What makes the indoors, indoors? It isn’t the presence of a “door” that you are “in,” unless you consider deep underground subway stations (without doors) as outdoors. But is a cave indoors? Even deep underground, fully protected from the elements, the wildness of a cave makes one hesitant to consider it truly “indoors.”
Perhaps, then, the definition of indoors and outdoors is not so definite. Some elements seem essential to the indoors: protection from the elements, especially rain, wind, sun. Beyond that, things become fuzzy. Most subway stations aren’t heated or cooled yet give the impression of indoors. We encounter many situations that exhibit some element of protection from the elements, yet aren’t fully heated or cooled, or don’t have full protection from rain, wind, and sun: amphitheaters, bus shelters, event tents, ballparks, and even greenhouses.
Rather than thinking of indoors and outdoors as a binary condition, we need to acknowledge there is a spectrum from indoors to outdoors. The concept of a spectrum is already familiar for other words we use to describe the environment around us. Although we think of “light” and “dark” as opposites, it’s easy to see that they actually represent different ends of a spectrum. When passing through a series of spaces with increasingly brighter light, at what point is the space suddenly considered “light”? The same principle applies to noisy and quiet: clear ends of a spectrum, but there is a lot of middle ground. The middle ground of indoors is so unfamiliar that English lacks vocabulary for describing it. A room might be lighter or louder, but is it more indoors or more outdoors?
This is one of a series of articles about how the concept of “indoors” affects our built environment. Read more:
• How does your office decide what temperature will make the most people happy?
Artists began exploring and challenging our relationship with the indoors and outdoors a generation ago. James Turrell’s Skyspaces, for example, with carefully designed unprotected openings to the sky, exhibit feelings of both indoors and outdoors and celebrate a close examination of the changing sky. Random International’s hit Rain Room installation places visitors in a downpour without getting wet, and Transsolar—where I work—created a series of cloud installations that allow visitors to pass through and above an indoor cloud.
New research also shows that there are explicit benefits to mid-doors spaces. So-called “biophilic” elements, like variation in temperature and airflow, presence of water, non-rhythmic sensory stimuli, and connections with nature have been shown to reduce stress, improve cognitive performance, and positively impact emotion and mood. All of these elements, coincidentally, are much easier to incorporate in mid-doors spaces than fully indoors space; it’s difficult to describe a mid-doors space without these characteristics. Besides the human benefits, mid-doors spaces provide energy savings. Relaxed temperatures result in less heating or cooling energy, or in some cases, no energy use at all.
Unfortunately, most building owners or developers still see mid-doors spaces as wasted space, not contributing to the functions of a building, so mid-doors spaces are rarely built, and when they are, they are treated as a luxury. Intentionally creating a diversity of useful spaces along the spectrum of indoors to outdoors can add value, reduce construction cost, and save energy, but only when seen as in place of other, “fully indoors” spaces, not in addition to. In our own practice we have only recently begun to encounter a new generation of building owners who share this perspective. Let’s hope for their success and look forward to cities filled with places to spend parts of each day mid-doors.
Erik Olsen leads the New York team of climate engineering company Transsolar KlimaEngineering. He is passionate about human comfort and low-impact solutions for our environment. Transsolar is widely recognized as a world-leading innovator in the field of high-performance buildings. In partnership with top architects, their unique approach has led to numerous breakthrough projects around the globe.