Buildings Encouraging Idiocy?
Brian Dijkema
July 26, 2012
I have a hunch that most of us think of our buildings as inert shells. They might be pretty or ugly places, but they don't any power to change us. They're just there; we, the humans, are the actors. Rooms are places where we change our shirts, shorts, and sheets. They are places where we make love, play music, brush our teeth, eat, sleep, hold meetings, do business, pray. Unlike traditional condos, the units are all three- and five-bedroom apartments. The building will have student-friendly features including parking, a social room in the building and on-site gym. And the units are designed to handle the rowdy student life as well with insulated concrete walls. "If you were to punch the wall, this concrete, you're basically going to break your knuckles. It's just designed in such a way that it won't be destroyed," Mr. Firsten, president of In8 Developments, said he came up with the idea for the purposed-based units after several years of owning and renting student houses in Waterloo. "What I determined was there's a lot of wear and tear," he said. "It's challenging moving kids in and out, parties in the backyards, keggers, kids punching or putting their heads through the wall. Crazy stuff."
Can the shape or condition of a room change you?
I have a hunch that most of us think of our buildings as inert shells. They might be pretty or ugly places, but they don't any power to change us. They're just there; we, the humans, are the actors. Ro...
