Architecture in Global Contexts

11th Grade - Art | Minor Course (Q2 - Grundkurs Kunst: Lebensräume und Alltagskultur) | Melanchthon Gymnasium, Berlin | 2025

In this seven-lesson CLIL project for an 11th-grade Art class, students explored major architectural styles through bilingual, research-based group work. They investigated Bauhaus, Brutalism, and Deconstructivism, focusing either on stylistic features or the historical and biographical context of key architects.

Presentations were delivered in English, German, and occasionally in students’ heritage languages, using systematic scaffolding: sentence starters, subject-specific terminology, structure models,collaborative glossaries, multilingual word walls, and model talk. Emphasis was placed on translanguaging, visual clarity, and the ability to communicate complex aesthetic and socio-historical ideas in a global register.

In the second phase, titled Vom Bild zum Bau, students transposed selected paintings depicting buildings or interior spaces — by artists such as Edward Hopper, Lucian Freud, and René Magritte — into three-dimensional architectural models. These models combined formal interpretation with biographical elements, based on the students’ own experiences, transforming visual input into individualized design.

The module demonstrated how multilingual learning in Art can deepen visual literacy, strengthen critical and inter-communicative skills, and foster identity reflection.
93% of students reported improved confidence using English in subject-related contexts, and 64% expressed interest in applying CLIL methods in other subjects.