Design with Climate - by Victor Olgyay (Paperback)

About the Book

"First published in 1963, Design with Climate was a groundbreaking book in the field of environmentally responsible design and remains an important reference for practitioners, teachers, and students over fifty years later. In this book, Victor Olgyay explores the impact of climate on shelter design, identifying four distinct climatic regions and explaining the effect of each on orientation, air movement, site, and materials. He derives principles from biology, engineering, meteorology, and physics, and demonstrates how an analytical approach to cliamte management can merge into a harmonious and humanistic design approach. This updated edition contains four new essays that provide unique insights on issues of cliamte design, showing how Olgyay's concepts work in contemporary practice. Donlyn Lyndon, Victor W. Olgyay, John Reynolds, and Ken Yeang explore bioclimatic design, eco design, and rational regionalism, while paying homage to Olgyay's impressive groundwork and contributions to the field of architecture"--Back cover.

Book Synopsis

Architects today incorporate principles of sustainable design as a matter of necessity. But the challenge of unifying climate control and building functionality, of securing a managed environment within a natural setting--and combating the harsh forces of wind, water, and sun--presented a new set of obstacles to architects and engineers in the mid-twentieth century.

First published in 1963, Design with Climate was one of the most pioneering books in the field and remains an important reference for practitioners, teachers, and students, over fifty years later. In this book, Victor Olgyay explores the impact of climate on shelter design, identifying four distinct climatic regions and explaining the effect of each on orientation, air movement, site, and materials. He derives principles from biology, engineering, meteorology, and physics, and demonstrates how an analytical approach to climate management can merge into a harmonious and aesthetically sound design concept.

This updated edition contains four new essays that provide unique insights on issues of climate design, showing how Olgyay's concepts work in contemporary practice. Ken Yeang, John Reynolds, Victor W. Olgyay, and Donlyn Lyndon explore bioclimatic design, eco design, and rational regionalism, while paying homage to Olgyay's impressive groundwork and contributions to the field of architecture.

From the Back Cover

"Design with Climate has had an extremely important impact on the practice of sustainable design, and is perhaps even more relevant today than when it was when originally published in 1963. In many ways the book was ahead of its time."--Peter Anderson, author of Prefab Prototypes: Site-specific Design for Offsite Construction

"Design with Climate is a seminal work of continued relevance, and is especially needed as architects relearn the basics of climatic design in order to right the causes and effects of global warming."--Bruce Haglund, University of Idaho

Review Quotes

"Design with Climate has had an extremely important impact on the practice of sustainable design, and is perhaps even more relevant today than when it was when originally published in 1963. In many ways the book was ahead of its time."--Peter Anderson, author of Prefab Prototypes: Site-specific Design for Offsite Construction

"Design with Climate is a seminal work of continued relevance, and is especially needed as architects relearn the basics of climatic design in order to right the causes and effects of global warming."--Bruce Haglund, University of Idaho

About the Author

Victor Olgyay (1910-70) was associate professor in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Princeton University. He was a leading researcher on the relationship between architecture, climate, and energy.