I had a brief conversation earlier this evening with Stephanie, prompted by the fact that my office was freezing. Which it was because I had cranked the heat down when I got in, on account of the fact that it was 70 degrees outside when I walked across campus today and I was roasting. (What month is it again? February?) Stephanie, of course, could tell that my office was freezing even standing 2 feet outside my door; she has very little tolerance for cold, as far as I can tell, and very much love of warmth. Me, I prefer a cool room, though my office admittedly had gone a bit overboard. I wonder sometimes if Stephanie & my thermostatic preferences work against each other, being as we’re right next door to one another and the old and fairly crappy HVAC system in the building probably therefore has to work overtime to accommodate both of us.
Anyway, Stephanie mused whether we’ve all gotten spoiled, expecting indoors to be a perfect climate all the time. I replied, of course indoors should be a perfect climate all the time; otherwise, what’s the point of having HVAC systems? If I wanted variable weather, I’d go outside. Indeed, I would now go a step further and ask, what is the point of buildings at all? Surely the point (or one point anyway) of architecture is to exert control over our immediate environment. So am I arguing for buildings where the windows don’t open? No; I hate buildings like that. I guess what I want is a perfect climate when I want it, and the ability to open a window when I want it. So, I guess what I want is… what I want, when I want it. Like most things in life. I guess Stephanie is right, I am spoiled.
1 Comment
David Woodbury
This reminds me of a recent entry on this blog:
http://www.newdaedalus.com/articles/2008/2/17/some-things-that-should-be-easy-but-arent-yet.html
I actually bookmarked it because they could be interesting Systems Analysis problems (for the class that I am taking with Dr. Haas)!