This month on our Sustainable MEP Leaders call we were asked what resources would be suggested for advancing integrative design.
Two books immediately came to mind for me:
How Building Learn, by Stewart Brand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Buildings_Learn
It was many years ago but reading Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn made a lasting impression on me. It is wholistic and basic. As a mechanical engineer it reinforced in me that I was duty bound to consider with design partners the whole building in addition to my formal role. By considering the whole I have been able to keep my building systems solutions as simple as possible. I did not know until today that it inspired a BBC series. I can’t wait to go home and watch that.
How Buildings Work, by Edward Allen
https://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Work-Natural-Architecture/dp/019516198X
Years ago, before children, I taught a building systems class Thursday evenings at the Boston Architectural College. I don’t recall how I came upon Edward Allen’s textbook, How Buildings Work. A MIT professor, Edward Allen gets at the fundamentals of a building’s most basic functions, including how buildings work to separate indoors from outdoors. For many semesters it was my companion in helping students access the basics that would create a foundation for their development as architects. Like Brand’s classic, it boils buildings down to the basics with simple illustrations and economy of words.
It is said that when you’re onto the truth, it is simple. These references get to the truth. A fresh read will serve us well as common ground for engineers and architects working together for better buildings. Book club anyone?
