Banham’s geeky enthusiasm for ducting and electrical services enables him to propose a parallel history of architecture according to which the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast (1903), despite its outmoded, castellated styling, was “far more pioneering than anything that had been designed by Walter Gropius” because it was the first building to include a form of air-conditioning.
Justin McGuirkin Honeywell, I’m Home! The Internet of Things and the New Domestic Landscape at e-flux, discussing Reyner Banham’s theories on important buildings. (via blech)