Skin, Clothing, and Dwelling

Abstract

Gottfried Semper is often credited with originating the concept of the building as skin in architectural theory, but an alternative trajectory of this idea can be found in the mid-nineteenth-century science of hygiene. In Skin, Clothing, and Dwelling: Max von Pettenkofer, the Science of Hygiene, and Breathing Walls, Didem Ekici explores the affinity of skin, clothing, and dwelling in nineteenth-century German thinking, focusing on a marginal figure in architectural history, physician Max von Pettenkofer (1818–1901), the “father of experimental hygiene.” Pettenkofer's concept of clothing and dwelling as skins influenced theories of architecture that emphasized the environmental performance of the architectural envelope. This article examines Pettenkofer's writings and contemporary works on hygiene, ethnology, Kulturgeschichte (cultural history), and linguistics that linked skin, clothing, and dwelling. From nineteenth-century “breathing walls” to today's high-performance envelopes, theories of the building as a regulating membrane are a testament to the unsung legacy of Pettenkofer and the science of hygiene.

Indoor air: A short history of holistic and reductionistic approaches

“…Indoor air hygiene efforts in Western countries in the 19th century also coincided with the need for improved sanitation in urban areas and for reducing the incidence of disease as urban populations grew. According to Ekici,5 Specifically, he showed that microscopic life could only originate from other life and could not be generated from inorganic substances or non-living organic debris. This discovery was a major scientific milestone.…”

“…Indoor air hygiene efforts in Western countries in the 19th century also coincided with the need for improved sanitation in urban areas and for reducing the incidence of disease as urban populations grew. According to Ekici, “ Starting in the 1830s and 1840s, a growing number of middle‐class reformers in Germany, Britain, France, and the United States raised public awareness of health issues. Their agenda included all aspects of urban design, from sewers and water supplies to street layouts and the construction of healthy buildings … When hygiene first emerged as a new science, it was closely associated with physiology.…”