Wolfgang Kessling, Essay Example

Wolfgang Kessling spoke at TEDxSummit in April 2012 about air conditioning outdoor spaces. Kessling’s primary focus is the collection of World Cup Games. He compares the perceived comfort of spectators from each game. Although the temperature of each game falls in the same spectrum, the perceived comfort of each World Cup was drastically different. When Kessling compares the comfort levels, he realizes that the more humid climates were rated as less comfortable than the less humid climates. Kessling met with a team to come up with a solution to the perceived problem. The team realized that despite all of the passive measures that they had implemented, it was simply not enough. In order to cool off football stadiums to a point that the spectators would feel comfortable, they would have to do something active to cool off the environment in the open air stadiums.

Kessling decided that the first measure would be shade. In order to keep spectators comfortable, they had to be protected from the baking sun and from strong winds. Kessling also decided that, instead of blowing chilled air through the stadium, his team needed to come up with a better idea. So they developed the idea of water pipes embedded in the floor to carry cool water and change the ambient temperature of the stadium. Kessling also proposed that the stadiums have naturally watered grass lawns, as naturally watered lawns are a wonderful “natural” cooling mechanism. But Kessling and his team were not satisfied with that, either. They needed something more.

Kessling and his team settled on solar energy. With solar energy, they would not be using fossil fuels and contributing to the global warming effect. They would actually be replacing some fossil fuels by running the solar panels year round and sending that energy back into the power grid, reducing the need for fossil fuels. Then, when the World Cup was being held, they would not be taking any energy from fossil fuels, but rather from the sun itself. This energy would continue to return to the grid in the region that it was in, year round, for as long as the solar panels were hooked up to the power grid.

While Kessling has a seemingly brilliant idea, it begs the question yet again—why must humans change their natural world to suit them? Is it a sense of entitlement? As Julia Corbett stated in her book, Communicating Nature: How We Create And Understand Environmental Messages, “The cemented creek banks send a message about the control of nature and the desire for nature to be tidy and predictable. Sending the city’s namesake water source into a storm drain communicates that the best use of this natural resource is human utility and enjoyment, a human-centered or anthropocentric view of nature” (2006). What Corbett means by this is that humans look around their environment and think of way that it could be changed to suit their own needs rather than looking around at their environment and thinking of ways that humans could meet the needs of the environment. It is a decidedly self-centered way of thinking, one that assumes that nature in its natural form is less than ideal. Corbett again demonstrates this when she says, “A great deal of what is communicated about the environment is almost entirely unrecognized and unstated, and we might not recognize that it’s “communication” at all: roads without sidewalks, drive-through service, bottled water, disposable washcloths, food served without dishes, office windows that don’t open, big houses, garbage cans. These everyday things have a taken-for-granted quality, particularly for those who feel that the environment exists somewhere “out there” and distant from their lives” (p 3). Corbett suggests that although humans live in their environment, they do not actively participate with nature. This directly applies to Kessling’s idea of air conditioning the outdoor spaces of football stadiums—what is wrong with the way that it is? Of course! It isn’t comfortable for humans, so it must be changed.

References

Corbett, J. B. (2006). Creating Nature: How We Create And Understand Environmental Messages. Washington DC: Island Press.

Kessling, W. (Director). (2012). How to Air Condition Outdoor Spaces [Motion Picture].