated – Underrated
Over-the-top
Scandinavian
Spectacular
Stunning
Traditional
Underappreciated
Unique
Wooden
Ask about any vocabulary above which you don’t understand, giving opinions on that topic or with that word each time.
Do the same, but this time flipping a coin to decide what opinion you and your partner should give.
Heads= positive opinion Tails = negative opinion
Heads = strong opinion Tails = weak opinion
Heads = agree Tails = disagree
Heads = strong (dis)agreement Tails = weak (dis)agreement
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PDF version for easy saving and printing: opinions-on-architecture
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