Committee on the Environment

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  • 1.  Would America look different if it were designed in metric?

    Posted 09-27-2013 06:55 PM
    This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Committee on the Environment and Regional and Urban Design Committee .
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    Friday, September 27, 2013

    Do Imperial Dimensions Shape America?

    Could it be that feet, inches, acres and all the imperial dimensions shape America and make the country and its architecture actually look different? The writer and historian Andro Linklater certainly thinks so, at least on the large scale:

    "Like most visitors to the United States, it was the shape of the place I first fell in love with - the spectacular grid of city blocks, the squared-off, American Gothic farms, and the long, straight, section roads that caught the imagination of Kerouac and every drive-movie director you can think of. During the time I lived there, I never questioned why this should be so, it simply seemed American. Since then, however, I have returned frequently as a visitor and each time I came back, it always struck me as utterly astonishing that such a coherent pattern could have occurred across a 3000 mile-wide continent. How did it happen? Who shaped this gigantic land?" Andro Linklater, Measuring America.
    Linklater book cover (Amazon)

    Of course, typically the issue of imperial versus metric dimensions isn't discussed in terms of its physicality but in terms of functionality for use in manufacturing, science or design. Although some disagree, it is almost universally understood that for functionality metric works better. By now just about everybody has heard of the terminal mishap that destroyed the NASA Mars Orbiter because it was programmed with a mix of metric and imperial units. That gave the whole world a good laugh, because we are globally about the only holdout not using the metric system comprehensively.
    The map speaks for itself

    As an architect and planner who immigrated from overseas, this fact was certainly not lost on me.
    Read full article
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    Klaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
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    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13


  • 2.  RE:Would America look different if it were designed in metric?

    Posted 09-30-2013 05:47 PM

    Excellent question - I recall, as I was going through elementary school, that we converted to the metric system in 1976 (or at least that was how I recall the "metric" curriculum being taught at the time).  In fact, for a couple of years you could by gasoline by the litre at Shell stations in Texas. 

    Would America look different had we actually followed through?  Probably, but not much.  Squares and rectangles by and large have nothing to do with units of measure, since they are shapes, therefore I believe the organizing principles that the country was founded upon would still be evident, just the sizes would be different. 

    One must applaud our neighbors to the north - they did make the switch, and did so rather painlessly.


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    Darrell Vickers AIA
    Architect
    The Wallace Group Inc
    Waco TX
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    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13


  • 3.  RE:Would America look different if it were designed in metric?

    Posted 10-01-2013 05:33 PM

    I don't think our country would look physically different, but I think we would look better in the eyes of the world. I think we appear as stubborn laggards to the rest of the world. I do a lot of work internationally and I love the metric system. What I don't like is converting back and forth. We should change. 

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    Alan Scott FAIA
    The Cadmus Group, Inc.
    Portland OR
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    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13


  • 4.  RE:Would America look different if it were designed in metric?

    Posted 10-02-2013 07:40 PM
    Even Le Corbusier admitted the metric system was difficult to use in Architecture and furniture making because it had no relation to the human body. It's based on the circumference of the Earth. His modular system had several round off flaws because it was based on the rounded up base 10 expression of the golden section proportion. Certain units didn't add up to make the next unit. I wrote a paper about this in school because I discovered that using the Fibonacci Series (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,etc.) with the inch foot system starting with 1/2" for one series and 1" for the other, you end up with a flawless additive modular system that is within a tiny fraction of the same thing. The Fibonacci Series increasingly approaches the golden proportion the further you take it. Is it a coincidence that Corb used 6ft as the basis of a human height to generate one of the series? If you start with 1/2" using the Fibonacci Series, you end up at 72" or 6ft. Using 1" you get to 144" or 12ft. Fractions and base 12 numbers are more cumbersome for scientific calculation, but in my mind's eye I know what 6ft looks like. Does 182.88cm mean anything to you? One third of a foot is 4", one forth of a foot is 3", and at 1/4" per 1'-0" gives you 3" of drop in 12ft. These numbers are easy to visualize and work well with standard size building materials. Fractions are finite, decimals have round off flaws when you add them up. If you have twenty 8ft units at 243.84cm or 244cm you either have 4877cm or 4880cm depending on whether you round up or not.

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    Eric Rawlings AIA
    Owner
    Rawlings Design, Inc.
    Decatur GA
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    Original Message
    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13


  • 5.  RE:Would America look different if it were designed in metric?

    Posted 10-03-2013 03:08 AM
    mehh, i don't think units of measure affect the actual built environment in the USvis a vis the metric equivalents used elsewhere. They are, after all, just units of measure developed for commercial & scientific purposes. the built environment responds to larger, and a multitude of forces.

    BTW, the World 'Metrification' Map posted previously is incorrect - the Brits still use pints (of beer, very important), miles on their signposts and speedometers, barrels of oil, and ounces of precious metals. Someone tell me if I'm wrong...

    They are called "Imperial Units" after the British Empire, after all, not the American Empire.

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    Bruce Bradsby
    bdb/a
    San Francisco  |    Bangkok

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    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13


  • 6.  RE:Would America look different if it were designed in metric?

    Posted 10-03-2013 03:32 AM
    Oh, and Exhibit B for why the World Metrification Map is wrong... I present Thailand's legal units of measure for land area used today:

    Tarang wa ตารางวา [tāː.rāːŋ wāː] Square wa 4 m2
    Ngan งาน [ŋāːn] 100 tarang wa 400 m2
    Rai ไร่ [râj] 4 ngan 1,600 m2 (16 a)
    ps. the first unit is pronounced "Talang" not "Tarang"

    Thankfully, at least for today, It's still a diverse, complex, fun world out there folks.

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    Bruce Bradsby
    bdb/a
    San Francisco  |    Bangkok

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    AIA26 San Diego June 10-13