How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They Are Built

PENGUIN BOOKS HOW BUILDINGS LEARN Though honored as a writer—with the National Book Award for the Whole Earth Catalog, Eliot Montroll Award for The Media Lab, Golden Gadfly Award for his years as editor of CoEvolution Quarterly—Stewart Brand is primarily an inventor/designer. Trained as a biologist and army officer, he was an early multimedia artist. He has created a number of lasting institutions, including New Games Tournaments, the Hackers Conference, and The WELL, a bellwether computer conference system. He is co-founder of Global Business Network, a futurist research organization fostering “the art of the long view.” Based on this book, a six-part television series called “How Buildings Learn” was made by the BBC in 1997, with Stewart Brand as writer and presenter. HOW BUILDINGS LEARN What Happens After They’re Built Stewart Brand PENGUIN BOOKS PENGUIN BOOKS PUBLISHED BY THE PENGUIN GROUP PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC., 375 HUDSON STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014, U.S.A. PENGUIN GROUP (CANADA), 90 EGLINTON AVENUE EAST, SUITE 700, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA M4P 2Y3 (A DIVISION OF PEARSON PENGUIN CANADA INC.) PENGUIN BOOKS LTD, 80 STRAND, LONDON WC2R 0RL, ENGLAND PENGUIN IRELAND, 25 ST STEPHEN’S GREEN, DUBLIN 2, IRELAND (A DIVISION OF PENGUIN BOOKS LTD) PENGUIN GROUP (AUSTRALIA), 250 CAMBERWELL ROAD, CAMBERWELL, VICTORIA 3124, AUSTRALIA (A DIVISION OF PEARSON AUSTRALIA GROUP PTY LTD) PENGUIN BOOKS INDIA PVT LTD, 11 COMMUNITY CENTRE, PANCHSHEEL PARK, NEW DELHI – 110 017, INDIA PENGUIN GROUP (NZ), 67 APOLLO DRIVE, ROSEDALE, NORTH SHORE 0632, NEW ZEALAND (A DIVISION OF PEARSON NEW ZEALAND LTD) PENGUIN BOOKS (SOUTH AFRICA) (PTY) LTD, 24 STURDEE AVENUE, ROSEBANK, JOHANNESBURG 2196, SOUTH AFRICA PENGUIN BOOKS LTD, REGISTERED OFFICES: 80 STRAND, LONDON WC2R 0RL, ENGLAND FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY VIKING PENGUIN, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN BOOKS USA INC., 1994 PUBLISHED IN PENGUIN BOOKS 1995 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 COPYRIGHT © STEWART BRAND, 1994 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IS MADE FOR PERMISSION TO REPRINT “THE BED BY THE WINDOW” FROM Selected Poems BY ROBINSON JEFFERS. COPYRIGHT 1932 BY ROBINSON JEFFERS. COPYRIGHT RENEWED 1960 BY ROBINSON JEFFERS. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF RANDOM HOUSE, INC. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGUED THE HARDCOVER AS FOLLOWS: BRAND, STEWART HOW BUILDINGS LEARN: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THEY’RE BUILT/BY STEWART BRAND P. CM. INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES AND INDEX. ISBN: 978-1-101-56264-2 1. ARCHITECTURE—HUMAN FACTORS. 2. BUILDINGS— PERFORMANCE. 3. BUILDINGS—UTILIZATION. I. TITLE. NA2542.4.B73 1994 93-40193 720′.1—DC20 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA SET IN ADOBE GARAMOND AND HELVETICA DESIGNED BY STEWART BRAND AND DONALD RYAN EXCEPT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THIS BOOK IS SOLD SUBJECT TO THE CONDITION THAT IT SHALL NOT, BY WAY OF TRADE OR OTHERWISE, BE LENT, RE-SOLD, HIRED OUT, OR OTHERWISE CIRCULATED WITHOUT THE PUBLISHER’S PRIOR CONSENT IN ANY FORM OF BINDING OR COVER OTHER THAN THAT IN WHICH IT IS PUBLISHED AND WITHOUT A SIMILAR CONDITION INCLUDING THIS CONDITION BEING IMPOSED ON THE SUBSEQUENT PURCHASER. THE SCANNING, UPLOADING AND DISTRIBUTION OF THIS BOOK VIA THE INTERNET OR VIA ANY OTHER MEANS WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER IS ILLEGAL AND PUNISHABLE BY LAW. PLEASE PURCHASE ONLY AUTHORIZED ELECTRONIC EDITIONS, AND DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN OR ENCOURAGE ELECTRONIC PIRACY OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS. YOUR SUPPORT OF THE AUTHOR’S RIGHTS IS APPRECIATED. CONTENTS Acknowledgments Cover Story 1. Flow 2. Shearing Layers 3. “Nobody Cares What You Do In There”: The Low Road 4. Houseproud: The High Road 5. Magazine Archite