57
costs over several buildings rather than just one. In terms of exploring where nanomaterials might eventually find building owners
immediately receptive to their use, it is indeed this kind of highvalue building where the association with nanotechnologies could
also serve to enhance the appeal of the company’s products.
Another important aspect of the way buildings are designed and
built is that their nature is highly dependent on not only the
specific programmatic needs to which the building is responding
but also to specific site locations and conditions. Climatic conditions associated with specific locations, for example, can dramatically influence external environmental conditions and must be
taken into consideration and impact material choice. We can see
obvious manifestations of the way that building shapes, forms, and
material choices have evolved over time in indigenous building
construction throughout the world in response to local climatic
conditions. High-mass masonry walls such as adobe are commonly
found in hot and arid parts of the world—a consequence not
only of material availability but also because the thermal lag cycle
associated with the way the material absorbs and emits heat is
particularly useful in creating comfortable interior environments in
areas where there are hot and dry days but where nights are cold.
Heat is absorbed by the thermal mass during the day and reemitted
at night, when it is needed. We can see other responses in hot and
humid areas or in temperate zones. Even with today’s seemingly
advanced mechanical technologies, many interesting technologies
and related material choices (including many of the interesting
active double-layered curtain wall systems) that have proven so
successful in energy-sustainable buildings in the temperate climate
of Europe have not proven equally successful in the more extreme
climates of other countries. Electrochromic glass that is now benefiting from developments using nanomaterials, for example, has
been widely touted vis-à-vis its usefulness in meeting sustainable
design objectives, but the heat gain associated with current types
of electrochromic glass is dependent on sun angle and makes it
most effectively used primarily in high-latitude zones. Many of
these kinds of locational dependencies can ultimately affect material choice. There are, of course, many other locational dependencies related to urban or rural conditions, access to transportation,
and so on that could be noted here as well. This kind of location
dependency is normally less prevalent in product design.
The general processes noted here are quite different from those
associated with thinking about developing a product. In the
building field, there are indeed some cases in which a building is
Product Design, Architecture, and Engineering
costs over several buildings rather than just one. In terms of exploring where nanomaterials might eventually find building owners
immediately receptive to their use, it is indeed this kind of highvalue building where the association with nanotechnologies could
also serve to enhance the appeal of the company’s products.
Another important aspect of the way buildings are designed and
built is that their nature is highly dependent on not only the
specific programmatic needs to which the building is responding
but also to specific site locations and conditions. Climatic conditions associated with specific locations, for example, can dramatically influence external environmental conditions and must be
taken into consideration and impact material choice. We can see
obvious manifestations of the way that building shapes, forms, and
material choices have evolved over time in indigenous building
construction throughout the world in response to local climatic
conditions. High-mass masonry walls such as adobe are commonly
found in hot and arid parts of the world—a consequence not
only of material availability but also because the thermal lag cycle
associated with the way the material absorbs and emits heat is
particularly useful in creating comfortable interior environments in
areas where there are hot and dry days but where nights are cold.
Heat is absorbed by the thermal mass during the day and reemitted
at night, when it is needed. We can see other responses in hot and
humid areas or in temperate zones. Even with today’s seemingly
advanced mechanical technologies, many interesting technologies
and related material choices (including many of the interesting
active double-layered curtain wall systems) that have proven so
successful in energy-sustainable buildings in the temperate climate
of Europe have not proven equally successful in the more extreme
climates of other countries. Electrochromic glass that is now benefiting from developments using nanomaterials, for example, has
been widely touted vis-à-vis its usefulness in meeting sustainable
design objectives, but the heat gain associated with current types
of electrochromic glass is dependent on sun angle and makes it
most effectively used primarily in high-latitude zones. Many of
these kinds of locational dependencies can ultimately affect material choice. There are, of course, many other locational dependencies related to urban or rural conditions, access to transportation,
and so on that could be noted here as well. This kind of location
dependency is normally less prevalent in product design.
The general processes noted here are quite different from those
associated with thinking about developing a product. In the
building field, there are indeed some cases in which a building is
Product Design, Architecture, and Engineering