Brand (1997) in his Chapter Shearing Layers defines six S's that relate directly to the time and scale of a building. These 6 S's are:
SITE: The geographical setting, the urban location and the length defined lot, whose boundaries and context outlast generations of ephemeral buildings. "Site is eternal"
STRUCTURE; The foundation and load-bearing elements are perilous and expensive to change, so people don't. These are the buildings. Structural life ranges from 30 to 300 years.
SKIN: Exterior surfaces now change every 20 years or so, to keep up with the fashion or technology, or for wholesale repair. Recent focus on energy costs has led to re-engineered skin that are air tight and better insulated.
SERVICE: These are the working parts of the building - communications, wiring, electrical wiring, plumbing, sprinkler system, HVAC, and moving parts. They wear out or obsolesce every 7 to 15 years.
SPACE PLAN: The interior layout - where walls, ceiling floors and doors go. Changes to these spaces occur approx. every 3 years in commercial and up to 30 in residential environments.
STUFF: Chairs, desks, phones, pictures, kitchen appliances, lamps ect. These items that change daily to monthly.
This concept in relation to design to me is very important, when i build things around my own home I am very wary of creating long term issues through quick or spare of the moment fixes. Designers need to be acutely aware of the long term, whole of life design implications that they create when designing for the now. Brand (1997) highlights "As a designer you avoid such classic mistakes as solving a five-minute problem with a fifty-year solution, or vise versa". In my experience in the industry this is a key issue often the most important long term items are hidden within the building and have less time dedicated to them then the glossy, short life finishes that everyone sees.
Brand also makes comparisons between architecture and natural ecosystems, in particular observing rates of change of different components within a ecosystem. When viewed with respect to rate of change and in conjunction with the 6 S's a building is very much like an ecosystem, all be it man made.
Brand, S., 1997. Shearing Layers, in How buildings learn : what happens after they’re built, London: Phoenix Illustrated. pp12-23
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