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Buildings are a classic example of infrastructure: transparent, embedded, etc
But also very present in daily lives
Heavily but somewhat selectively based on S.L. Star’s catalog of characteristics of infrastructures, illustrated with examples from our work with zero emission buildings/neighbourhoods
↗ Make the building systems transparent in use: they are just there, adjusting automatically
↘ Force users to be aware of the building’s inner workings to be able to use it
↗ Embed the building in as many as large technical and social networks as possible (e.g. remote monitoring and operation of buildings)
↘ Disembed the building as far as possible, it should work stand-alone
↗ Abstract the building systems away from single site practices, they should work in every building
↘ Make building systems specific to single site practices (maybe even on room-level)
↗ Search for standards and follow them, if there are none create standards by building on existing ones (e.g. standards regarding acceptable temperature ranges, zero emission building standard)
↘ Avoid standards as far as possible
↗ Hide the manuals, keep knowledge about the building’s functionality on a need-to-know base
↘ Spread the manuals, teach as many about as much of its functionality as possible
Upon breakdown:
↗ High degree of interruption of daily lives upon breakdown - preferably complete stand-still until the experts have found the fix
↘ Low degree of interruption - easily fixed locally
Solving climate crisis through solutions with high or low infrastructureness (e.g. electric cars vs bicycles)?