Maggie's Farm

Basic science. Basic science seems to be missing from the most "educated" of some folks thesedays.

How, on earth, could the architects NOT know that this would happen?

It reminds me of a story I saw on PBS a few years back. It, too, took place near London. They were trying to fix up the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew (if I remember correctly), especially, a huge greenhouse.

They were having trouble heating the place up in the winter and couldn't figure out why it would not retain heat overnight (despite having a huge furnace) they finally realized that the water pool in the middle of the greenhouse wasn't filled, they had left it dry, and that removed a great source for "moderating" the temperature of the entire building.

Basic science, a large pool of water will retain heat after being in the sun all day, while a large mass of air will not.

Or in another case, in Washington, DC, the National Zoo (part of the Smithsonian) had to relocate their polar bear exhibit just a few years after it was built - the polar bears were getting way too hot on a southward facing sloped enclosure. Gee, how about that, a slope facing south on hot and humid DC days gets to be too much for bears from the artic region. They had also painted the walls white to mimic the whiteness of the artic region, not realizing that the white walls just reflected the sun's heat into the enclosure, making it even hotter for the bears.

Do the financiers of these "failed" buildings do more than just look at the pretty building models?