Efficiency, health, and beauty

The Pantheon

By Laura Casas Martin

By the end of the first century B.C.E., roman architect Vitruvius identified three elements necessary for a well-designed building: firmitas, utilitas, and venustas.  Firmness, utility, and beauty, have remained the essential components of successful designs for more than two thousand years, a unique and simple approach to architectural design.

Nowadays, and taken for granted that most of the buildings achieve firmness and utility, let me humbly suggest the three contemporary principles that should guide our designs:

Sketch by Mario Cucinella Architects

Efficiency

Efficiency is the (often measurable) ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without waste.

Spaces need to have the right size, not bigger (or smaller). They need to be multifunctional, shared and highly used and demanded. Envelope needs to be airtight, breathable and highly thermally insulated. Conditioning systems need to be high performance. Every single piece of the building answers to a purpose or doesn’t exist.

Carbon Neutral Design by Jakob + MacFarlane

Health

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), health is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." 

Spaces need to be continuously ventilated, bright and shining. They need to allow communication and movement. Materials need to be toxin free, mould resistant. Buildings to be zero carbon emissions not to contribute to global warming, what is causing climate change and may result in human extinction. Every building won’t be harmful to people or the planet but will promote their well-being too.

Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright

Beauty

Beauty is the ascription of a property or characteristic to an animal, idea, object, person or place that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction. An "ideal beauty" is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture, for perfection.  Ugliness is the opposite of beauty.

If we take a look around, unfortunately beauty seems to be an ancestral and forgotten requirement. But we need to encourage it. Spaces need to inspire so we fall in love with them, and we use them, take care of them and keep them in good shape for a long, long, long time.