Round 2: Comfortability vs Efficiency

This Blog is from 4.9.23

In sustainable architecture, there is often a crossroads between the comfort the user feels in a space and the efficiency the space emulates. It’s rare when we find a building that reaches the most ideal circumstance simultaneously. An example of this could even be Lee 3, we often talk about the incredible amazing groundbreaking efficiency and sustainable strategies the building has, but you don’t often hear students bragging about how the temperature or sound in the space and how it makes the ideal working environment. How do we as designers decide which aspect should take priority in a project? Should we even design for comfortability or just expect users to “get used to it?” 

I think there are numerous ways to design for comfort in spaces, beyond just the temperature, but we often see projects taking the easy route or a more aesthetically pleasing path. I can appreciate the look of a space, but if I don’t enjoy being in it, it will ultimately outshine my overall opinion of the building and my memory of it. Implementing the use of measurable sustainable strategies has gained popularity in the more recent decades so maybe this marriage between comfortability and efficiency is something that will come in the next couple of decades. 

Comfort also isn’t something that can necessarily be measured from user to user. For example, we’ve spoken at length in class about how Americans require more comfort in interior spaces, specifically how we prefer some sort of air conditioning and cooling. I personally don’t think it is a fair argument to compare superiority based on who needs cool air in the heat of the summer. I’m also not flooding cobblestone streets in winter parkas when it’s 60 degrees out either, so who am I to say one way or another.

Regardless, I find the user’s experience to be one of the most important factors in a space. If the space isn’t enjoyable to be in, I don’t care if it is fully powered by PV panels, if it collects a thousand gallons of water each year, or if it has a nice blue arrow drawn through it.  

(It's funny because I wrote out that last paragraph and then googled “architecture sustainable strategies diagram” and picked the first image. But it matches my description perfectly. Ha ha haa haha ha)