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The great untold story of the architectural history of the past century: the movement toward an ecological approach to building.

In a world increasingly awake to environmental damage, the visionaries of the past who championed an environmentally sane architecture are vindicated. Yesterday's eccentricities are today's legal requirements, and every architect has an obligation to the environment as well as to his or her client.

This groundbreaking book charts the rise of this new consciousness, assessing the situation now, and identifying future directions. After an introduction to the terminology of ecological architecturecomparing the use of "green" and "sustainable" as variantsthe book is organized into three parts.

Part One identifies recurring themes in ecological architecture, including energy efficiency, harmonious relationship with the environment, and suitability of building types for specific conditions.
Part Two features over twenty case studies focusing on a specific architect, movement, or area. The inclusion of Le Corbusier, Buckminster Fuller, Rudolf Schindler, and others is a reminder that the sweeping science-led progress that characterized much of the modern movement is not the full story.
Part Three looks to the future and to where ecological architecture might go next as it struggles to deal with global urbanization.

A decisive step in the rewriting of the history of modern architecture, this book will be essential reading for practitioners and students of architecture. As an urgent wake-up call concerning the state of our built environment, it will be of interest to everyone who cares about the future of our planet. 250 illustrations in color and black and white.

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CHOICE Review

The title of this book seems promising. Since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, many architects and other designers have sought to marshal technology and their knowledge of nature to create buildings that are responsive to their settings. A number of scholars have addressed the subject, but rarely in a broad thematic way. Billed as a "decisive step in the re-writing of modern architecture," this book was clearly intended to be a key text as environmental sensibility becomes an ever-greater concern in the design fields. In trying to produce a volume that every student should read, however, Steele (Univ. of Southern California) has not taken his subject very far. Little attention is given in the historical case studies to climate, seasons, topography, characteristics of building materials, or building performance. Work of recent decades fares better, but the text remains fragmented. As a loose compilation of examples, the contents are ahistorical. Some of the book will no doubt afford useful, quick reference on individual work for architects and their students, but it offers few new insights on the deeper subject of how building has (and has not) related to the natural environment in the modern era. ^BSumming Up: Optional. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. R. Longstreth George Washington University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

James Steele is Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California.