Architecture From Prehistory to Climate Emergency by Barnabas Calder
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Description
A groundbreaking history of architecture told through the relationship between buildings and energy
Reducing energy use is the single biggest challenge facing architecture today. From the humblest prehistoric hut to the imposing monuments of Rome or Egypt to super-connected modern airports, buildings in every era and place have been shaped by the energy available for their construction and running. This original and compelling survey tells the story of our buildings from our hunter-gatherer origins to the age of fossil-fuel dependence, and shows how architecture has been influenced by designers, builders and societies adapting to changing energy contexts.
Architecture is a fascinating celebration of human ingenuity and creativity, and a timely reminder of the scale of the task ahead in our search for truly sustainable architecture.
"Brave and brilliant, Barnabas Calder's Architecture is a global history and a call to arms" — William Whyte, Professor of Social and Architectural History, University of Oxford
"Arguably the most important new contribution to the field of architectural history in decades" — James Benedict Brown ― Journal of Architecture
"Fierce and elegantly written, this book tells the 'energy story of architecture' from the agrarian millennia onwards, as we hurtle towards the pending cataclysm. Read here of fossil fuel dependency, sometimes hidden and surprising, and wander the City of London, or, virtually, Shenzhen and repent. Barnabas Calder has written a fine alternative architectural history, with a venomous sting in its tail" — Gillian Darley, author of Excellent Essex
576 pp. paperback
11.2cm x 2.5cm x 18cm
310 g
Published January 2023 by Penguin Press
