I used to work in that Ionica building (after Ionica left). Like Ionica, the building design was cutting edge but didn’t live up to expectations! The ‘smart’ building used computer controlled cooling towers, vents and a giant block of concrete (as a ‘thermal battery’) to manage the heating and cooling, in place of regular air conditioning. The building ran on an ancient OS/2 desktop computer - I wonder if it is still…
I know we call these “smart” buildings but in actuality, they are quite dumb. Any kind of building is a technological phenomenon and good engineering is simple. A smart building is one designed to solve climate control problems without requiring complex computer systems. Many indigenous structures around the world were built this way.
Opening the window would make me happy, even once in awhile. I understand it’s not feasible in most buildings. (The thought of going back to closed up modern building is sickening lately. I know it’s coming for myself though.)
Yeah, I feel the same way. On the one side, I get it: air-conditioned buildings, railway cars etc. must have solid windows so that the system works. But it does not work emotionally for the humans trapped within. Opening a window and feeling the rush of fresh wind against your face is an important feeling, we are creatures of the vast outdoors by ancient heritage, not cave dwellers. In Silmarillion, Tolkien wrote tha…
I have a hunch, though, that often the problem is not emotional but actually physiological. If a ventilation system works well enough that air is not altogether too stale or humid or high in CO2, but not well enough to ensure the air is properly fresh, you could easily start feeling like there's something off, without being able to pinpoint exactly what's wrong. Most office ventilation systems have very few sensors and don't respond to changes in occupancy, or are otherwise hard to regulate, which can easily lead to air quality that is good-enough-but-not-quite-there and a desire to open a window. I've worked in offices that were stuffy all the time, but also in offices that were pleasant winter and summer, and nobody ever complained that the windows didn't open.
I used to work in that Ionica building (after Ionica left). Like Ionica, the building design was cutting edge but didn’t live up to expectations! The ‘smart’ building used computer controlled cooling towers, vents and a giant block of concrete (as a ‘thermal battery’) to manage the heating and cooling, in place of regular air conditioning. The building ran on an ancient OS/2 desktop computer - I wonder if it is still…
I know we call these “smart” buildings but in actuality, they are quite dumb. Any kind of building is a technological phenomenon and good engineering is simple. A smart building is one designed to solve climate control problems without requiring complex computer systems. Many indigenous structures around the world were built this way.
Yeah, I feel the same way. On the one side, I get it: air-conditioned buildings, railway cars etc. must have solid windows so that the system works. But it does not work emotionally for the humans trapped within. Opening a window and feeling the rush of fresh wind against your face is an important feeling, we are creatures of the vast outdoors by ancient heritage, not cave dwellers. In Silmarillion, Tolkien wrote tha…
I have a hunch, though, that often the problem is not emotional but actually physiological. If a ventilation system works well enough that air is not altogether too stale or humid or high in CO2, but not well enough to ensure the air is properly fresh, you could easily start feeling like there's something off, without being able to pinpoint exactly what's wrong. Most office ventilation systems have very few sensors a…
That can definitely be. We are absolutely dependent on air, so our air quality sensors are likely to be fairly sensitive.
I used to work in that Ionica building (after Ionica left). Like Ionica, the building design was cutting edge but didn’t live up to expectations! The ‘smart’ building used computer controlled cooling towers, vents and a giant block of concrete (as a ‘thermal battery’) to manage the heating and cooling, in place of regular air conditioning. The building ran on an ancient OS/2 desktop computer - I wonder if it is still…
I know we call these “smart” buildings but in actuality, they are quite dumb. Any kind of building is a technological phenomenon and good engineering is simple. A smart building is one designed to solve climate control problems without requiring complex computer systems. Many indigenous structures around the world were built this way.
HVAC solves climate control. By that measuring stick, I have been routinely disappointed by indigenous structures that claim to have solved climate control but should more accurately be described as "somewhat mitigating the worst of it at enormous cost to the builder, maintainer, and/or operator." They have a lot more in common with the poorly functioning "thermal battery" than with modern HVAC, which is boring, cheap (by comparison), reliable, flexible, and doesn't even require computers -- a bimetallic strip will do, if you must.
I used to work in that Ionica building (after Ionica left). Like Ionica, the building design was cutting edge but didn’t live up to expectations! The ‘smart’ building used computer controlled cooling towers, vents and a giant block of concrete (as a ‘thermal battery’) to manage the heating and cooling, in place of regular air conditioning. The building ran on an ancient OS/2 desktop computer - I wonder if it is still…
I'm getting Hitchhiker's Guide vibes from this (Great Ventilation and Telephone Riots of SrDt 3454). I had no idea the book was this close to reality :-)
I have a hunch, though, that often the problem is not emotional but actually physiological. If a ventilation system works well enough that air is not altogether too stale or humid or high in CO2, but not well enough to ensure the air is properly fresh, you could easily start feeling like there's something off, without being able to pinpoint exactly what's wrong. Most office ventilation systems have very few sensors a…
That can definitely be. We are absolutely dependent on air, so our air quality sensors are likely to be fairly sensitive.
I used to work in that Ionica building (after Ionica left). Like Ionica, the building design was cutting edge but didn’t live up to expectations! The ‘smart’ building used computer controlled cooling towers, vents and a giant block of concrete (as a ‘thermal battery’) to manage the heating and cooling, in place of regular air conditioning. The building ran on an ancient OS/2 desktop computer - I wonder if it is still…
> Ironically, you could open the windows by your desk to get a cooling fresh breeze of air, but then the building manager would come around and complain that you had to shut the windows, they were disrupting the ‘smart ventilation’ airflow! -At a building I used to work in, management solved that problem by having a contractor bolt all the windows shut so that the ventilation could do its thing. Only problem was, the…
It sounds like that scene from the HHGTTG, only in real life :-/
I know we call these “smart” buildings but in actuality, they are quite dumb. Any kind of building is a technological phenomenon and good engineering is simple. A smart building is one designed to solve climate control problems without requiring complex computer systems. Many indigenous structures around the world were built this way.
HVAC solves climate control. By that measuring stick, I have been routinely disappointed by indigenous structures that claim to have solved climate control but should more accurately be described as "somewhat mitigating the worst of it at enormous cost to the builder, maintainer, and/or operator." They have a lot more in common with the poorly functioning "thermal battery" than with modern HVAC, which is boring, chea…
> HVAC solves climate control
At a huge energy cost, because we insist on brute-forcing comfortable climates in cookie-cutter buildings, instead of learning from vernacular/indigenous architecture and using modern technology to augment on top of that.
The real crying shame is that air conditioning units could be used as heat pumps (which can be extremely efficient) with just a few added parts, but hardly anyone does that.