📘 Part 3: Buildings and architecture

This episode's vocabulary

Questions and Answers

Maria: What types of buildings are popular in your country?

Rory: I suppose it depends on what the purpose is. Lots of people live in apartment blocks and tenements and they work in similar high-rise buildings. But I'm not sure that makes them popular, since some of them are rather poorly built and designed. Most people probably aspire to live in quiet cottages and detached houses in the countryside or the suburbs, since they're, well, usually quieter and tend to have more space and better construction.

Maria: Is it worth spending a lot of money on the exterior appearance of a building?

Rory: Well, if it's falling to pieces or it's in a poor condition then yes. Since, well, that can be a sign the thing might collapse or put people off living there. I suppose if it's just some slight superficial damage or just regular wear and tear on the facade though, that could be quite endearing. Some people might say that gives the building's character.

Maria: Why do people like to visit historical buildings and sites?

Rory: I think the most obvious answer is the history behind them sort of draws people in. People often talk about a different atmosphere in places like that or a connection to them, and they might be right, assuming they're not total tourist traps that are completely devoid of any of the value they might have once had.

Maria: Is it more important for a building to look good on the outside or on the inside?

Rory: Again, surely that depends on what it's for. I mean, most people want to live in something that looks good on the inside, even if it's just for peace of mind. Or maybe to impress their friends. But something like a monument is only meant to be seen from the outside, so it probably doesn't matter if it has a shabby interior or, well, or anything else like that because only the maintenance staff are going to see it.

Maria: Should people preserve old buildings?

Rory: Well, maybe because they might have some historical value. So it might be worth keeping a hold of them because of the sort of cultural impact that they have or they might just make the place look good. And so that makes it worthwhile, yes. But if it's just an old building that hasn't been looked after and is pretty generic, then no, it's not worth saving. At least in my opinion.

Maria: Are buildings now better than those in the past?

Rory: In some ways, I suppose they are because the materials that are used to construct them are possibly more advanced if we believe that technology is progressed in a sort of linear direction, then they will be better. Also you can do more things with homes, you have smart homes, and that could be quite useful especially for people who are disabled. Then that's quite a good thing to have. On the other hand, many people have argued that the quality of the construction isn't quite as long-lasting as it used to be, which is a problem.

Maria: What are the differences between residential buildings in cities and those in rural areas?

Rory: Well, generally speaking, cities tend to be sort of hubs of construction. So that means that there will be more modern buildings in cities. Traditionally rural areas don't tend to have as much construction going on, so the buildings will be older and therefore the style will be older and possibly more rustic, I suppose.

Discussion

Maria: Right. If you feel that the topic of buildings and architecture is difficult for you, go ahead and read something about modern buildings, old buildings, architecture styles, all right? Just like buildings of the future. Like modern buildings, 2025, 2026. Smart homes, right, so just to be in the know, to know what trends we have, and what types of buildings are popular in your country. So, what kind of question is this? Like what types of buildings?

Rory: Well, it's an unusual topic.

Maria: Like what types of buildings do we have? We have residential buildings. Dear listener, write it down, it's education, your building education. Residential homes, apartments. Commercial buildings, offices, shops, hotels. We have industrial buildings, factories, warehouses, a warehouse is where you keep stuff. Also, institutional buildings, like education, schools, for example. And different agricultural buildings. So residential houses, commercial when we sell stuff and buy stuff. Industrial, educational, schools, colleges, and institutional like hospitals, government buildings. So these are the main types of buildings. And pretty much all of them are popular, maybe, in your country. And Rory gave us examples. Lots of people live in apartment blocks. And usually, ordinary houses are called apartment blocks. So a house with a lot of flats. And then Rory you, you said this word, starts with T.

Rory: Oh, tenements. Tenements is just another word for apartment block, really. I imagine there's a more technical explanation that an architect can give you, but they're very similar.

Maria: A tenement, a large building with apartments, usually in a poor area. Okay? So that's, that's the thing. So tenements are usually in a poor area. So you can just go to Google and write down tenements. Yeah, there are also slums, for example.

Rory: Oh, fabulous.

Maria: In Bangkok, yeah, in poor areas, there are slums. In Rio de Janeiro they are called favelas, and it's an English word favela. And you can also say that there are many high-rise buildings, so skyscrapers, high-rise buildings. And there are quiet cottages or detached houses, like separate houses, detached houses, but they're called in Britain detached houses in the countryside. The examiner might use the structure, it's worth doing something. For example, it's worth spending money on the exterior appearance. So exterior of a house is something that is outside, like extra outside, yeah? Exterior. So the exterior walls, the walls outside. And the structure is it is worth spending money on, or it is worth doing something. So it's kind of reasonable, it's good to do something. It's important here, useful, yeah? So like is it useful to do it? Is it important to do it? Is it worth spending money on the exterior of a building? On the outside of the building. And you say, yeah, it is. You can say it's important or it's useful to have a good exterior, a good outside appearance, right? Or it's not worth it. You can say it's not worth it. The same as, is it worth to preserve old buildings? Like, is it important to save old buildings? Preserve, save, is it worth preserving, saving? Like is it important to save?

Rory: But as always, it depends.

Maria: And then Rory chooses the structure if, like if this, then this, if something else, then something else. And this is a good strategy to use as an answer in your speaking. And you say, if the building is falling to pieces, if the building is half-destroyed.

Rory: Collapsing slowly.

Maria: It is slowly collapsing, falling to pieces. If a building is in a poor condition, then it's not a good idea. But if it's just some slight damage, so if we have some slight damage on the exterior, then you can invest money in renovating, repairing.

Rory: Probably a good time to draw attention to that pattern actually, because a lot of the time when the word begins with the in prefix, it also has the in preposition, like include in, invest in. These are all quite good things.

Maria: Some buildings are historic, right? So historical sites. And the examiner means some old buildings, perhaps museums or churches. And you say that the history behind such buildings draws people in. Draw people in. So such historical sites draw people in or draw a lot of tourists in. And people enjoy the atmosphere in such places. They feel a connection to them. And sometimes it's a tourist trap. So the building is kind of not interesting, it's new and it's a tourist trap. So people go there but there's nothing interesting there.

Rory: Well, I don't know if it's just about it being uninteresting. A tourist trap is also a place that's almost specifically to get tourists' money from them.

Maria: Yeah. And, could you give us some examples? Like some famous buildings which are tourist traps?

Rory: I don't want to do it without insulting people. Oh God. No, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to type the word tourist trap into Google and see what happens.

Maria: What about the British Museum?

Rory: I don't think that's a tourist trap. I think that's a place where people stole things from various countries.

Maria: No, actually the British Museum is free.

Rory: Okay, yes. Here we go. So, and all of them are American examples. Even better, right. So the Hollywood Walk of Fame or Times Square is a tourist trap because everything there, or all the businesses around it charge more money in order for the rich tourists to give them more money, basically. Maybe a souvenir shop close to a monument would be a tourist trap as well, because of course, you aren't thinking critically in the moment, you don't realize that you could buy something cheaper and maybe more personal elsewhere, further away. So you just pay more there for the convenience, basically. These are, I'm hoping I'm picking neutral examples because if you type in list of tourist traps on Google, then a whole load of other suggestions comes up that maybe might be quite offensive to some countries, so I'm not going to say that.

Maria: So we talked about the exterior of a building, the outside walls of a building, for example. And some questions could be about the outside or the inside of the building. So the exterior and interior design. And we should say that the building should look well on the outside as well as on the inside. On the inside. A building can have a shabby interior. Shabby means?

Rory: Not very nice to look at. Also falling to pieces.

Maria: And it's C1 advanced.

Rory: Hey, band eight.

Maria: Is it? Oh, nice. Okay. Yeah, for example, he lives in a shabby apartment in an old apartment which is in bad condition. Yeah, or his clothes are shabby. Right? So in bad condition. And if a building has a shabby interior, that's not very good.

Rory: Well, it might be okay. Maybe if people don't need to be there, then who cares what it looks like, you know? Do you not think so? Like the inside of a billboard or a maintenance shed. You know, one of these places that's just used for storing tools. Does it have to look nice?

Maria: It has to look nice if it's in the middle of the city, in the center of the city and you know, it's like a, it attracts attention.

Rory: Well, I mean the interior, does the interior have to look nice? Like it's inside, nobody goes in there, the tourists are not going to go and get a shovel. I mean, if they are, we have bigger problems.

Maria: Yeah, and maybe some cafes have shabby interiors on purpose, because it's kind of it's their design to have a shabby interior. So dear listeners, we preserve old buildings, we save old buildings. Usually the buildings which have historical value. So historical value, which have history. You can say preserve old buildings, save old buildings or keep hold of old buildings. Keep hold of means preserve. You can talk about materials. Today materials are more advanced. Yeah, so they are more sophisticated, they're high tech, right? You can talk about smart homes, right? But on the other hand, some materials may not be long-lasting. So they don't last long. They break, they disappear, they are not durable. And so durable, not lasting long.

Rory: Maybe, I don't want to be horrible about new buildings but it seems like they don't last very long.

Maria: Rustic is a nice adjective which means simple, simple in appearance, typical of the countryside, like rustic. The houses have a rustic charm. So they are, you know, simple, very typical for the countryside, rustic. And when you compare cities to rural areas, rural areas, countryside, yeah, you can use this word. Rory, could you give us an example with rustic?

Rory: Oh, well, rustic is usually used to describe cottages, so a lot of people like the idea of a rustic cottage in the countryside. But again, that just means, well, it can be used to describe the countryside or it could actually just mean plain and simple. So a simple cottage in the countryside, not much going on, it's very quiet.

Maria: Dear listener, thank you so much for listening. We'll get back to you in our new episode, okay? Stay with us. Bye!

Rory: Bye.