Envelopes and Interiors
Yesterday when we started talking about the debate on how architects should only focus on the envelope, I was generally in agreement. This morning, thinking about it, I'm not so sure.
As I mentioned yesterday, Corona is going to change the way we think about interiors, whether we like it or not... and it may be that those interiors are going to become what the chic have been calling "outdoor rooms" for a while now. It isn't a patio--it's an 'outdoor room'.
Envelopes may have been part of the problem all along--without the envelope you constantly have an inflow of fresh air with no recycling... with all the problems that come with that recycling of air. It's why you shouldn't be on an airplane if you're sick--everybody is going to be breathing your air. To those who go to conventions, it's also generally what leads to what is called "con crud." If you go to a convention--for movies, for video games, for music, whatever--you're going to be in contact with a LOT of people--people from all over who are carrying things you've never had or maybe heard of. For YouTube personalities who go to the PAX conventions and the like, you can almost count the days before you can hear the congestion in their voices or when uploads start to fall off due to illness. It's just a fact: envelopes keep air in the building, recycling it and keeping it a comfortable 70-75 degrees, whether the weather outside is -20 or 105 in the shade.
Abalos makes an excellent point in his article about how interiors are "the Achilles Heel of Modernity": "a discussion of an architectural 'interior' implies the admission of a basic aspect: the concept of the interior varies with the climatic regions and leads to differentiated modus operandi that are linked to two broad climatic areas (cold and warm) which generate two primal architectural prototypes. [...] Obviously, these two modus operandi are open to every possible gradient of convergence, but their definition (or caricature) permits the identification of the original reference types in both cases: the greenhouse and the shade house, or better still, an updated version of Marc-Antoine Laugier's primitive hut: Richard Buckminster Fuller's modest glass dome and the shady beach bar."
Quarantine throws a wrench into this, of course--but even under quarantine, the rule is still social distancing: 6' between you and any other person. So Abalos's "shady beach bar" under quarantine may look more like individual tents, but I argue could still be part of a whole.
We can't literally live in bubbles. I would argue that the mass populace shouldn't, in fact--exposure to disease in healthy individuals strengthens immune systems and actually leads to stronger and healthier individuals. But I think architecture and medicine are going to be working a lot more closely together after this; stress, anxiety, and psychological distress cause immune systems to fail, and that's when people get sick. So perhaps interiors inside of envelopes won't disappear entirely, but I can foresee them becoming much, much more porous to allow fresh air and unfiltered sunshine into spaces to reduce these medical issues. We've started the process--throughout my three years at Clemson it's been said over and over again that daylight in buildings is essential--but I think COVID is going to see a radical change in what the building envelope becomes and just how much inside is separated from outside.
As I mentioned yesterday, Corona is going to change the way we think about interiors, whether we like it or not... and it may be that those interiors are going to become what the chic have been calling "outdoor rooms" for a while now. It isn't a patio--it's an 'outdoor room'.
Envelopes may have been part of the problem all along--without the envelope you constantly have an inflow of fresh air with no recycling... with all the problems that come with that recycling of air. It's why you shouldn't be on an airplane if you're sick--everybody is going to be breathing your air. To those who go to conventions, it's also generally what leads to what is called "con crud." If you go to a convention--for movies, for video games, for music, whatever--you're going to be in contact with a LOT of people--people from all over who are carrying things you've never had or maybe heard of. For YouTube personalities who go to the PAX conventions and the like, you can almost count the days before you can hear the congestion in their voices or when uploads start to fall off due to illness. It's just a fact: envelopes keep air in the building, recycling it and keeping it a comfortable 70-75 degrees, whether the weather outside is -20 or 105 in the shade.
Abalos makes an excellent point in his article about how interiors are "the Achilles Heel of Modernity": "a discussion of an architectural 'interior' implies the admission of a basic aspect: the concept of the interior varies with the climatic regions and leads to differentiated modus operandi that are linked to two broad climatic areas (cold and warm) which generate two primal architectural prototypes. [...] Obviously, these two modus operandi are open to every possible gradient of convergence, but their definition (or caricature) permits the identification of the original reference types in both cases: the greenhouse and the shade house, or better still, an updated version of Marc-Antoine Laugier's primitive hut: Richard Buckminster Fuller's modest glass dome and the shady beach bar."
Quarantine throws a wrench into this, of course--but even under quarantine, the rule is still social distancing: 6' between you and any other person. So Abalos's "shady beach bar" under quarantine may look more like individual tents, but I argue could still be part of a whole.
We can't literally live in bubbles. I would argue that the mass populace shouldn't, in fact--exposure to disease in healthy individuals strengthens immune systems and actually leads to stronger and healthier individuals. But I think architecture and medicine are going to be working a lot more closely together after this; stress, anxiety, and psychological distress cause immune systems to fail, and that's when people get sick. So perhaps interiors inside of envelopes won't disappear entirely, but I can foresee them becoming much, much more porous to allow fresh air and unfiltered sunshine into spaces to reduce these medical issues. We've started the process--throughout my three years at Clemson it's been said over and over again that daylight in buildings is essential--but I think COVID is going to see a radical change in what the building envelope becomes and just how much inside is separated from outside.
I think the envelope will not necessarily be more porous after the covid times given that the main thing about diseases is containing them therefore you could argue that in some cases the envelope will become less and less porous to avoid transmission of the disease.
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