Buildings Are for People - by Bill Caplan (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Buildings are for People: Human Ecological Design offers a new approach to the process of conceiving architectural design, one that considers the interactions of the built environment with people and the natural environment. The book exposes our visceral and experiential connections to buildings, and how buildings intervene directly with our ecosystem, natural environment and sense of place. It brings to light our ability to utilize a building's surfaces, shape and materiality to synergize with the energy and forces of nature for a more green and sustainable architecture. It points out many of the roadblocks to successful design including issues in education, the profession, regulation and the industry's institutions, providing an awareness that heretofore is rarely discussed. Most importantly, Buildings are for People: Human Ecological Design highlights the obvious, that buildings are built for people, a fact that seems to have been overlooked in the last half-century.

About the Author

With a passion for people-friendly design and an engineer's understanding of sustainability, Bill Caplan explored and photographed architecture on five continents from human and environmental perspectives. He devoted the past decade to reconciling the physical, sensible and operative manifestations of architecture, culminating in Buildings are for People: Human Ecological Design. Caplan's career has evolved from founding a multi-national sensor company engaged in diverse programs from the human genome to space exploration, which he headed for 34 years, to establishing a think-tank for the built environment. He holds a Master of Architecture from Pratt Institute and a Materials Engineering degree from Cornell.