Smart Materials and New Technologies
Temperature
Velocity
enlarge glazed surfaces. Light, however, is a micron-sized behavior, and the same results can be produced by microscopic changes in surface conditions as those occurring now through large changes in the building. By considering scale in our new definition of boundary as a zone of transition, we can begin to recognize that energy environments – thermal, luminous and acoustic – are rarely ‘bounded’ by architectural objects. Instead, these energy environments may appear and disappear in multiple locations, and each one will mark a unique and singular state. Our surrounding environment is not as homogeneous as we assume, but rather it is a transient collection of multiple and diverse bounded behaviors.
3.4 Reconceptualizing the human environment s Figure 3-4 Typical convection behavior in buildings. Left, convection against a heated or cooled surface. Right, convection above a point source such as a lamp, human or computer
James Marston Fitch, as one of the 20th century’s most notable theoreticians of the architectural environment, cemented the concept of architecture as barrier in his seminal book American Building: The Environmental Forces that Shape It. The ultimate task of architecture is to act in favor of man: to interpose itself between man and the natural environment in which he finds himself, in such a way as to remove the gross environmental load from his shoulders.2
The interior is characterized as a singular and stable environment that can be optimized by maintaining ideal conditions. Indeed, one of the most prevalent models of the ‘perfect’ interior environment is that of the space capsule. The exterior environment is considered fully hostile, and only the creation of a separate and highly controlled interior environment can complete this ideal container for man. This exaltation of the space environment was the culmination of nearly a century of investigation into defining the healthiest thermal conditions for the human body. In the 1920s, with the advent of mechanical environmental systems, standards for interior environments began to be codified for specific applications. School rooms were expected to be maintained at a constant temperature and relative humidity, factories at another set of constant conditions. Over the course of the 20th century, health concerns waned and the standards were tweaked for comfort. Regardless of the intention, the result was a near universal acceptance of stasis and homogeneity.3 This characterization of the interior environment is recognizable to us as analogous to a thermal system in which the interior is the material system, the building envelope is the 54
Energy: behavior, phenomena and environments