Publications: (Book Chapter)
“Re-defining Architectural Performance -- Survival through Design and the Sentient Environmentalism of Richard Neutra”
in Architecture in an Age of Uncertainty (Ashgate) Editor. Benjamin Flowers
BOOK COVER
“Re-defining Architectural Performance -- Survival through Design and the Sentient Environmentalism of Richard Neutra”
ABSTRACT
More than ever before, diagnostic building descriptions are gathered using spreadsheets, equations, and algorithms. Numerically centered data is used, almost exclusively, for all types of building assessments. And notwithstanding the obvious advantages of knowing more rather than less about the energy and material consumption of a building, rarely is critical discussion brought to bear on whether the pursuit of high performance buildings contributes to a more ethical, sustainable and socially relevant practice of architecture. Implicit is the assumption that using less energy and fewer materials automatically results in a more sustainable environment. But this may not, jn fact, always be the case. Few are the true opportunities to assess whether the search for “high performance building” metrics, predicated on ever expansive data-scapes, actually ameliorates the human condition. As a practitioner in the field, this remains a difficult predicament.
Addressing this issue requires a far more comprehensive definition of performance; one better suited to addressing the many challenges now faced by the built environment. What is sought is a characterization of the field that repositions the sentient being at the very center of our enquiries. While survival of the environment is an essential goal of high performance design, so too is the survival of human life. To this end, a subtle recalibration of methods is required to foreground a practice of ‘performance’ beyond building. To initiate such a shift in the discursive character of the field that is ‘high performance’, this essay turns to the theoretical project set forth by Viennese/American architect and author Richard Neutra (1892-1970) who, with words and works, subscribed to a vision of environmental design of significant import to this discussion.