Architecture is all around us, so students usually have strong opinions about buildings in their cities or styles they like. These questions work well for describing places and discussing how design affects daily life.
Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.
Beginner (A1-A2)
- What kinds of materials are buildings made from? What are the best ones and why?
- Is there one type of building material you prefer in buildings (i.e. wood, stone, brick, etc.)? Why that one?
- What kind of style of buildings do you like? (Traditional, Modern, Crazy, Functional, etc.) What is a good example of one you have seen?
- What are some buildings around where you live that you like? What makes them special?
- What is the tallest building you have ever been to? What did you do there?
- What kind of buildings do you see every day? (Houses, apartments, offices, shops, etc.)
- What does your dream house look like? How many rooms does it have?
- What is the oldest building you have been inside? What does it look like?
- Do you have a garden or a balcony at home? What do you keep there?
- Have you ever visited a famous building in another country? Where was it?
- What rooms are most important in a home? (Kitchen, bedroom, living room, bathroom, etc.)
- Have you ever gotten lost inside a big building? What happened?
- Have you ever seen a building being built? What was happening?
- Have you ever moved to a new home? What did you like about the new place?
Elementary (A2)
- Have you ever been interested in architecture? What buildings or designs have caught your eye?
- Do you like buildings with lots of windows or buildings with few windows? What’s good about each?
- What is the ugliest building you have ever seen? What made it so bad?
- What room in your home do you spend the most time in? Why?
- What is the most beautiful building in your city? What makes it beautiful?
- What kind of buildings do tourists like to visit in your country? Why do they go there?
- What is different about houses in your country compared to houses in other countries you have seen?
- Have you ever tried to design or build something yourself? How did it go?
- What is the most interesting door or entrance you have ever seen on a building? What made it stand out?
- Do you prefer taking the stairs or the elevator in a building? Why?
- What kind of roof do most buildings have in your country? Have you seen different kinds of roofs in other places?
Intermediate (B1)
- What do you think of your country’s (modern/traditional) architecture?
- Is it better to build concrete block buildings that are cheap, easy to build and all look the same or more expensive buildings that have varied design? Why?
- There are many types of houses (underground, eco-friendly, rural, apartment). What kind of house would be your ideal house? Why?
- What makes a good interior for a restaurant? Office? Home? Classroom?
- Smart buildings are being built now that can do lots of things. What would you like to see buildings be able to do in the future?
- Do you prefer wooden houses or concrete houses? Why?
- Would you rather live in a big city with tall buildings or a small town with low buildings? Why?
- Should cities preserve old buildings even if they are expensive to maintain? Why or why not?
- Do you think glass buildings are a good idea? What are the downsides of them?
- Do you think buildings today are better or worse than buildings from 50 years ago? Why do you think so?
- What do you think makes a neighborhood look nice or feel welcoming? What would you change about your neighborhood?
- If you could live in any famous building in the world, which one would you pick and why?
- Some people say all new apartment buildings look the same. Is that true in your country? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
- Should there be rules about how tall buildings can be? Why or why not?
- What do you think is the biggest problem with housing in your city? What could fix it?
- What do you think is more important in a city: parks and open spaces or more housing for people? Why?
Upper-Intermediate (B2)
- Talk about the construction industry and real estate industry in your country.
- How much does architecture affect people’s moods?
- How does the design of a workspace affect how well people work? Have you experienced this yourself?
- Some cities require new buildings to match the style of older buildings nearby. What are the upsides and downsides of rules like that?
- How do buildings designed for tourists, like resorts and hotels, differ from buildings designed for the people who live there? Why does that matter?
- How has technology changed the way buildings are designed and constructed? What are some examples you have seen?
- How do building materials and construction methods affect the cost of housing? What could be done to make housing more affordable?
- What happens to a city’s identity when old, historic neighborhoods are torn down and replaced with modern buildings? Is this happening in your country?
- How do climate and geography influence building design in different regions? What do you think about those differences?
- What role should the public have in deciding what gets built in their city? How much power do they actually have?
- How might the rise of remote work fundamentally reshape urban architecture and city planning over the next several decades? Has remote work already changed where you want to live?
- How might the push toward smart buildings and automated homes change the relationship between people and the spaces they live in? What could be gained and what could be lost?
Advanced (C1)
- Compare how shopping malls are designed versus how traditional marketplaces are designed. What does this say about modern society?
- How does the architecture of government buildings, courthouses, and banks use design to project power and authority? Is this intentional, and what effect does it have on ordinary people?
- In what ways does a society’s economic inequality become visible through its architecture and city planning? How do wealthy neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods reflect deeper social problems?
- Why do some buildings become symbols of national identity while others are forgotten? What role do politics and media play in deciding which buildings matter?
- How do colonial-era buildings in formerly colonized countries create tensions between historical memory, cultural pride, and economic reality? Should they be preserved or replaced?
- How do natural disasters and climate change force societies to rethink how and where they build? What tensions arise between safety, cost, tradition, and environmental responsibility?
- What does it say about a society when it builds massive religious buildings, sports stadiums, or shopping malls? How do these structures reveal what a culture truly values?
- How has the history of war and conflict shaped the architecture of cities that were bombed or destroyed and then rebuilt? Do the rebuilt cities carry the memory of what happened, or do they try to erase it?
- How do accessibility requirements in building design reveal broader societal assumptions about disability, inclusion, and what constitutes normal human experience? How well do buildings in your city handle this?
- How do the design and layout of schools and prisons reveal what a society believes about control, freedom, and the purpose of those institutions? What do the similarities between them suggest?