Domus India – March 2018

9898 Meteorology

Why do we need architecture? Why
are we constructing buildings?
It may seem ridiculous to ask this
question, but the answer – covered
over time by so much history, so many
cultural circumvolutions, habits and
automatisms – is sometimes difficult
to state simply: it is to protect
ourselves from the sun when it is too
hot, from the wind when it is too cold,
and from the rain when it falls.

Essentially, there’s no other reason.

Architecture is basically the design

of the atmosphere.

This fundamental reason was largely

ignored during the last century,

thanks to the enormous amount of

fossil-fuel energy consumed by

buildings for heating, hot water, air

conditioning and refrigerators. And

this immoderate consumption,

starting almost two centuries ago,

has led to global warming, which

today is forcing architects to

reconsider their plan to fight

this phenomenon.

Global warming represents a brutal

overhaul of the architectural

discipline, applied to itself and

because of itself. It corresponds to a

violent re-focusing of architecture’s

objectives concerning its

fundamental mission, i.e. to build

artificial climates that are more

favourable to human nature, creating

domestic atmospheres or indoor

weather by means of a roof and walls,

thus putting distance between us

and the excesses of outdoor weather.

We now have to return to this

fundamental aim of architecture and

pursue it in an ecological manner.

This is certainly an opportunity for

the discipline to develop a new

language, a new style, where the usual

categories, until today confined to

the visual, the abstract and the

geometric, open up to the invisible,

the sensitive and the meteorological.

Rather than reasoning in terms of

grid, structure, symmetry and form,

we must learn to reason in terms of

convection, conduction, emissivity

and effusiveness. Rather than

working in brick, concrete, steel or

wood, we have to work with light, heat,

shade or moisture. To do that, we must

know or re-acquaint ourselves with

the fundamental tools of our

discipline, which are – we have

certainly forgotten – those of

meteorology, thermodynamics

and climatology.

In this column, we will be focusing

on the architecture of our new

climatic regime, unveiling project

methods and highlighting new

principles of architectural

composition and design. The aim is

to build an innovative and sustainable

world, also able to refound aesthetics,

politics and a social link to the reality

of our existence on the Earth and in

its atmosphere.

Meteorology

is a critical design

column about the link

between architecture

and climate.

Edited by Philippe Rahm