Environmental Stress at Both Urban and Building Scale

Fitch & Bobenhausen (1999) point out the trade-offs that are inherent in the process of generating architectural designs. They also reiterate that compromises are inevitable. My experiences with the kinds of trade-offs encountered in this course so far as s built environment is concerned are not very different from those described by the author s. These include conceptualizing intended building topography and reconciling it with ventilation requirements, safety considerations, government regulations, professional standards, and environmental conditions both locally and regionally (Fitch & Bobenhausen, 1999). The authors cite large-scale determinants of climate and then discuss the microclimate driven by landforms, water bodies as well as prevailing winds. Microclimate in the day to day life is also discussed, and examples are given. The examples that I found most relevant are the differences in climate and weather because of the different ratios of land mass and water body at a given point as well as the effect of elevation (Fitch & Bobenhausen, 1999). This exemplifies the difference in climate between Copenhagen and Omsk, and the mountains of the moon in East Africa. The authors give many examples from agricultural practices. I think by citing many of these examples, the author seeks to better explain the immediate and real effect of factors such as elevation and orientation on living organisms. The author expects us to learn from nature and ecology so that we can replicate nature as closely as possible in building design. The authors’ statement that the substitution of masonry and paving for greenery substitutes the desert for whatever it replaces” implies that the built environment has a thermal cycle similar to the one exhibited by a desert, and substitution with greenery will alter this cycle to that characteristic of a desert. The authors make two important observations regarding building energy assessment. One is that “the animal body is first and foremost a heat machine” (Fitch & Bobenhausen, 1999). The second observation is that asymmetrically, buildings are loaded with thermal conditions. The incorporation of these observations in future building surveys cannot be overemphasized especially so far as building energy assessment is concerned. Some of the measures that I might develop to account for the two phenomena are integrating the use of heat-dissipating and heat-generating devices with the manipulation of elevation and orientation of the building to minimize cost while ensuring satisfactory thermal environments (Bribián et al., 2011). Fitch & Bobenhausen (1999) discuss different avenues through which local plant life affects a building’s microclimate. During mu scavenger hunt, I observed that local plant life reduces d environmental extremes around buildings by reducing solar heat, reducing glare, improving privacy, reductions in temperature, and filtration of air and sound. I foresee that these will be important to my building survey. As a result, I intend to incorporate them in my building surveys as lawns and trees. Fitch & Bobenhausen (1999) extensively discuss formal responses to environmental stress at both urban and building scales. In this quest, they give examples of vernacular or ‘primitive’ architecture in which they cite projects by Erskine and Fathy. The most striking features of these projects are the creative manipulation of the orientation of the megastructure of the cities to face southward, and the use of the conformation of individual buildings to form a hemicyclic bowl aimed at protecting ing against high winds, snow, and darkness by architect Ralph Erskine. The other striking feature is the use of traditional building methods and village planning principles by architect Hassan Fathy to offer to protect ion against the desert thermal cycle. I think that these principles can be applied in existing building contexts to vary heat generation and dissipation depending on climate, season, and weather.

References 

Bribián, I. Z., Capilla, A. V., & Usón, A. A. (2011). Life cycle assessment of building materials: Comparative analysis of energy and environmental impacts and evaluation of the eco-efficiency improvement potential. Building and Environment , 46 (5), 1133-1140. 

Fitch, J. M., & Bobenhausen, W. (1999). American Building: The environmental forces that shape it . Oxford University Press, USA.