THERMALLY COMFORTABLE BEANS
Redifining the Relationship of Humans and Architecture
COLTON M. JONES
The American suburbs came about at a time of abundance after the Second World War. Populations were on the rise and on the move out of cities. The growth and migration required a need of shelter ready in a quick time frame. Technology was progressing rapidly and was able to aid in the completion of these houses. This was at a time the profession of Architecture began leaning into outside technologies to make up for the deficit of quick design. Houses no longer relied on environmental cues to aid in design and comfort. Instead, curated designs were chosen for quick construction and consumer taste. Modern commodities allowed homes to muscle through climatic factors to make comfortable interior spaces. This allowed for immediate housing needs to be met, as houses could be placed on the owner’s plot of land in any orientation.
The profession of Architecture needs to refocus its energy on the interior condition and no longer rely on exterior help. Basic design choices like site placement and positioning, program layout and use, construction typology, and natural resource harvesting, Architects can create more desirable interior comfort than the machines we have been programmed to use.
Thermodynamic Architecture is a mind frame of rethinking the role of external machines in the user’s comfort in the practice of Architecture. Instead, the architecture becomes the machine to control the inhabitant’s comfort. The architecture relates to the human body and its functions to regulate individual comfort. As well, it is also the human body that must perform tasks in conjunction with the architecture to regulate the individual’s comfort. The hands-on approach requires active communication and ballet between the human body and its surrounding environment. This differs from the current practice of power-through. No longer can inhabitants press a button and let machines behind the scenes regulate the inhabitant’s thermal environment.
The constant need for housing and the American ideal of home and land ownership means private homes and the suburbs will always be getting constructed. However, the conventional thinking of muscle-through needs to be rethought. Land usage and house orientation must take precedence in the design to give the residences optimal conditions to themselves run as optimal machines of comfort. This has been shown in one-off houses, but never a fully developed series.
The smaller scale of residential architecture allows for complete ownership of the inhabitant’s space. Inhabitants should be encouraged to interact with their environment on the scale of the person. Thermal comfort is different for everyone, and this range of comfort should be broadened. Residences should be structured to not only be a backdrop of the owner’s style but be adaptable to the needs of the inhabitants’ comfort.
