Sameness

Alejandro Zaera Polo discusses the politics of the building envelope and the previous lack of theory connecting the technical and physical properties of an envelope with the intangible properties - political, social, psychological. This disconnect manifests itself in a sameness that permeates much of what is built today because through advances in building sciences basically anything can be built anywhere. Through this sameness we are losing a sense of what the envelope means. Much of what is built today is a "sealed and dressed envelope" that is governed more by standardized practices and globally available materials, rather than the specific influences of the site and context. Furthermore, political factors such as building codes further support a structure of sameness because code constantly drives standardized practices and is too often viewed as a best practice when in reality it is only meant to be a minimum standard. Politics and technology are running on disparate, parallel tracks to drive building design. If there was a stronger relationship between the two, and the many other factors influencing a building envelope as Polo suggests, perhaps we could move beyond envelopes as containers, to envelopes that are critically tied to the place, program and the meaning of a structure.