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Architects for his other buildings didn't resign though. Why do you trust this one specifically over the other ones who followed through creating the buildings?

tgb 5y ago
Surely the architect working on this building is the one to listen to about this building.
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  That would only make sense if architects had an impeccable record of creating truly livable buildings. Which they don't.
rtkwe 5y ago
His other buildings weren't so wildly divergent from the consensus about good building design either. The closest seems to be his University of Michigan graduate housing. In the building he does have windowless dorm rooms (often complained about) but there's only 7 of them off a shared kitchen and living room space instead of 70+. He took the design of Munger Hall and scaled it up almost directly with some rearranging and scaling, each room on the somewhat successful [0] UM Munger Dorm becomes a new pod of smaller rooms. The designs are so different the relative success of the UM dorm shouldn't transfer much credibility to the design of the UCSB dorm. Going from sharing a lit common space with 7 people to 70 people is a massive change in the dynamics of those spaces. At a very basic level the UM space is owned and controlled by few enough people you can call it semi-private. At the UCSB level it's just a full public space which is a different dynamic. https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2021/11/03/heres-what-its-like-to-live-in-one-of-charlie-mungers-windowless-dorms/ https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2021/11/03/heres-what-its-like-... https://i.redd.it/81yfb7wkxby51.jpg https://i.redd.it/81yfb7wkxby51.jpg https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/11/munger-hall-university-of-california-santa-barbara-floor-plan_dezeen_2364_col_0-852x613.jpg https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/11/munger-hall-univer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__cfVWiAxSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__cfVWiAxSU [0] I say somewhat because people hate the windowless individual rooms it has enough amenities that they still rate it highly. He's fully banking on the fake windows making the new smaller rooms palatable. While massively increasing the number of people you have to share your nearest source of natural light with. edit: even that conclusion isn't universal some people had a pretty bad time living in those dorms https://www.reddit.com/r/UCSantaBarbara/comments/qkmp5h/i_was_a_university_of_michigan_student_who_lived/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UCSantaBarbara/comments/qkmp5h/i_wa...
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  But everyone is complaining about windowless dorms, not too great a distance from sunlight. I don't know if his design is great, but HN is just filled with 98% middlebrow dismissal on the topic.
  - rtkwe 5y ago
    The two things are related. If my bedroom is windowless but I can easily spend semi-private time in a naturally lit area the problem with the bedroom is diminished, the Michigan dorms have that feature, each 'pod' has a lit space shared by a small number of people. In the UCSB design you have to move to a decidedly public space shared by many people. That transition has a lot of problems, it's no longer 'your' space as you have no control over it and can't meaningfully modify or control it.

tgb 5y ago

Surely the architect working on this building is the one to listen to about this building.

oh_sigh 5y ago
That would only make sense if architects had an impeccable record of creating truly livable buildings. Which they don't.

rtkwe 5y ago

His other buildings weren't so wildly divergent from the consensus about good building design either. The closest seems to be his University of Michigan graduate housing. In the building he does have windowless dorm rooms (often complained about) but there's only 7 of them off a shared kitchen and living room space instead of 70+. He took the design of Munger Hall and scaled it up almost directly with some rearranging and scaling, each room on the somewhat successful [0] UM Munger Dorm becomes a new pod of smaller rooms. The designs are so different the relative success of the UM dorm shouldn't transfer much credibility to the design of the UCSB dorm. Going from sharing a lit common space with 7 people to 70 people is a massive change in the dynamics of those spaces. At a very basic level the UM space is owned and controlled by few enough people you can call it semi-private. At the UCSB level it's just a full public space which is a different dynamic. https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2021/11/03/heres-what-its-like-to-live-in-one-of-charlie-mungers-windowless-dorms/ https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2021/11/03/heres-what-its-like-... https://i.redd.it/81yfb7wkxby51.jpg https://i.redd.it/81yfb7wkxby51.jpg https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/11/munger-hall-university-of-california-santa-barbara-floor-plan_dezeen_2364_col_0-852x613.jpg https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/11/munger-hall-univer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__cfVWiAxSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__cfVWiAxSU [0] I say somewhat because people hate the windowless individual rooms it has enough amenities that they still rate it highly. He's fully banking on the fake windows making the new smaller rooms palatable. While massively increasing the number of people you have to share your nearest source of natural light with. edit: even that conclusion isn't universal some people had a pretty bad time living in those dorms https://www.reddit.com/r/UCSantaBarbara/comments/qkmp5h/i_was_a_university_of_michigan_student_who_lived/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UCSantaBarbara/comments/qkmp5h/i_wa...

oh_sigh 5y ago
But everyone is complaining about windowless dorms, not too great a distance from sunlight. I don't know if his design is great, but HN is just filled with 98% middlebrow dismissal on the topic.
- rtkwe 5y ago
  The two things are related. If my bedroom is windowless but I can easily spend semi-private time in a naturally lit area the problem with the bedroom is diminished, the Michigan dorms have that feature, each 'pod' has a lit space shared by a small number of people. In the UCSB design you have to move to a decidedly public space shared by many people. That transition has a lot of problems, it's no longer 'your' space as you have no control over it and can't meaningfully modify or control it.