Behavioral Architecture

1. One architectural flaw (I wouldn't call it an 'epic failure') is the fireplace in my house. Instead of being located along an outside wall the fireplace is in the middle of the house. This is nice because there is extra window space along the outside walls. However the fireplace being in the middle of the house completely ruins the basement. There is a huge cement support in the middle of my basement so you can literally only walk around the perimeter of the basement. Along with the giant support block someone decided to also group the furnace and hot water heater in the middle. Because of this only small sections of my basement can be used, and no one area can function well as a room or normal living space.

2. Hoben Hall (where I live) functions much better than most of the other residence halls. The design of the floor levels that don't totally match up seems weird however they are this way because of the cathedral ceiling in the lounge. I like that Hoben is basically laid out in a straight line (this way it is not confusing). This is the main architectural reason that makes it better than most other residence halls on campus.

From a visual standpoint, Hoben's red brick and white window exterior looks wonderful. The big windows that face the outside porches on either side add a lot of appeal to the building itself (at least for me).

3. The biggest flaw currently in the design process is the architects lack of feedback. What I found most interesting about the reading was the statement about a review board going into a building to see if they like it and want to commission the architect to work for them. Instead of analyzing the functionality of the building itself or looking at how often space becomes available, the people on the review board look for cracks in the ceiling that they then blame the architect for. It wouldn't matter how great a job the architect did designing the building, if one of the construction workers shingling the roof did a poor job, the architect will not be used.