To live in a medieval castle with modern features

Historical Revival

You’ve chosen to imagine living in a medieval-style castle filled with modern comforts. You might want to learn more about historical revival, where designers bring styles from the past into new buildings. Just make sure your robot vacuum knows how to cross the drawbridge!

Fun Facts:

Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle looks medieval, but it was begun in 1869 and included cutting-edge technology for its time.
Strawberry Hill House in England was transformed into a “little Gothic castle” beginning in the 1700s.
The Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C., was completed in 1855 in a medieval revival style.

Historical Revival

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We can borrow ideas from old buildings when we design new ones. This is called historical revival. We might reuse towers, arches, or other shapes from the past. We can combine these ideas with technology that fits our lives today. This lets us decide which old ideas are worth carrying forward. Just make sure your robot vacuum knows how to cross the drawbridge!

Fun Facts:

Neuschwanstein Castle had running water on every floor. It even had central heating, automatic flushing toilets, a food lift, and telephones on two floors.
Ancient Egypt inspired newer buildings. Richmond, Virginia's Egyptian Building was completed in 1846, but its columns, walls, and obelisk-shaped details were designed to recall architecture from ancient Egypt.
Sometimes an old building really does get a new life. In the 1920s, a 15th-century Tudor house called Agecroft Hall was taken apart in England, transported across the Atlantic, and rebuilt in Richmond, Virginia.
The Smithsonian Castle has nine different towers and was designed to look medieval.
The glass Louvre Pyramid opened in Paris in 1989, designed by architect I. M. Pei. Its geometric form closely resembles that of the ancient Egyptian pyramids.

Discussion Question:

If you designed a new building inspired by the past, what would you keep and what would you change?

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Physical Build:

Design your own modern castle using cardboard, paper tubes, boxes, and recycled materials. Give it at least two features inspired by old castles and two features made for life today. Maybe your drawbridge leads to a solar-powered kitchen or your tower hides an elevator!

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Digital Build:

With an adult, ask ChatGPT:

“Design a medieval-style castle with three useful features for families in the future.”

Then choose the ideas you like best. Draw your castle or build your own version from craft materials.

or a glass house that can camouflage into its surroundings?

Camouflage House

Shape-Changing Materials

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You’ve chosen to imagine a glass house that changes its appearance to blend with its surroundings. Researchers are studying electroactive polymers—materials that can bend or change shape when electricity is applied—and other smart materials that can alter a building’s shade, ventilation, or window tint. Just remember where you parked your house before it disappears into the trees!

Fun Facts:

Researchers at the University of Stuttgart have tested electroactive polymers for building surfaces that can move and respond to their surroundings, but found more research needs to be done.
Researchers have studied octopuses and other cephalopods to inspire building surfaces that can change.
Today, electrochromic windows can electronically change their tint to control sunlight, heat, and glare.

Shape-Changing Materials

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We are exploring materials that can help buildings change with their surroundings. Some electroactive polymers move or bend when we give them electricity. Researchers are testing them in building surfaces that open, close, or change shape. Other smart materials can change how much sunlight passes through our windows. Future buildings could respond to weather instead of always staying the same. Just remember where you parked your house before it disappears into the trees!

Fun Facts:

Electroactive polymers can bend or stretch when electricity changes forces inside the material.
A building's shade could move without a motor. Researchers have experimented with wood panels that bend as humidity changes, which could someday help building exteriors adjust themselves to changing weather.
Pinecones helped inspire shape-changing buildings. Pinecone scales naturally open and close as moisture changes, and researchers have studied this trick when designing building materials that respond to humidity.
The 2013 Kaleidoscope project in Barcelona took inspiration from cephalopods, animals that can rapidly change their skin patterns, to create a new type of adaptive window.
Electrochromic glass already lets windows become lighter or darker electronically.

Discussion Question:

If houses could change shape or material, how could we design them to work alongside nature?

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Physical Build:

Design a camouflage house using a small cardboard box, paper, and clear plastic from recycled packaging. Place it against a nature photo or near plants. Add flaps, patterns, or movable panels that help different parts blend into the background, then test what works best.

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Digital Build:

With an adult, ask ChatGPT:

“Design a house with an outside surface that can change to match the nature around it.”

Then choose a forest, desert, snowy place, or another environment. Draw two versions showing how your house changes when its surroundings change.