Architect My Story

This story belongs to Callum and Gabriel and their mum Mary.

It's a tiny tale about Mum Mary and the things she used to do.

Yes, very good. Ready, steady, go.

Oh, great catch, Mum!

Now it's time for Mum Mary to share her memories

and take Callum and Gabriel on a journey of discovery.

Callum, what is that? That's lovely.

It's a picture of our house.

Gabriel, let's take a look at Callum's picture.

That's a lovely picture. How many rectangles did Callum draw?

Will we count them?

One, two,

three,

four,

oh, five.

There's a lot of rectangles.

Mum Mary is telling Callum and Gabriel about her job.

She is an architect.

An architect is a person who designs the buildings we live and work in.

Architects do lots and lots of line drawings,

so that builders know how to build them.

Would you like to see some drawings that I did one time

-when I was in Italy?

-Yes.

Gabriel, look at this.

What kind of building is that there?

-A church.

-Yes, very good. Well done.

Mum Mary was born in a country called America.

As a little girl, Mum Mary loved old buildings

and dreamed of living in a big city with lots of beautiful architecture.

I first became interested in architecture when I was a little girl

and I really enjoyed drawing and looking at pictures of houses

and I always used to think about

what kind of house would I like to live in.

Because I loved architecture so much,

I wanted to live in a much bigger city

because I loved to see all the big, beautiful buildings there.

After university, I was really lucky

and got to move to places like Italy and Ireland.

And then later Scotland as well.

While travelling in Scotland, Mum Mary met Dad Mark.

They fell in love and decided to get married and live in Glasgow.

Oh, look, someone else has joined the table. I wonder who it is.

-This is my dad.

-Hello.

I have an idea, boys.

Why don't we play a game, a "design a house" game?

What we are going to do is we are going to add the things

that are missing from this house.

Can anybody think of something that is missing?

-Callum, what do you think is missing?

-Some doors and windows?

Ah, good point. Right, let's see.

Callum, could you maybe choose a door for this house?

Where do you think it should go?

Very good.

Gabriel, what is missing from up here?

I think that we're missing the roof. Shall we put the roof on?

Here we go. Let's stick that down there.

What else could we do with, Callum, maybe some windows?

-Oh, brilliant. That looks brilliant.

-Excellent effort.

Boys, did you know that your grandad Martin was an architect as well,

-just like Mummy?

-Yes.

In fact, there's something very special about the house

that Daddy grew up in.

Grandad Martin designed that house.

Here they are.

Your grandad did all of these drawings and he had to think a lot

about all the different things, such as where does the door go?

Where do the windows go?

Wouldn't it be nice to go and visit your granny

-and grandad's house just now?

-Yes.

-Does that sound good, Gabriel?

Will you give me a big smile if you think that's a good idea?

This is my granny and this is the house that Grandad Martin designed.

Grandad Martin designed this special house which is in Scotland.

He had to be very clever because he was designing a house

that had to fit in a very small space between two other houses.

Another thing he had to think about was what the house would look like,

because it had to fit in with the other old houses on the street.

And here's a photo of Grandad Martin holding Daddy Mark

when he was a baby.

What a lovely visit to Granny Ann's house.

Let's find out where the boys are going next.

So, boys, did you know that architects have to think about

-something else other than the outside of the house?

-The inside.

That's right! Do you know what we're going to do?

We are going to visit a very special big house

that was designed for a competition. It's like a dream house.

Do you know what's really funny? There's even jelly in the garden.

Jelly? That's silly.

Look at the size of those massive jelly pots.

I think they were made for giants.

Watch out, you'll make yourselves dizzy!

Boys, boys, come over here, come over here.

This is the House for an Art Lover.

And it's a really special place to your mum and dad

because this is where we got married.

Now, this house was designed by a famous Scottish architect

called Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

And he loved nature and used to go for walks

and draw all the things that he saw.

He started to use these things in his buildings,

things like birds and flowers and seeds.

And I thought maybe we could have a look around

and see if we could find some of them in this building.

-I Spy, I want to go first.

-Oh, that sounds good.

I love I Spy. I wish I could play.

This big fancy house is called House for an Art Lover.

And it is now an art museum. People can also get married here.

Which is just what Mum Mary and Dad Mark did.

Look how happy they look.

Look at these other buildings that the Scottish designer

Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed a long time ago.

He designed houses and also schools.

He really liked to use colours like pink, purple, white and black.

Look at all the tables and chairs and lights he's created too.

Look at the beautiful red roses.

They were a favourite design of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Right, let's get this game of I Spy started.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with F.

It's a flower.

Oh, look at this room.

Oh, there's some exciting things up here. Wow!

Oh, yes, look at that flower, Gabriel.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with B.

It's a bird.

Oh, what's this? Oh, wow, look at this room, Callum.

I see seeds.

What else do you see, Callum?

-A piano.

-Yes.

-Oh!

-Flowers.

-Gabriel, I spy with my little eye

something purple.

Can you give me a smile if you see something purple?

Well, that was lots and lots of fun.

Let's see if we can find more interesting shapes

around the city.

Look at that tall building.

And there's a wavy one.

Oh, there's the building that Mum Mary helped design.

Fantastic.

I had to think of a lot of different things

when I was designing that building.

I had to think about, how tall was the building going to be?

What colour was it going to be?

And even where do the stairs go and where do people's cars go?

-Look, there's a cone on his head.

-Oh, my goodness!

A long, long time ago, people used to live in small houses like this.

It's called a croft house

and everyone in the house used to live and sleep in one room.

In cities nowadays, there are lots of people and houses can be built

on top of one other to save space, like a high-rise.

These houses in Glasgow are called tenements.

And although they were built many years ago,

people still live in them today. Houses can look exciting, too.

Houses can be small or big, they can be all sorts of shapes and sizes.

And they are designed by lots of different architects.

Even buildings that used to be factories or barns

have now been turned into houses.

This is the Riverside Transport Museum in Glasgow,

which was designed by a lady called Zaha Hadid.

What an unusual-shaped building.

Callum, now we are in another exciting building.

Did you notice anything interesting about it when we came in,

-something about the shape?

-It's a bit pointy and a bit like waves.

It is, it is a bit like waves. Why do you think that is?

Because the river is just next to the building.

So, boys, after seeing all these exciting buildings today,

I understand that you've designed your own dream house.

Callum, I'd love to see that. Can you show me?

Oh, Callum and Gabriel, this looks like a castle.

Is this the dream house that you designed?

-Yes, we designed it.

-Oh, wow, this is a really lovely pool.

-Did you colour in this swimming pool?

-Yes, he did.

Wow, what a fantastic job!

Boys, we've had an exciting time, haven't we?

What did you enjoy the most?

I enjoyed going on the bus tour

and seeing all the buildings you designed.

And I really enjoyed playing football in the park.

What a fantastic family day out.

The boys played football in the park.

Mum Mary showed Callum and Gabriel her special sketchbook

from when she was younger.

They had silly fun running around giant jelly pots.

It was great fun exploring the House for an Art Lover.

They also visited Granny Ann

and found out about how Grandad Martin designed his own house.

All topped off with an exciting bus ride.

My favourite part has been having so much fun with all of you.

Can we have a cuddle?

What a fabulous heap of fun.

That was Callum, Gabriel and Mum Mary's tiny tale

about the things mum Mary used to do and the fun she had.

Mum Mary has shared her story with Callum and Gabriel.

Now, Callum and Gabriel are starting their own story.

Do you know someone with a story to share?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd