The Secret Life of Buildings

via Architecture Critic Tom Dyckhoff; my kind of presenter

I think as soon as I heard, "behold the pee pot of doom" in the shows intro, I knew that Tom Dyckhoff could surpass my own current love of Kevin McCloud as the omnipotent architectural power. This was then followed by him waving a flimsy childrens union jack with the kind of pout I only supply for the amusement of close friends and my puppy. More acts of wilful expression were soon to follow; I love this man.
The first argument in the show was between fufilment and artistic control. As an architect do you design to control your inhabitants or to fufil their basic needs? In fact this seemed to be central to the episode of home, and was very relevant and interesting.
Starting with light tests, Dyckhoff was taken from his "Santorpay", brightly lit living conditions to a more "gloomy", dimly lit one by editing the light conditions in his house. As expected his mood went down with his susceptibility to depression going up. What was interesting was the mass of evidence; Higher glucose level, higher tension and anxiety, vigor colapsed and an upset body clock; All very concerning.
Other things I learnt were;

• The Golden Ratio more or less works
• Beautiful surroundings numb pain
• Materials are never an afterthough
• UK developers are pure evil; something needs to be done

The show was really informative and probably more helpful then some lectures I've had. I think my next posts will probably be follow ups on research on topics and architects brought up in the show so keep an eye out for Ingles's work, the Golden Ratio, Amsterdam self builds and Maggi Centres. 

The Secret Life of Buildings: 9/10 for now, I'm sure it'll be a 10 by the end.