Ambience and Services
Ambience and Services - The ambience around and in buildings is the result of natural and of man-made causes: the climate, HVAC, lighting, etc. Whatever the nature of the cause, the responsibility falls squarely on the archi- tect to reckon with it (Flynn et al., 1992).
The extent and contents of the requirements concerning the ambience in buildings has grown ever more com- plex in recent times and embraces, for example, heat, moisture, mould, corrosion, water supply, energy control, fire, smoke, pure air and odour, nat- ural and artificial illumination, sound, protection against lightning, vibration, security, electromagnetic radiation and various telecommunication services.
Technical services cater for performance to satisfy the various requirements: HVAC equipment, water supply, telephone and telecommunications services, elevators, security and anti-fire equipment, etc. Each service may be and often is designed as a system and such systems increasingly are complex embra- cing two or more systems together with their inter- action (Aspinall, 2001).
For example, lighting may be combined with ventilation or may be incorporated in furniture. As a consequence, comprehensive envi- ronmental systems may be applied and the building as a whole may be considered as a comprehensive environmental system.
When the architect designs a building, he/she must decide whether a new sys- tem or systems will be applied or whether existing systems will be incorporated in the design. Special- ized firms develop their own (lighting, heating, etc.) system and system developers may develop com- plex systems to be applied by various designers (Flynn et al., 1992).
Architects do not themselves design energy systems and services but have to be active partners with those who do design them since the dialogue must end up with comprehensive architectural-engineering solutions and the interrela- tion of services and structures results in specific aesthetic consequences.
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