What can a building technologist do about climate change? Part 3
WELCOME BACK If you’ve stuck with me this long, thank you! You must be just as much of a buildings / climate change geek as I am. Earlier, I wrote about about the need to address building related greenhouse gas emissions and discussed the frictions that I believe prevent residents from evolving their Personal Infrastructure. … Continue reading What can a building technologist do about climate change? Part 3
What can a building technologist do about climate change? Part 2
Core & Shell In an earlier post, I wondered: How does one determine what to spend one’s time on, in a shift to focusing on climate change? Particularly one who has an obsessive interest in people’s experiences with buildings and the built environment, like myself? I narrowed in on modular components that needed a deeper … Continue reading What can a building technologist do about climate change? Part 2
Plans for an infrastructure conference
A listening dialogue on infrastructure Like any good art project, this idea has been percolating in my mind for a while now. A side project related but very different from my day-to-day. I propose hosting a day-long listening dialogue on the role of infrastructure across disciplines. This gathering would bring together practitioners to uncover patterns … Continue reading Plans for an infrastructure conference
A short description of maintenance
My understanding of maintenance: More: capable to continue to evolve Less: contain at status quo / steady state Related to infrastructure: Keep flexible so can accommodate future changes And don’t forget the personal maintenance it takes to pursue unique ideas or to have sufficient “slack” to emotionally support others The Cybernetics of Maintenance Cybernetics is … Continue reading A short description of maintenance
What can a Building Technologist do about Climate Change?
Title inspired by Bret Victor’s piece “What can a Technologist do about Climate Change?“ Something that has been swirling in my mind lately: personally having a more direct impact on our quest to reduce the causes of climate change. While I’ve been indirectly involved in environmental endeavors for most of my career, I naively thought … Continue reading What can a Building Technologist do about Climate Change?
Fragmentation in the building industry
An excellent framing of the fragmentation in the building industry can be found in Dana A Sheffer’s 2010 dissertation on the Diffusion of Energy Saving Technologies in the Building Industry. (Also see related work here by Daniel Hall.) Sheffer’s piece inspired my own thinking, as written here: Introduction The decentralized nature of the building industry … Continue reading Fragmentation in the building industry
The kind of problem a building is
Concluding her famous book, Jane Jacobs writes: “Cities happen to be problems in organized complexity.” From sidewalks of access to sidewalks of place, cities deal “simultaneously with a sizable number of factors which are interrelated into an organic whole [1].” My question today: If a city is a problem of organized complexity, then what kind … Continue reading The kind of problem a building is
My 2018 reading list
Books (with sprinkling of articles & podcasts) that have stuck with me throughout 2018 Scale by G West Engineering Systems by O de Weck, D Roos, C Magee Thinking in Systems by D Meadows How Buildings Learnby S Brand Pace Layering article by S Brand Sciences of the Artificial by H Simon Computers and the World of … Continue reading My 2018 reading list
TRIP NOTES: CHINA [Dec 2018]
Rough notes from a weeklong revisit to China: Beijing, Wuhan, Changsha, Kunming. Mix of travel tips and reflection, with summarizing thoughts at end. Written with the understanding that these stories are indicative, not representative. For context: I lived in Wuhan 2009-2010 and Beijing 2010-2014. The highspeed rail makes this journey in ~6 hours CITY-CENTERED THOUGHTS … Continue reading TRIP NOTES: CHINA [Dec 2018]
How Buildings Learn: Beijing Hutongs (thoughts on the unpublished chapter)
The hutongs north of Beijing’s Forbidden City have always been my favorite part of the city. Narrow alleyways, curving about, full of chaotic day to day life. Or so, that was my experience hearing my mother’s stories from the early 1980s (as a Hong Konger living in Beijing as it opened up), followed by my … Continue reading How Buildings Learn: Beijing Hutongs (thoughts on the unpublished chapter)