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Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

independent.com

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Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#331

Post by docfort »

mindcrime wrote: post #293
jl6 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t find it unreasonable to assume that the building will comply with government fire safety regulations and that those regulations are at least somewhat adequate.

You might be surprised. Fire regulations are very much a local issue and there can be a lot of variance (although many local municipalities base their codes on standards put out by bodies like the NFPA, etc.). There are quite frequently things that one might intuitively expect to be in the regs, that aren't. Requirements for sprinklers, for example. As surprising as it may seem, there are still lots of places where s…

Fire sprinklers appear to be required. https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.as...

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#332

Post by mindcrime »

dragonwriter wrote: post #323
mindcrime wrote: post #91

From my point-of-view as a former firefighter, I would say this: A building meant to house 4500 students, with only two entrances? There's a word for that: deathtrap. Building this is setting UCSB up to be the site of the next Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire[1], Station Nightclub fire[2], or Hamlet Chicken Processing Plant fire[3]. At a first glance, based only on the information provided in the article, I'd say tha…

> From my point-of-view as a former firefighter, I would say this: > A building meant to house 4500 students, with only two entrances? I would think that, you being a former firefighter, you’d know that exits (for regular use and, even more so, emergency exits ) are not the same thing as (are generally a superset of) entrances. The plans for the building [0] show 10 escape stairs with dedicated exits (including the f…

I would think that, you being a former firefighter, you’d know that exits (for regular use and, even more so, emergency exits) are not the same thing as (are generally a superset of) entrances.

Yes, I've already addressed that point multiple times in this discussion. Emergency exits are a factor, but not a be-all / end-all.

State building codes in California have for new construction for more than 30 years (heck, California has, for a decade, required them for new single family homes, too.)

Thanks for sharing. I'm not a California resident, so I'm less familiar with the particulars of their regulations out there.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#333

Post by p1mrx »

Our collective obsession over "natural" light is the main driver behind things like open-plan offices.

The sun isn't magic; why don't we define natural light by its spectrum as a function of time, and then replicate it with LEDs and a bit of software? This wouldn't even cost much to run, because the demand curve matches the supply curve of solar energy.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#334

Post by KittenInABox »

EForEndeavour wrote: post #297
k8si wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh that sounds so great. I walk out the door to class, realize I forgot a pen, then get to take a 15 minute walk all the around the building just to get back up to my room. Wonderful

A fringe benefit of the design is that it applies behavioural and evolutionary pressure against forgetfulness and other cognitive flaws.

Evolutionary pressure, what? This isn't a situation where people who just happen to forget a pen one day deserve to not breed.

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#335

Post by dymax78 »

gbronner wrote: post #148
indodima wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not need to be an architect to see that living in windowless boxes (not rooms) will damage young adults psychologically. Just put yourself into this room and try to study for 6 hours a day. It looks worse than a prison cell. This old fart probably has his own ideas about how poor students need to work and live in order to "earn" an education. Not to mention anything regarding virus spreading...

The goal is to get the students out of their bedrooms. There's plenty of common space, and lots of really nice places to go study and socialize out of your bedroom. This is intended to promote real-life socialization, which is the only real reason to go to in-person college these days. Plus, everyone gets a single! My college roommates had blackout curtains on the small windows in our rooms. Not sure how this is diff…

> My college roommates had blackout curtains on the small windows in our rooms. Not sure how this is different.

I'm extremely confused. Were your blackout curtains made of sheet metal and welded to the walls?

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#336

Post by skeeter2020 »

nescioquid wrote: post #214
ajross wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely building codes mandate a comprehensive evacuation design. There are clearly aesthetic complaints many people will have here, but realistically safety shouldn't be a problem. This is simply not a "large" building by skyscraper standards, and those can be built safely. Honestly... I think this is very much a taste thing. Is it so weird that I don't think this looks so bad at all? Yeah, yeah, no windows. But dens…

Former firefighter cautions we should be skeptical of the safety of this plan, and your rebuttal is "surely building codes mandate..."? A zero-evidence rebuttal concerning the safety of 4500 students.

If you were an architect who was concerned enough with the design to quit, wouldn't you both know about and publicize potential (or real) safety concerns?

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#337

Post by ethbr0 »

lbriner wrote: post #285
gbronner wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal is to get the students out of their bedrooms. There's plenty of common space, and lots of really nice places to go study and socialize out of your bedroom. This is intended to promote real-life socialization, which is the only real reason to go to in-person college these days. Plus, everyone gets a single! My college roommates had blackout curtains on the small windows in our rooms. Not sure how this is diff…

Which is great except 50% of people are introverts and need space to recharge. How many people live like this in real life? That speaks to the choice of hanging out followed by "leave me alone". It sounds like an experiment but it could probably have been done slightly further "away from home" if it was about collaboration. Just have places to encourage people to hang out if they want to and not if they don't. Forcin…

Or, you force socialization on a population that's increasingly turning inward, to the detriment of society in general.

It's hubris that on one hand HN can bitch about how egomaniacal companies like Facebook and Google are, and yet on the other complain about how architecture designed to promote socialization is unfair.

Where do we think those social-deaf, micro-optimizing engineers come from?

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#339

Post by JeremyNT »

The "windowless dorm rooms" sound terrible at first, but the rendering shows what's described as a "false window." Is this a problem we can solve with technology?

I'm intrigued by this idea a lot, since I am moving to a house with a small finished room in the basement.

Does anybody know the current state of "false window" tech? It seems to me you really need several things for a true false window: first, a large amount of light production that matches the color temperature of a typical outdoor environment at the given time of day, and second, something that displays some kind of plausible outdoor-seeming scene.

You'd also need physical depth and movement to facilitate adjusting the directionality of the light source to replicate the changes that occur as the sun traverses the sky.

This sounds really difficult to me - is there an example of a device that can pull this off well?

Re: Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

#340

Post by avisser »

praptak wrote: post #56
VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #9

> an 11-story, 1.68-million-square-foot structure that would house up to 4,500 students, 94 percent of whom would not have windows in their small, single-occupancy bedrooms. > Munger maintains the small living quarters would coax residents out of their rooms and into larger common areas, where they could interact and collaborate. That seems unlikely.

That's basically le Corbusier, if not in the details, then in the totalitarian urge to organize people's lives.

They should make the outside more brutalist to be honest about the intentions.
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