This is a theme that architects have forever struggled with. Expense for aesthetic or artistic value is never an easy sell (especially if you are working for a profit oriented developer who doesn’t even want to put closets in hotel rooms because they can “make money” on that closet floorspace). It is literally the spending of money for an unquantifiable result; the emotive quality of space. These emotive qualities are exactly what architects design, otherwise we wouldn’t exist. Buildings aren’t just built for efficiency, but also for enjoyment and comfort. Engineers can build more “efficient” buildings than us, period; and when they do, you get the tin cans we have to suffer in for two hours each week for class. I would say there is little architectural about those buildings. They are simply cold effiicencies. This is where architecture’s value lies, and unfortunately we can’t quantify it-it is 100% subjective, but it is our raison de etre.
When designing with ubiquitous and sentient systems, it is easy to fall into the pitfall of efficiency. That is what these systems were made for after all-to most efficiently manage our use of lighting, heating, cooling, energy, and data. But there is far more to it than that. Where is the artistic value and emotive quality in efficiency? The answer: there is none. Efficiency is a way of limiting waste, which is usually counter to emotive qualities of space. We design large glass curtain walls not because they insulate the building well, but because we like the light. We design large floor to floor heights in order to make space feel more open, not because they are easier or cheaper to heat and cool than a space with less volume (it is in fact, the opposite).
Ubiquitous computing can not be adopted in just a servatory manner. This is literally skin deep. What effects can ubiquitous computing make on space? How can ubiquitous computing affect the emotive qualities of space? These are the questions architects must ask when designing with sentient systems. It is obvious that they will be fully embraced in terms of sustainability and efficiency, but this is only half of our job. We exist to inspire.
