Buying Supplies and Equipment
The General Architecture Course dose not require much equipment, and most things that you need may be available already at your school, but just in-case we have prepared a complete list of everything that you will need. Since many of these supplies are fairly common, your school may already have them, or may have purchasing contracts in place with an office supply company that can provide all of these materials. So make sure you check with your school’s purchasing department before preparing a new purchase order.
Along with each item description we have provided links to local Chinese suppliers that sell each product. There are many online shops that sell these items so make sure you shop around for the best prices; however, if you are new to China it may be hard to find things on your own so we have provided some sponsored links to help get you started.
HB Pencil
Students should bring their own materials to class; however, having a bulk supply of pencils is always a good idea. Your school will likely already have HB pencils for standardized tests and these work well for drafting as well, but you may also want to consider 2B and 4B pencils which are a bit better for shading.
Eraser
Students should have their own erasers, but let’s face it they generally always lose them. Buying a bulk pack of erasers and having them available for students in class is always a great idea. You will get much better work from your students if they have access to all of the supplies they need to make corrections to their work.
30cm Ruler
Although your school will most likely already have plastic rulers, spending a bit more money to buy some metal rulers for an architecture class will help. Although plastic rulers are fine for technical drawing activities, you will need metal rulers for cutting foam-board when building architectural models.
Scissors
You may want to consider getting a class set of scissors. Although scissors are not critical, they can be used to cut out samples of furniture that students can use to assess the functionality of their designs.
Glue Stick
Having glue sticks available can be useful for practice activities that use cutouts, and for mounting designs onto foam-board; however, we recommend using double sided tape as it is a bit cleaner and generally results in a better end product.
Double Sided Tape
Double sided tape works a lot better than glue for mounting designs on foam-board; however, some students may find it difficult to peal the backing off the tape. Therefore, it is always a good idea to have both options available. The 1cm tape works the best for mounting designs and is a bit easier to work with. Alternatively you may consider purchasing 5mm double sided tape as it is the same width of the foam-board. Students can use this narrower option as an alternative to hot melt glue sticks when building an architectural model. Using double sided tape to make architectural models is cleaner and safer, but it is harder to use.
KT Foam-Board
There are 2 types of KT Foam-board that you can buy in China(“hot mount” and “cold mount”). You will want to buy the more expensive “cold mount” foam board for architectural design projects. The foam is stronger, it cuts better, and you can easily peel off the paper backing which allows you to do some advanced cutting and folding techniques. We recommend getting multiple colours and use a different colour for each class. This makes it much easier to keep all of your class projects organized.
A3 Cutting Mat / Board
There are many options when buying cutting boards. Some include a basic grid which is very useful when trying to cut walls for your models perfectly square. Others have other templates for getting perfect angles etc.
7m Disposable Exacto Knife
There are many very specialized exacto knives and blades that you could buy, but speciality exacto knives are generally overkill for a student who is just learning. We recommend getting simple disposable knives such as the general purpose Deli utility knife. These disposable blades are easy for students to use, and it is easy to keep the knife tip sharp. Simply snap off the tip of the blade when it starts to get dull. Regardless of what type of knife you decide to buy, make sure you buy a sharps container to safely dispose of spent blades.
Sharps Container
Safety is paramount. Always make sure that you have a sharps container in your classroom for students to safely dispose of used blades. Never allow students to discard spent blades in a general purpose garbage bin.
8~20w Glue Gun
The smaller hot melt glue guns are the best choice for this type of course. Students are less likely to burn themselves with a smaller glue gun and if they did, the resulting burn would not be as serious. Secondly the larger glue guns get too hot and will actually damage the materials that your students will be working with.
7mm Glue Stick
Hot melt glue dose not go bad (although it may discolour a bit over time). Since you can save a lot of money buying hot melt glue sticks in bulk, it makes sense to buy large quantities if you have the option. Hot melt glue sticks can be used for so many different projects so they will get used up in no time.