| Title | Living Too Close to the Sun |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Daniel A. Barber(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.53288/0404.1.15 |
| Landing page | https://punctumbooks.com/titles/solarities-elemental-encounters-and-refractions/ |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Daniel A. Barber |
| Publisher | punctum books |
| Published on | 2023-11-22 |
| Long abstract | Since about 2010, a number of so-called supertall residential towers have arisen in Manhattan, puncturing the skyline. Referred to as pencil towers for their tall, skinny profile, these buildings represent the pinnacle of a contemporary form of architectural excess, a virtuosic expression of the financial machinations of the super-rich. They are also reliant on excessive carbon expenditures – tall, sealed buildings that cannot be lived in without mechanical heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems. What is especially suggestive, in the context of solarity, are the precise terms of that excess. Luxury and exclusivity are expressed in height, in proximity to the sun. And yet, the mechanical capacity to reach that height is served by a dramatic increase in mechanical conditioning derived carbon emissions. In this sense, the towers express, at least in a schematic, diagrammatic fashion, a more general condition: how concepts of value and innovation are caught up in the priorities of capital, making them difficult to align with the capacity for solar liberation. The essay reads these towers through the energy imaginaries of Gibson, Ghosh, and Bacigalupi, offering a counter model for how innovation in architecture can be and can resonates more equitably across social and ecological conditions. |
| Page range | pp. 169–178 |
| Print length | 10 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
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Daniel A. Barber is Professor of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). His research focuses on environmental dimensions of architecture’s past, present, and future. His latest book is Modern Architecture and Climate: Design before Air Conditioning (Princeton UP, 2020); see also the article “After Comfort” (Log 47, 2019), and A House in the Sun: Modern Architecture and Solar Energy in the Cold War (Oxford UP, 2016). Daniel has held academic positions and fellowships at Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale, at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, the Max Planck Institute (Berlin), Rachel Carson Centre (Munich), and most recently as a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS) at the Universität Heidelberg. He received a 2022–23 Guggenheim Fellowship for his project Thermal Practices. Daniel co-edits Accumulation, an annual dossier of essays on the e-flux architecture online platform. He is the co-founder of the Current Collective for Architecture and Environmental History and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Architecture and Fabrications. He lectures globally, encouraging architects and others to consider their creative practice in the context of the climate emergency.