4 ms·
> Complaints about air conditioning are mostly a form of modern self-flagellation. For your, and HN's consideration, we are losing regional vernacular architec
by devchix 7y ago
> Complaints about air conditioning are mostly a form of modern self-flagellation.
For your, and HN's consideration, we are losing regional vernacular architecture because of air conditioning. One of my fav episode of 99% Invisible makes this case, that once architects outsourced the solving of thermal problem to air conditioning, they could build boxes of steel and glass anywhere. It's contrarian to Wright-ish principle of building with the land ("buildings should not be on a hill but of it"). I recall there's a part about how people would rather open a window for cooling and get moving air, instead of being inside a confined air conditioned space. The episode also visits a "baoli" of India and the modern building designed with its features.
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/thermal-delight/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/thermal-delight/
- ahh 7y agoHonestly? Good. Architects and architectural styles are much more concerned with their particular artistic vision, and status signaling within their tribe, than with whether their buildings are pleasant to live within. (See: brutalism, for the worst case, but this applies widely.) The more practical realities force architects to abandon their pet styles and build efficient places, the better. I have to live there; they don’t.