Air-conditioning, Architecture, and Modernism. On the History of the Controlled Environment, 1911-1952

Abstract

This dissertation pertains to the varied roles of air-conditioning technology as a modernizing agent of the built environment in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Although the invention of air-conditioning relied on existing techniques of mechanical ventilation, the ability to precisely control the purity, temperature, humidity, and circulation of air also marked an important break with preceding practices. This period was witness not only to scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs, but also to the proliferation of engineering societies and the rise of industrial corporations, which in tandem engendered a technological watershed that challenged established concepts of architecture. Architecture was, as this study suggests, modernized from within via technical systems. The containment, management, and control of air became a central preoccupation in building design that affected architecture at both conceptual and practical levels. The core focus of this dissertation is on the historical juncture at which new air-conditioning technology was incorporated into the domain of architecture. The specific period under investigation spans the development of the first commercially available air-conditioning machines at the beginning of the century to the time shortly after the Second World War, when these machines became fully integrated in modern office buildings. Weaving scientific and technological narratives into this transformative period of architecture’s modernization, this dissertation explores four aspects of this juncture. The first part examines the scientific exploration of air and the ensuing conceptual shift from the commonplace consideration of air as a natural resource to its reappraisal as a technically manageable variable. The graphic visualization of data was pivotal in determining, for example, the thermodynamic properties, composition, and flow behavior of air, which enabled engineers and scientists to develop the requisite means of control that transformed air into what can be described as a modern material. The second part focuses on the cultural history of air-conditioning, with attention given to those discourses deployed to give expression and meaning to the new technology. Taking advantage of the widespread fascination with technology during the interwar period, the air-conditioning industry crafted an appealing narrative promoting health, increased efficiency, and the mastery of nature that worked to position the new appliance at the heart of modern ideology. The third part analyzes emergent forms of interior spaces and attendant activities that became increasingly reliant on constant climate control. Bearing in mind that air-conditioning was initially invented solely for industrial facilities, engineers had to consider ways to alter its functional parameters to serve other purposes when used in public spaces like movie theaters and broadcasting studios. The fourth part examines reciprocities between building technology and architectural elements in various periods by taking into consideration the case of the highrise office building. In these complex structures, air-conditioning evolved from its initial role as an adaptive supplement to become an integral component of every such structure, a transition that was driven forward by the invention of highly specific air-conditioning machinery. Consequently, tall buildings, including their constituent components and technical systems, were reconceived as an atmospheric whole that, owing to advances in air-conditioning, could be managed accordingly.