Paradigms, Anti-Oedipus, LEED and Passive House

1. BODIES &
BUILDINGS
NYU ITP LECTURE COURSE FALL 2014
NOVEMBER 3, 2013
JEN VAN DER MEER @JENVANDERMEER WWW.JENVANDERMEER.COM

2. PLACES TO INTERVENE IN A SYSTEM:
12. Constants, parameters, numbers (subsidies, taxes, standards)
11. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows
10. The structure of material stocks and flows (transport networks, population age structures)
9. Length of delays, relative to the rate of system change
8. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against
7. The gain around driving positive feedback loops
6. The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to what kinds of
information)
5. The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints)
4. The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure
3. The goals of the system
2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system – its goals, power structure, rules, its culture-arises
1. The power to transcend paradigms
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3. 2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the
system – its goals, power structure, rules, its
culture-arises
The shared idea in the minds of society, the
great big unstated assumptions—unstated
because unnecessary to state; everyone already
knows them—constitute that society’s
paradigm, or deepest set of beliefs about how
the world works.
-D. Meadows.
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4. What paradigmatic assumptions do we
follow?
There is a difference between nouns and verbs.
Money measures something real and has meaning.
(people who are paid less are literally worth less).
Growth is good.
Nature is a stock of resources to be converted for
human purposes.
One can own the land.
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5. The material apparatus around you
Ralph Waldo Emerson “War” Boston, 1838. Reprinted in Emerson’s Complete Works, vol. XI. 1887.
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6. Paradigms are the sources of systems
From them, form shared social agreements about the
nature of reality, come system goals and information
flows, feedbacks, stocks, flows, and everything else
about systems.
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7. Deleuze and Guattari for Beginners
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8. Rhizome
Describes the relations and connectivity of things.
A rhizomatic way of thinking.
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9. Rhizome
For the best and worst. Rats are rhizomatic. Crab
grass too.
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10. Not a tree
Not – a tree which has a starting point and from there
branches out in a predictable path.
Not tree-like thinking. No checklists. Or software-driven
mindmaps.
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11. Assemblage
A rhizone forms an assemblages. An assemblage is
a gathering and grouping of things.
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12. Anti-Oedipus
Capitalism sets free desiring-production even as it
attempts to rein it in with the institution of private property
and the familial or “Oedipal” patterning of desire;
schizophrenics are propelled by the charge of desiring-production
thus set free but fail at the limits capitalist
society proposes, thus providing a clue to the workings
of desiring-production.
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14. Anti-Oedipus
Desiring-production does not connect “with” reality, as in
escaping a subjective prison to touch the objective, but it
makes reality, it is the Real.
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15. A Thousand Plateaus
What the schizophrenic experiences is nature as a
process of production.
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16. A Thousand Plateaus
It is probable that at a certain level nature and industry
are two separate and distinct things: from one point of
view, industry is the opposite of nature; from another,
industry extracts its raw materials form nature; from yet
another, it returns it s refuse to nature; and so on.
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17. A Thousand Plateaus
Even within society, this characteristic man-nature,
industry-nature, society-nature relationship is responsible
for the distinction of relatively autonomous spheres that
are called production, distribution, consumption.
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18. A Thousand Plateaus
But in general this entire level of distinctions, examined
from the point of view of its formal structures,
presupposes (as Marx has demonstrated) not only the
existence of capitalism and the division of labor, but also
the false consciousness that the capitalist being
necessarily acquires, both of itself and the supposedly
fixed elements within an overall process.
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19. A Thousand Plateaus
For the real truth of the matter- the glaring sober truth
that resides in delirium – is that there is no such things
as relatively independent spheres or circuits.
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20. Society of control
A worldwide circulation of electronic circulation. Control
by way of incessant cybernetic feedback. Poling and
marketing. The expression of meaning and
communicating – the shallow form of advertisement. Our
normal human activities reduced to economic value.
Invent ways of thinking to enable people to break free
from cultural relativism.
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21. Further Reading
Anti Oedipus: A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and
Schizophrenia
Deleuze and Guattari for Architects
Sketches of a Thousand Plateaus by Marc Ngui
A User’s Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia
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22. 22
November 4, 2014 Rhizome? Or Hierarchy?

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24. 24
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The judges concluded the plots of land —
a community garden, a children's
playground and a dog run — are not
protected as parkland.
October, 2014.

25. MODERN
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26. BUILDINGS AND CLIMATE
CHANGE
Buildings account for 40% of total energy used and generate
45% of total US CO2 emissions
Hefty contribution to Global Warming and Climate Change
US adds ~6 billion tons of CO2 emissions a year, world’s total:
~34 billion
CO2 emissions per capita in US: 17.3 tons, China 7.2 tons, EU
average: 7.5, average for the world: 4 (July 2011 data)
Renewable energy growth too slow (25%) compared to fossil
fuel use increase in the last decade (41%)
Effects of self-acceleration of global warming (“tipping points”)
are very serious
With current trends we are not on a path to limit warming to 2o C
by 2100
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27. Why do we build skyscrapers
The ancient Egyptians built pyramids because they believed
in an afterlife. We build skyscrapers because we believe that
space in downtown cities is enormously valuable.
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28. Buildings through the lens of science
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29. PARALLELS
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Bodies: Buildings:
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30. “NEW STARTS” A SIGN OF
ECONOMIC PROGRESS
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31. LEED: MODELING BETTER BUILDINGS
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Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC),
LEED is intended to help building owners and operators
be environmentally responsible and use resources
efficiently.
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32. FAILURE OF MEASURES
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33. Failure of measures
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34. Failure of measures
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35. MORE WORK NEEDED FOR
FEEDBACK LOOPS
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36. HOW DOES THIS BUILDING
PERFORM?
Praise: LEED Platinum certification—the first ever for a
skyscraper—and the $947,583 in incentives from the New
York State Energy Research and Development Authority,
and endorsements from Al Gore.
Condemnation: According to data released by New York
City in 2012, the Bank of America Tower produces more
greenhouse gases and uses more energy per square foot
than any comparably sized office building in Manhattan. It
uses more than twice as much energy per square foot as
the 80-year-old Empire State Building
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37. FAILURE OF MODELED METRICS,
VS. ACTUAL PERFORMANCE DATA
The USGBC, which operates LEED, similarly says it
has no control over how the buildings it certifies are
used. But LEED certifies new buildings before they are
even occupied, basing its ratings on computer models
that often end up overestimating a building’s
performance.
If you can model, you can’t necessarily manage.
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38. PASSIVE
HOUSE
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39. AN ATTEMPT AT PARADIGMATIC
CHANGE: PASSIVE HOUSE
Adopted in the 1990s in Illinois, then Germany
Was proven economically viable; ~10% increase in
construction cost while achieving 80% reduction in
energy use of the building for a “new start”
BASED ON MODELED ENERGY, BUT NOT
CERTIFIED PASSIVE HOUSE UNTIL THE HOUSE IS
MEASURED.
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40. MODELED VS. MEASURED
LEED, NYSERDA:
Calculations are predictions, performed in excel.
If/then. Not based on actual use, actual staffing actual
choice of lighting fixtures once the building is
functioning three years later.
PASSIVE HOUSE:
Measured energy, air flows determine the kilowatt hour
energy required to keep the building climate
comfortable.
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41. PASSIVE HOUSE JUST BEGINNING
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42. BUILDING ENVELOPE: ONE OF MANY POSSIBLE
WALL SOLUTIONS FOR PASSIVE HOUSE:
R values for Passive
House in Pittsburgh
versus (code, new constr.):
Walls: R35-45 (20)
Slab: R35-45 (10)
Roof: R60-80 (38)
Windows R 5-10 (2.9)
A lot of building science,
but well understood and
modeled
R value: measure of thermal resistance;
heat transfer per unit area per unit time

43. PASSIVE HOUSE WINDOWS
Squirrel Hill Passive House Duplex
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Windows are the weakest part of insulation envelope
Passive house certified windows:
excellent performance of glazing and frame
© YARO/Makrowin
Triple glazing
Wood, aluminum
or PVC frame
Insulation core
(uPVC , cork, etc.)
Aluminum
cladding
(some models)
Tilt/turn design
for good seal

44. MORE WORK NEEDED FOR
FEEDBACK LOOPS
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45. THERMAL BRIDGES ARE ELIMINATED IN PH DUE TO
SMARTER DESIGN AND ADVANCES IN ENERGY
MODELING
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46. THERMAL ENVELOPE, BEFORE AND AFTER PASSIVE
HOUSE RETROFIT:
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47. MEASURABLE PERFORMANCE OF PH IS “BUILT IN”
INTO PH STANDARD:
Criterion #1: total energy has to be less than
 38 kBtu/sf/yr
 Note: this is primary (or source) energy, not site energy.
About 3 times more energy needs to be used at the source to
generate energy we use on site due to generation inefficiency
and transport losses. Source energy is the most relevant
measure of carbon emission.
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Criterion #2: heating and
cooling energy limits:
 4.75 kBtu/sf/yr, each
This is like heating the
whole 2000 sf house with
a hair dryer 9 hrs a day
(and making it nicely
warm!)
1 kBtu=0.3 kWh

48. VERIFIABLE METHODOLOGY IS BUILT INTO PH
STANDARD
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Criterion #3: air
tightness (0.6 air-changes
per hour
at 50 pascals)
Measured through
blower-door test to
assure that
standard is met
Passive House air
leakage is about
10 times less than
standard new
construction

49. ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY VS. BRANDING
Focus on economic
feasibility:
Shift money from
mechanical systems to the
building envelope
Long lasting, high quality
construction
Focus on comfort:
Healthy interior
environments due to
continuous ventilation
“Year-round barefoot indoor
comfort on a dime” No
drafts/uniform temp.
Focus on predictability:
Computer modeling with PHPP
(Passive House Planning
Package) and WUFI (Heat and
Moisture Dynamics* modeling)
Optimization of performance w/
PHPP/WUFI
Certification from Passive
House Institute US (PHIUS)
*Wärme und Feuchte Instationär
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50. Who has changed paradigms?
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Whether it was Copernicus and Kepler showing that the earth
is not the center of the universe
Or Einstein hypothesizing that matter and energy are
interchangeable
Or Adam Smith postulating that the selfish actions of
individual players in markets wonderfully accumulate to the
common good
People who have managed to intervene in systems at the
level of paradigm have hit a leverage point that totally
transforms systems.
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51. So how do you change paradigms?
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D. Meadows paraphrasing Thomas Kuhn:
You keep pointing at the anomalies and failures in the old
paradigm, you keep speaking louder and with assurance
from the new one, you insert people with the new paradigm
in places of public visibility and power.
You don’t waste time with reactionaries; rather you work with
active change agents and with the vast middle group of
people who are open minded.
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52. ASSIGNMENT
What part of the system of how we make and maintain our
buildings, interests you the most?
What are the anomalies and failures that irk you?
What possibilities do you see?
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53. READING
Pick any one of the “Facsicles” from ArtFarm on architecture
theory:
http://www.archfarm.org/en/
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54. EXTRA CREDIT
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