4 ms·
this is great. In a previous life I would bid construction jobs, and it was noticeable how much dead space you would end up with in say, a high school or a pris
by RyJones 8y ago
this is great. In a previous life I would bid construction jobs, and it was noticeable how much dead space you would end up with in say, a high school or a prison.
Nothing like this, though.
- tomcam 8y agoThat’s fascinating. I foolishly assumed all space would be accounted for, but of course bureaucracy. What kind of anomalies did you encounter?
- jessaustin 8y agoNow that everyone is worried about energy efficiency ("net zero" etc.) it seems like architectural malpractice to create large conditioned but unused volumes.
- derefr 8y agoWhy? Given that nobody’s in it heating it up (in any other case), wouldn’t it mostly serve as a ballast of cold air—a bit like having a larger freezer to contain the same amount of food? I’d think it’d increase the energy efficiency of dealing with a new hot body entering the space, since there’s so much more already-cold air to spread the heat into.
- jessaustin 8y ago(In Providence they're not only concerned about AC.) More to the point, most of these volumes would extend all the way to the roof, which is the primary heat transfer boundary in a large squat building like this. It's unlikely that these areas see the draft-proofing that inhabited areas do. We now know that uncontrolled movement of air through boundaries is the largest source of HVAC inefficiency. Has a building inspector ever actually entered these areas? Without energy input, any enclosed volume will tend to converge to the outdoor temperature. Human comfort will require that energy input.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 8y agoHow does that happen and why aren't neighboring rooms simply extended to take over the void? Seems like such a void would be glaringly obvious on any blueprint.