While I shamelessly borrow one of the Le Corbusier's most famous aphorisms, I mean it in the literal sense. I've never made sense of present-day architecture need to have a very fine control over the way our living and working environments feel, abiding by the recommended and constant 21 degrees celsius and 70% relative humidity. I understand there is an imperative in a high-rise to manage the air quality and control environmental factors, as without the MEP engineering that we're all used to, these places would be hell.
However, I have trouble relating to the need to make residential architecture so tightly controlled and sterile. Yes, we need proper insulation in a cold climate like toronto, but there is six months out of the year where we don't really need any form of environmental control, be it heating, air conditioning or mechanical ventilation. After all, aside from relatively cold winters, southern Ontario has a pretty mild climate.
Maybe it's because I grew up in a house where there was none of the above, and as inhabitants of this house, we had to learn how to operate it and do so optimally, so that living conditions would always be bearable. It was extremely rare that the house got so uncomfortable that it became unlivable and we only got better at operating it with time, which created a deeper appreciation for the building.
In some sense, the high degree of automation and its attendant loss of control over the functioning of a building makes us feel like we have no control over our environment and I would argue separates us further from it, which can have adverse effects on well-being.
I've noticed of late that there are more and more people who bring holistic health principles to the way buildings are designed and built (most notably WELL). I'm particularly interested in some approaches where the focus is on how we interact with the built environment with the five senses. That seems to show a lot of promise.
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