There is something about climate

I couldn't agree more with David Baggs when reading his article titled “All-glass facades won't exist in sustainable cities”. I believe that the big issue of this matter is trying to convince the 'starchitects' that curtain walls buildings other than giving aesthetic value to a city or place, can be an enemy of sustainability in some cases. Glass facades are ok but not for all places. In the capital city of my home country, Santiago de Chile, there are two examples of this phenomenon. The first one is "Torre Titanium La Portada" which when inaugurated in year 2010, became the tallest building in the country with 190 meters high. The second one, is "Gran Torre Santiago"which was put in service in year 2014, and with its 300 meters height is the fourth highest building in the south hemisphere. I can't deny that these two all-glass facades buildings improved the skyline of "Sanhattan"( this is how chileans refer to this area of the city making an analogy with Manhattan in New York), but for sure in those hot summer days most of the users suffer the effects of solar radiation. Just for the record, the 24th of January of 2017, was the hottest day in the history of Santiago. The temperature rose to 37.4 degrees celsius (Hottest day in the history of Santiago de Chile).

I hope that architects will be aware of the importance of climate when designing this type of buildings, especially in countries like chile were there is a diverse range of climate zones.

This is basically the discussion that Dr Anir Upadhyay brought to the classroom. I agree that there has to be a shift in the way of designing. This shouldn't be a standardised process as sometimes it seems to be. An accurate study of the local climate conditions will lead in better decisions making and more sustainable outcomes of building performance regarding energy efficiency matters.

From now on this might be a priority, considering climate change, which it has been quantitatively proven to be a fact, and that it is causing so many troubles worldwide. I would like to share a video that was published by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat which shows rising temperatures around the world from 1900-2016.

Regarding the adaptive thermal comfort model discussed by Christina Candido, maybe it is not that easy to be implemented. The concept is important, for the reason that contributes to sustainability, but i don't think that all users are prepared for this change, in which they must play an active role. I say this because of my personal experience. Through my observation in the different work places that i've been, in which commonly you find a diversity of occupants, controlling and maintaining thermal comfort was a big problem.