The fear of surveillance in the minds of urban residents is great

All the conversation now revolves around the rights of workers and the conveniences of the workplace. It is easy to forget how far we have come. In fact, just a few generations ago, the comfort of workers was second only to their production output. The plight of the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company in Brooklyn, New York illustrates this point best. In 1902, the company ran into trouble with the printing press, which was the preferred publishing platform for social media at the time. The problem is that the humidity inside the warehouse where they run the printing press fluctuates greatly. This causes their paper to expand and contract, and can produce distorted printed images. Humidity fluctuations are caused by nature. At the time, there was no other way to control humidity other than blowing a fan. Anyone who tried to cool off in front of a fan would tell you that they could only do so much. 

Fortunately, Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company and all of us, Willis Carrier, a young engineer who just graduated from university, submitted a drawing of a machine that can blow air on the cooled coil. Carrier’s employer is already manufacturing heating coils, so he wonders if the same principle will work in reverse. It is true, but it is not enough to meet the requirements of the printer's specification that the humidity in the room does not change more than 10 degrees. The failure led Carrier to continue to improve his idea until it finally worked, but even so, the fact that the equipment called the air handling cools down the normally miserable air temperature in the factory is nothing but a pleasant by-product. 

The first commercial use of these air cooling devices did not appear until after the First World War. The Rivoli Theater in Times Square found Carrier (his former employer sold the rights to the invention to Carrier because they couldn't see its future) to install his first machine. Theaters are the obvious places for this invention. They crowded people tightly inside, wearing heavy clothes, which for some reason were the formal costumes of the time. In the past, theaters used fans to blow ice to help them keep cool, but this technique has limitations. According to reports, in the summer of 1880, the Madison Square Theater in New York used 4 tons of ice a day to help customers stay comfortable, but there are often complaints that ice collected from the increasingly polluted lakes in New England releases an unpleasant smell. The investment in the Rivoli Theater has paid off, and during the summer, fans flock to it, both to escape the heat and to watch the latest movie adventures. Other theaters followed suit, and the result was a continuing phenomenon of summer blockbusters. 

Air conditioning is now a standard configuration in most buildings. This technology is a catalyst for population growth in hot regions such as the Southwestern United States that are almost uninhabitable. The economic difference can be seen when AC is adopted. 1.6B air-conditioning units are installed globally, 67% of which are only in 3 countries/regions: China, the United States and Japan. At present, the penetration rate of household air-conditioning in Japan and the United States is above 90%, and that in China is 60%, while in developing countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and India, it is still less than 20%. The United States has approximately 40% of the world's production capacity. There is also a cultural gap in the use of alternating current. In China, the vast majority of air conditioning units are installed in residential buildings, while in Europe, they are more common in commercial buildings.

Air conditioning also allows the construction of high-rise buildings, many of which rely so much on air conditioning that they don’t even have windows that can be opened. There are many reasons not to install open windows on high-rise buildings. They are more expensive, they can be separated from the architectural appearance of the building, and they represent a responsibility because anything thrown from them can be harmful or fatal to the people below. Perhaps most importantly, they protect the integrity of the building envelope, which is especially important in high-rise structures where wind changes from top to bottom. But windows do have important benefits. They can help buildings cool or heat without using air conditioning, and can improve air quality by introducing fresh outside air (note: some outside air is obviously fresher than others). During a pandemic, the ability of buildings to bring in unpolluted air becomes a top priority, and many buildings are told to bring in as much outside air as possible, regardless of the cost of heating or cooling.

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Now, we are beginning to see how the design of buildings can reduce the dependence on air conditioning. Uber's new headquarters in San Francisco is a good example. It has 14-foot-tall glass panels that can be automatically opened and closed to adjust the conditions in the atrium that connects the entire building vertically. These windows are connected to the building management system and placed strategically around the building where there is different wind and sunshine. The team behind the project stated that the windows have reduced the mechanical system by about 20%, and the atrium area of ​​the building is used as an informal gathering space, so employees can connect with each other and stop to smell the roses (or any other smell) from the outside Float in). 

We owe a lot of air conditioning. It helps us stay comfortable in our homes and workplaces, even in areas where humans have historically been difficult to survive. But our dependence on air conditioning is one of the factors that hinder us from reducing energy consumption to a sustainable level. A new type of architecture is turning back time by opening windows, which represents a change in the way we reach the comfortable temperature we desire. However, these buildings are the exception, not the rule. Most large buildings are still sealed boxes, requiring manual heating and cooling before they can be used. In order to make the most of our resources, we may have to get used to using less air conditioning, even if it means a little uncomfortable. This may seem like a step backwards, but compared with the sweltering factories at the turn of the 19th century, these factories are more concerned about the impact of humidity on products than the impact of temperature on worker comfort.

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