BODIES &

BUILDINGS

NYU ITP LECTURE COURSE FALL 2014

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

JEN VAN DER MEER @JENVANDERMEER WWW.JENVANDERMEER.COM

PLACES TO INTERVENE IN A SYSTEM:

12. Constants, parameters, numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards)

11. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows

10. The structure of material stocks and flows (transport networks, population age structures)

9. Length of delays, relative to the rate of system change

8. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against

7. The gain around driving positive feedback loops

6. The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to what kinds of

information)

5. The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints)

4. The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure

3. The goals of the system

2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system – its goals, power structure, rules, its culture-

arises

1. The power to transcend paradigms

2

November 4, 2014

2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the

system – its goals, power structure, rules, its

culture-arises

The shared idea in the minds of society, the

great big unstated assumptions—unstated

because unnecessary to state; everyone already

knows them—constitute that society’s

paradigm, or deepest set of beliefs about how

the world works.

-D. Meadows.

3

November 4, 2014

What paradigmatic assumptions do we

follow?

There is a difference between nouns and verbs.

Money measures something real and has meaning.

(people who are paid less are literally worth less).

Growth is good.

Nature is a stock of resources to be converted for

human purposes.

One can own the land.

4

November 4, 2014

The material apparatus around you

Ralph Waldo Emerson “War” Boston, 1838. Reprinted in Emerson’s Complete Works, vol. XI. 1887.

5

November 4, 2014

Paradigms are the sources of systems

From them, form shared social agreements about the

nature of reality, come system goals and information

flows, feedbacks, stocks, flows, and everything else

about systems.

6

November 4, 2014

Deleuze and Guattari for Beginners

7

November 4, 2014

Rhizome

Describes the relations and connectivity of things.

A rhizomatic way of thinking.

8

November 4, 2014

Rhizome

For the best and worst. Rats are rhizomatic. Crab

grass too.

9

November 4, 2014

Not a tree

Not – a tree which has a starting point and from there

branches out in a predictable path.

Not tree-like thinking. No checklists. Or software-

driven mindmaps.

10November 4, 2014

Assemblage

A rhizone forms an assemblages. An assemblage is

a gathering and grouping of things.

11November 4, 2014

Anti-Oedipus

Capitalism sets free desiring-production even as it

attempts to rein it in with the institution of private property

and the familial or “Oedipal” patterning of desire;

schizophrenics are propelled by the charge of desiring-

production thus set free but fail at the limits capitalist

society proposes, thus providing a clue to the workings

of desiring-production.

12November 4, 2014

13November 4, 2014

Anti-Oedipus

Desiring-production does not connect “with” reality, as in

escaping a subjective prison to touch the objective, but it

makes reality, it is the Real.

14November 4, 2014

A Thousand Plateaus

What the schizophrenic experiences is nature as a

process of production.

15November 4, 2014

A Thousand Plateaus

It is probable that at a certain level nature and industry

are two separate and distinct things: from one point of

view, industry is the opposite of nature; from another,

industry extracts its raw materials form nature; from yet

another, it returns it s refuse to nature; and so on.

16November 4, 2014

A Thousand Plateaus

Even within society, this characteristic man-nature,

industry-nature, society-nature relationship is responsible

for the distinction of relatively autonomous spheres that

are called production, distribution, consumption.

17November 4, 2014

A Thousand Plateaus

But in general this entire level of distinctions, examined

from the point of view of its formal structures,

presupposes (as Marx has demonstrated) not only the

existence of capitalism and the division of labor, but also

the false consciousness that the capitalist being

necessarily acquires, both of itself and the supposedly

fixed elements within an overall process.

18November 4, 2014

A Thousand Plateaus

For the real truth of the matter- the glaring sober truth

that resides in delirium – is that there is no such things

as relatively independent spheres or circuits.

19November 4, 2014

Society of control

A worldwide circulation of electronic circulation. Control

by way of incessant cybernetic feedback. Poling and

marketing. The expression of meaning and

communicating – the shallow form of advertisement. Our

normal human activities reduced to economic value.

Invent ways of thinking to enable people to break free

from cultural relativism.

20November 4, 2014

Further Reading

Anti Oedipus: A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and

Schizophrenia

Deleuze and Guattari for Architects

Sketches of a Thousand Plateaus by Marc Ngui

A User’s Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia

21November 4, 2014

22November 4, 2014

Rhizome? Or Hierarchy?

23November 4, 2014

24November 4, 2014

The judges concluded the plots of land —

a community garden, a children's

playground and a dog run — are not

protected as parkland.

October, 2014.

MODERN

25November 4, 2014

BUILDINGS AND CLIMATE

CHANGE

Buildings account for 40% of total energy used and generate 45% of total US CO2 emissions

Hefty contribution to Global Warming and Climate Change

US adds ~6 billion tons of CO2 emissions a year, world’s total: ~34 billion

CO2 emissions per capita in US: 17.3 tons, China 7.2 tons, EU average: 7.5, average for the world: 4 (July 2011 data)

Renewable energy growth too slow (25%) compared to fossil fuel use increase in the last decade (41%)

Effects of self-acceleration of global warming (“tipping points”) are very serious

With current trends we are not on a path to limit warming to 2o C by 2100

November 4, 2014

26

Why do we build skyscrapers

November 4, 2014

The ancient Egyptians built pyramids because they believed

in an afterlife. We build skyscrapers because we believe that

space in downtown cities is enormously valuable.

Buildings through the lens of science

28November 4, 2014

PARALLELS

29November 4, 2014

Bodies: Buildings:

“NEW STARTS” A SIGN OF

ECONOMIC PROGRESS

November 4, 2014

30

LEED: MODELING BETTER BUILDINGS

31November 4, 2014

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC),

LEED is intended to help building owners and operators

be environmentally responsible and use resources

efficiently.

FAILURE OF MEASURES

32November 4, 2014

Failure of measures

33November 4, 2014

Failure of measures

34November 4, 2014

MORE WORK NEEDED FOR

FEEDBACK LOOPS

35November 4, 2014

HOW DOES THIS BUILDING

PERFORM?

Praise: LEED Platinum certification—the first ever for a skyscraper—and the $947,583 in incentives from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and endorsements from Al Gore.

Condemnation: According to data released by New York City in 2012, the Bank of America Tower produces more greenhouse gases and uses more energy per square foot than any comparably sized office building in Manhattan. It uses more than twice as much energy per square foot as the 80-year-old Empire State Building

November 4, 2014

36

FAILURE OF MODELED METRICS,

VS. ACTUAL PERFORMANCE DATA

The USGBC, which operates LEED, similarly says it has no control over how the buildings it certifies are used. But LEED certifies new buildings before they are even occupied, basing its ratings on computer models that often end up overestimating a building’s performance.

If you can model, you can’t necessarily manage.

November 4, 2014

37

PASSIVE

HOUSE

November 4, 2014

38

AN ATTEMPT AT PARADIGMATIC

CHANGE: PASSIVE HOUSE

Adopted in the 1990s in Illinois, then Germany

Was proven economically viable; ~10% increase in construction cost while achieving 80% reduction in energy use of the building for a “new start”

BASED ON MODELED ENERGY, BUT NOT CERTIFIED PASSIVE HOUSE UNTIL THE HOUSE IS MEASURED.

November 4, 2014

39

MODELED VS. MEASURED

LEED, NYSERDA:

Calculations are predictions, performed in excel. If/then. Not based on actual use, actual staffing actual choice of lighting fixtures once the building is functioning three years later.

PASSIVE HOUSE:

Measured energy, air flows determine the kilowatt hour energy required to keep the building climate comfortable.

November 4, 2014

40

PASSIVE HOUSE JUST BEGINNING

November 4, 2014

41

BUILDING ENVELOPE: ONE OF MANY POSSIBLE

WALL SOLUTIONS FOR PASSIVE HOUSE:

R values for Passive

House in Pittsburgh

versus (code, new constr.):

Walls: R35-45 (20)

Slab: R35-45 (10)

Roof: R60-80 (38)

Windows R 5-10 (2.9)

A lot of building science,

but well understood and

modeled

R value: measure of thermal resistance;

heat transfer per unit area per unit time

PASSIVE HOUSE WINDOWS

Squirrel Hill Passive House Duplex

43

Windows are the weakest part of insulation envelope

Passive house certified windows: excellent performance of glazing and frame

© YARO/Makrowin

Triple glazing

Wood, aluminum

or PVC frame

Insulation core

(uPVC , cork, etc.)

Aluminum

cladding

(some models)

Tilt/turn design

for good seal

MORE WORK NEEDED FOR

FEEDBACK LOOPS

44November 4, 2014

THERMAL BRIDGES ARE ELIMINATED IN PH DUE TO

SMARTER DESIGN AND ADVANCES IN ENERGY

MODELING

45

46

THERMAL ENVELOPE, BEFORE AND AFTER PASSIVE

HOUSE RETROFIT:

MEASURABLE PERFORMANCE OF PH IS “BUILT IN”

INTO PH STANDARD:

Criterion #1: total energy has to be less than

38 kBtu/sf/yr

Note: this is primary (or source) energy, not site energy.

About 3 times more energy needs to be used at the source to

generate energy we use on site due to generation inefficiency

and transport losses. Source energy is the most relevant

measure of carbon emission.

47

Criterion #2: heating and

cooling energy limits:

4.75 kBtu/sf/yr, each

This is like heating the

whole 2000 sf house with

a hair dryer 9 hrs a day

(and making it nicely

warm!)

1 kBtu=0.3 kWh

48

VERIFIABLE METHODOLOGY IS BUILT INTO PH

STANDARD

Criterion #3: air

tightness (0.6 air-

changes per hour

at 50 pascals)

Measured through

blower-door test to

assure that

standard is met

Passive House air

leakage is about

10 times less than

standard new

construction

ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY VS. BRANDING

Focus on economic feasibility:

Shift money from mechanical systems to the building envelope

Long lasting, high quality construction

Focus on comfort:

Healthy interior environments due to continuous ventilation

“Year-round barefoot indoor comfort on a dime” No drafts/uniform temp.

Focus on predictability:

Computer modeling with PHPP (Passive House Planning Package) and WUFI (Heat and Moisture Dynamics* modeling)

Optimization of performance w/ PHPP/WUFI

Certification from Passive House Institute US (PHIUS)

*Wärme und Feuchte Instationär

49

Who has changed paradigms?

50November 4, 2014

Whether it was Copernicus and Kepler showing that the earth

is not the center of the universe

Or Einstein hypothesizing that matter and energy are

interchangeable

Or Adam Smith postulating that the selfish actions of

individual players in markets wonderfully accumulate to the

common good

People who have managed to intervene in systems at the

level of paradigm have hit a leverage point that totally

transforms systems.

So how do you change paradigms?

51November 4, 2014

D. Meadows paraphrasing Thomas Kuhn:

You keep pointing at the anomalies and failures in the old

paradigm, you keep speaking louder and with assurance

from the new one, you insert people with the new paradigm

in places of public visibility and power.

You don’t waste time with reactionaries; rather you work with

active change agents and with the vast middle group of

people who are open minded.

ASSIGNMENT What part of the system of how we make and maintain our

buildings, interests you the most?

What are the anomalies and failures that irk you?

What possibilities do you see?

November 4, 2014

52

READINGPick any one of the “Facsicles” from ArtFarm on architecture

theory:

http://www.archfarm.org/en/

November 4, 2014

53

EXTRA CREDIT

November 4, 2014

54