No, I’m not talking about what it’s like to live in a sustainably designed home. I’m talking about what a hot house cucumber feels like.

If you have been to the city lately you will notice a plethora of high rise residential buildings. Part of the recent (& fast decaying) boom in urban housing. The types of units range across the board but my focus today will be on the popular two level townhouse or loft units.

There are plenty of splashy modern multi-family buildings popping all across the urban fabric. Many of them look great. There are in fact many good architects who design these buildings and for the most part the people who live in them, love their homes.

However, once awhile, you get these two level units with floor to ceiling glass facing south (or southwest). Yes, dead on exposure to the sun all year long. Day lighting is great, don’t get me wrong, but not when you’re facing due south with no sun protection or shading. Forget window blinds and heavy curtains. Once the solar radiation gets past the glass, anything it touches heats up. You have to stop that particular wavelength before it gets into the unit or you may as well call up the local botanical society and offer your home as a green house for growing any number of tropical plants.

So you have all that great glass and fantastic views but you keep your blinds and curtains drawn most of the year because that air conditioner will be struggling to keep the unit just a shade close to comfort levels in Death Valley. How do I know this? Well I live in one such lovely building (though I did not design it). It looks great and I rarely ever have to use the heater in the winter but I do know how a hot house cucumber feels in the summer.

I have designed a few multi-family buildings in the past and I believe you can integrate climate responsive elements even in modern and high tech designs. Daylight should be invited into a home and the same with solar gain but the design should control it. Light and space can be poetic but not when it feels like a convection oven. Architects really should experience the buildings they design on a regular basis. It will make them better designers for it.