Insulating Modernism

What is the best way to consider energy in buildings? For over a century, the building industry has largely focused on ideas of insulation and isolation for its energetic practices. A growing movement of designers claim that other concepts and practices are required for the non-isolated energy systems of architecture. This book describes the history, theory and facts of the mainstream isolation technologies and the emerging alternative design approaches. It is a book on the scientific, material, and design history of building isolation; but more importantly, it is a book on isolated and non-isolated perspectives on energy in architecture. Written by a registered practicing architect with detailed technical knowledge, who is at the same time a researcher and experienced teacher, the aim is to understand the different scientific, architectural and cultural approaches to energy and to promote a non-isolated perspective: a thermodynamically accurate, ecologically powerful, culturally relevant, and architecturally ambitious perspective on energy in architecture.

This volume combines a clear overview for those with no prior knowledge or experience of modernism with a subtle argument that will appeal to higher level undergraduates and scholars.

The book investigates the theme of Modernism (1920-1960 and its epigones) as an integral part of tangible and intangible cultural heritage which contains the result of a whole range of disciplines whose aim is to identify, document and preserve the memory of the past and the value of the future. Including several chapters, it contains research results relating to cultural heritage, more specifically Modernism, and current digital technologies. This makes it possible to record and evaluate the changes that both undergo: the first one, from a material point of view, the second one from the research point of view, which integrates the traditional approach with an innovative one. The purpose of the publication is to show the most recent studies on the modernist lexicon 100 years after its birth, moving through different fields of cultural heritage: from different forms of art to architecture, from design to engineering, from literature to history, representation and restoration. The book appeals to scholars and professionals who are involved in the process of understanding, reading and comprehension the transformation that the places have undergone within the period under examination. It will certainly foster the international exchange of knowledge that characterized Modernism

Essays on Thermodynamics, Architecture and Beauty, is a book that unfolds arguments and designs around the concept of "thermodynamic beauty". This new aesthetic category opens up new and unexpected directions to the architect's work, connecting architecture and thermodynamics without giving up the tectonic tradition. The compendium will be developed through the concepts of Somatisms, Monsters Assemblage, Verticalism and Thermodynamic Materialism, summarizing design strategies, and opening new territories at the scales of building, public space and landscape.

This book addresses the built environment through the lens of environmental architecture, and in a holistic manner. It moves gradually from psychophysiology and thinking-doing-feeling modalities, through environmental criteria to environmental modulation, concluding with a debate around mitigation and adaptation. Much use is made of re-interpreting past quotations seen as relevant for environmental architecture. No definitive conclusions are reached, but rather broad discursive messages are offered. The text will have lasting luminance for new generations involved with the built environment.

In the contemporary practice of architecture, digital design and fabrication are emergent technologies in transforming how architects present a design and form a material strategy that is responsible, equitable, sustainable, resilient, and forward-looking. This book exposes dialogue between history, theory, design, construction, technology, and sensory experience by means of digital simulations that enhance the assessment and values of our material choices. It offers a critical look to the past to inspire the future. This new edition looks to Alvar Aalto as the primary protagonist for channeling discussions related to these topics. Architects like ALA, Shigeru Ban, 3XN, Peter Zumthor, and others also play the role of contemporary guides in this review. The work of Aalto and selected contemporary architects, along with computer modeling software, showcase the importance of comprehensive design. Organized by the five Ts of contemporary architectural discourse—Typology, Topology, Tectonics, Technic, Thermodynamics—each chapter is used to connect history through Aalto and develop conversations concerning historical and contemporary models, digital simulations, ecological and passive/active material concerns, construction and fabrications, and healthy sensorial environments. Written for students and academics, this book bridges knowledge from academia into practice and vice versa to help architects become better stewards of the environment, make healthier and more accountable buildings, and find ways to introduce policy to make technology a critical component in thinking about and making architecture.

This book contains selected papers presented during the bi-annual World Renewable Energy Network’s Med Green Forum aimed at the international community as well as Mediterranean countries. This forum highlights the importance of growing renewable energy applications in two main sectors: Electricity Generation and the Sustainable Building Sector. In-depth chapters highlight the most current research and technological breakthroughs, covering a broad range of renewable energy technologies and applications in all sectors – for electricity production, heating and cooling, agricultural applications, water desalination, industrial applications and for the transport sectors.

An Exploration into Material, Physiological and Territorial Atmospheres. Energy and sustainability is a complex topic that needs to address simultaneously core disciplinary values and ideas that come from other fields of knowledge. The interconnection between the environment and its climate, its built structures and the human body requires overlying architecture with other disciplines such as meteorology, thermodynamics or physiology to engage them in a holistic way. The book is structured in three blocks—Territorial Atmospheres, Material Atmospheres and Physiological Atmospheres—which present three distinct and successive realms at which thermodynamic exchanges are taking place. Territorial Atmospheres deals with the thermodynamic interaction between the environment and its built structures. Material Atmospheres focuses on the interaction between a building and the climate it generates. And lastly, Physiological Atmospheres centers on the interaction between indoor ambient and the physiologi-cal and psychological effects on human beings. Each of the blocks has a coeditor: Silvia Benedito for Territorial Atmospheres; Iñaki Ábalos for Material Atmospheres and Philippe Rahm for Physiological Atmospheres, who will work together with the editor defining the context of the book.