1. Based on his writing, how does Fathy address his concerns about high-tech
architecture? Do you find his argument convincing enough to impact your
preference for vernacular vs. high-tech architecture? (4-5 thoughtful sentences
minimum.)
2. In cold northern climates roof pitches are shallow while they are much steeper in
warmer climates as a means of responding to local precipitation. (True/False)
3. According to Fathy, for what or whom does architecture exist? (Single choice)
A. Man
B. Living organisms
C. The machine
D. Architects
4. According to Fathy, which of the following design strategies are suitable for hot zones
like the Middle East? (Multiply choice)
A. Projecting balconies
B. Wooden or marble lattices
C. Gabled roofs
D. Large, unprotected openings
E. Deep loggias
F. Brise-soleil
G. Cement block barriers
H. Flat, corrugated iron ceilings
5. How does Fathy demonstrate that change in material alters the climate
responsiveness of an architectural form? Describe a building that you think
demonstrates this idea. (4-5 thoughtful sentences minimum.)
6. What does Fathy think is wrong with looking at buildings as machines? 4-5
thoughtful sentences minimum.)
Warning Concerning Copyright Restrictions
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the
reproduction of copyrighted material.
Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are permitted
to furnish a reproduction if used for “private study, scholarship or research.” A
second condition is that only single articles or chapters of a work totaling no more
than 15% of the total number of pages be reproduced. Any use of a reproduction
that exceeds these guidelines may be considered copyright infringement.
This institution reserves the right to refuse any request for reproduction that is
deemed a violation of current copyright guidelines.
This material has been reproduced from the following source:
Fathy, Hassan. Environment and Architecture. Natural Energy and Vernacular
Architecture. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1986. 0226239179. pp. 3-10
Date prepared: 10/01/2009
This material is presented for use solely by authorized faculty and students of the
Pennsylvania State University. Further reproduction or distribution of this material
is expressly prohibited.
This material may be made available in alternative media upon request. Please
contact Course Reserves Services at ereserves@psulias.psu.edu or by phone at
(814) 863-0324.
If you are experiencing problems viewing or printing this document, please visit
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/reserve/useelectronicreserves.htm for
troubleshooting information. If further assistance is required, please send a
description of the problem to ereserves@psulias.psu.edu that includes the
course and instructor for which the material is on reserve, as well as the title of
the material.
1
Environment and Architecture
W
hen an engineer designs a machine, a bridge, or a regulator, each
line in his drawings is the result of a great accumulation of laws
and principles from a dozen different mechanical sciences. He designs
the machine to withstand a certain amount of strain and to do a
particular job. In both these aspects he must consider and apply all that
he has been taught in such fields as physics, dynamics, structural
mechanics, and the resistance of materials, and must put into each line
a whole library of expertise.
Similarly, when an architect designs a town or a building, every line
is determined by the application of the same complex set of mechanical
laws, with the addition of a whole collection of other sciences whose
provinces are less well defined: the sciences that concern man in his
environment and society. These sciences--sociology, economics, climatology, theory of architecture, aesthetics, and the study of culture
in general-are no less important to the architect than are the mechanical sciences, for they are directly concerned with man, and it is for
man that architecture exists.
The mechanical side of an architect's work-ensuring that his building will stand and provide protection against the elements, or that the
street pattern of a town performs its function efficiently-is no more
than a preliminary to his real creation. Only when. he has provided
these mechanical prerequisites, which should be incorporated without
question or argument, can he begin to consider the real problem of
designing a building. He is rather like the pianist who can start to
interpret the music he plays only after he has mastered the technique
of piano playing.
A machine is independent of its environment. It is little affected by
climate and not at all by society. A person, however, is a member of a
3
4
Chapter 1
living organism that constantly reacts to its environment, changing it
and being changed by it.
A plant provides a good example of the mutual interaction between
a living organism and its environment. It possesses its own heat and
water economies. Its respiratory heat is the result of metabolism which
tends to raise its temperature, just as with animals. It perspires, and
the evaporation of this perspiration leads to cooling, since every gram
of water given off requires between 570 and 600 calories from the
plant, depending on the air temperature. Consequently, plants exert a
reaction on the microclimate of their environment and to some extent
adjust their own temperature to their particular needs.
In the same way, a building is affected by its environment. The
climate of the locality and the buildings around it mold the building, so
that, even though social, cultural, and economic aspects are important, it owes much of its shape to these factors.
Effect of Climate on Architectural Form
Climate, in particular, produces certain easily observed effects on
architectural forms. For example, the proportion of window area to
wall area becomes less as one moves toward the equator. In warm
areas, people shun the glare and heat of the sun, as demonstrated by
the decreasing size of the windows. In the subtropical and tropical
zones; more distinctive changes in architectural form occur to meet the
problems caused by excessive heat. In Egypt, Iraq, India, and Pakistan, deep loggias, projecting balconies, and overhangs casting long
shadows on the walls of buildings are found. Wooden or marble
lattices fill large openings to subdue the glare of the sun while permitting the breeze to pass through. Such arrangements characterize the
architecture of hot zones, and evoke comfort as well as aesthetic
satisfaction with the visible endeavors of man to protect himself
against the excessive heat. Today a great variety of devices such as
sun-breakers or brise-soleil have been added to the vocabulary of
architectural features in these zones.
Notice, too, how the gabled roof decreases in pitch as the rate of
precipitation decreases. In Northern Europe and most districts subjected to heavy snow, gables are steep, while in the sunnier lands of the
south, the pitch steadily decreases. In the hot countries of the North
African coast the roofs become quite flat, in some areas provieing a
comfortable place to sleep. Still further south, in the tropical rainfall
zone, the roofs are again steep to provide protection from the torrential downpours typical of the region.
Environment and Architecture
5
It is worth noting that so long as the people of the humid tropical
regions built their huts with reeds and grass, which allowed air to pass
through the walls, the steeply pitched roof was a useful device. However, once they began to use more sophisticated materials like cement
block and the common gabled roof topped with corrugated iron
sheets, the houses became unbearably hot and stuffy. This kind of roof
prevents the catching of draughts at the very level where they prevail,
and the solid walls prevent the passage of air.
The traditional flat roof and the brise-soleil of recent tropical
architecture, with its modern feel, have attracted the imagination of
architects in colder regions who are continuously searching for something different and exotic. The result is that in some northern cities
thoroughly inappropriate examples of architecture, with shapes suitable to an alien climate, have succeeded in making the neighboring
buildings look old-fashioned without responding to the needs of the
people in their climate. The temptation to create up-to-date designs
which assails a modern architect prevents him from achieving the chief
aim of architecture: to be functional. He forgets the environment into
which he will implant his buildings because he is attracted by new and
modern innovations and gadgetry. He fails to realize that form has
meaning only within the context of its environment.
Environment
The techniques and equipment available to the architect today free
him from nearly all material constraints, He has the run of centuries of
styles and can choose his plans from every continent on earth. But he
must remember that he is not building in a vacuum and placing his
houses in empty space, as mere plans on a blank sheet of paper. He is
introducing a new element into an environment that has existed in
equilibrium for a very long time. He has responsibilities to what
surrounds the site, and, if he shirks this responsibility and does violence to the environment by building without reference to it, he is
committing a crime against architecture and civilization.
What constitutes the environment of a building? Briefly, his all that
surrounds the site on that part of the Earth, including the landscape,
be it desert, valley, mountain, forest, seaside, or riverside, and what is
above the surface with its seven zones that envelop the Earth and
influence terrestiallife. The zone most concerned here is the first, the
atmosphere. This zone rises to an average height of 10 kilometers and
reaches 20 kilometers in the Tropics. It contains the humidity on which
human, animal, and plant life depend. In the six zones above the
6
Chapter 1
atmosphere, oxygen, ozone, and hydrogen are present in different
concentrations that affect the cosmic radiation reaching the surface of
the earth. In the natural order prevailing in the environment, there has
always existed a continuous balanced flow of cosmic radiation within
which all living organisms and even minerals have been created and
evolved.
Some materials are transparent and some are opaque to the various
components of this radiation. Man should be careful not to disturb the
natural electromagnetic balance by improperly selecting the material
he uses for his dwelling. Thus wood is a more desirable material for
man's surroundings than reinforced concrete. Aesthetically, man
appears to prefer wood within his dwelling in the form of furniture and
structural elements, which he often describes as warm, contrary to
steel or other metals, which he describes as cold. This psychological
effect can be explained in part scientifically by the physical properties
of both materials, including their heat conductivities and insulation
characteristics.
These details demonstrate that the architect has a moral responsibility to consider whatever may affect the efficiency of the building and
the well-being of the people whom he is housing. Besides the tangible
and measurable features of the environment, there exist intangible
elements, but insufficient scientific information prevents their use in
town planning and architectural design. Therefore, this discussion is
limited to the tangible and measurable elements of the environment,
mainly the climate.
The importance of climate is clear. All living organisms depend
entirely on climate for their existence and adapt themselves to this
environmental influence. Plants that live in the Tropics cannot live in
the Arctic, nor can arctic plants live in the Tropics, unless of course the
immediate local conditions--the microclimate-are arctic, as at the
top of a high equatorial mountain. Most organisms, in fact, are limited
to a habitat of narrow climatic range.
Conscious Modification of the Microclimate
Yet not all species are so limited. Many animals can regulate their own
internal body temperature and can maintain it at a constant value even
during considerable fluctuations of the air temperature. Man has an
elaborate and very sensitive mechanism involving the secretion of
sweat and the distribution of blood that keeps him at about 37 oc at all
times. In general, warm-blooded animals can survive wider variations
than cold-blooded ones. Some species manipulate their environment
Environment and Architecture
7
to produce a favorable microclimate: the tortoise does so when it
hibernates for the winter. Man, too, does this in a variety of ways. He
can change his microclimate by changing his clothes, building a house,
burning fuel, planting trees, digging artificial lakes, and using
machines to heat, cool, moisten, or dry the air around him.
A principal purpose of building is to change the microclimate. Early
men built houses to keep out the elements--rain, wind, sun, and snow.
Their purpose was to produce an environment favorable to their
comfort and even to their survival. The microclimate on each building
site is changed into several different microclimates as the result of
the construction of the house itself. The microclimate adjacent to the
south wall is quite different from that at the north wall, and the
climates at the east and west walls are again different. Inside the
building, each room has its own microclimate which is a modification
of one or more of the outdoor microclimates.
Before the advent of the industrial era and mechanization, man
depended on natural sources of energy and available local materials in
forming his habitat according to his physiological needs. Over many
centuries, people everywhere appear to have learned to interact with
their climate. Climate shapes the rhythm of their lives as well as their
habitat and clothes. Thus, they build houses that are more or less
satisfactory in providing them with the microclimate that they need. In
the warm humid lands of East Asia, the local inhabitants live in huts
with flimsy, loosely woven walls that allow the slightest breeze to pass
thwugh. The people who live under the blazing sun of the desert
construct houses with thick walls to insulate themselves from the heat,
and with very small openings to keep out hot air and the glare of the
sun.
These successful solutions to the problems of climate did not result
from deliberate scientific reasoning. They grew out of countless experiments and accidents and the experience of generations of builders
who continued to use what worked and rejected what did not. They
were passed on in the form of traditional, rigid, and apparently arbitrary rules for selecting sites, orienting the building, and choosing the
materials, building method, and design.
In any approach prescribed by tradition, it is essential that every
injunction of the tradition be strictly observed. Thus, if one element
were changed in a traditional building method, that change, though
small, could destroy the entire validity of the building as a satisfactory
solution to the local climatic problems. In this sense, both the material
and the way it is used are very important. For example, if mat screens
are replaced by corrugated iron or some other solid wall material, then
8
Chapter 1
even though the building may appear more substantial, the lack of
ventilation could make the interior intolerably hot and stuffy. Modern
architects have attempted to solve this problem with modern technology, for instance, introducing the vented screen-wall, using unshaded
concrete or brick claustra-work to replace the objectionable solid wall.
Many different examples of this can be seen in entire elevations of
modern buildings in tropical zones. While such a solution is a definite
improvement over the solid wall, careful investigation reveals that it is
not as efficient as the humble mat screen. When the sun-breaking or
brise-soleil elements of the claustra-work are not shaded, they heat up
and then transmit this heat to the air flowing into the building through
the claustra-work, as well as reflecting warming solar radiation into the
interior.
Every substance that has formed part of a living organism will retain
some of its original qualities of climatic response as long as its original
structure is not destroyed or significantly modified. Wood, hair, grass,
leaves, reeds, cotton, hemp, and other organic materials are sensitive
to air humidity. When increased ventilation and humidity are required, matting responds to its climate by absorbing moisture from the
air passing through it into the building, thereby reducing the degree of
humidity in the room. In contrast, claustra-screen walls can breathe,
but they do not perspire. A mat, being porous, is a poor heat conductor, and cools to below air temperature by evaporating the moisture it
has captured from the air. Thus it cools the air passing through it.
Furthermore, a closely woven mat with ioose fibers and bristles
around the ropes will intercept dust as well.
Trends in International Architecture
Changing a single item in a traditional building method will not ensure
an improved response to the environment, or even an equally satisfactory one. Yet change is inevitable, and new forms and materials will be
used, as has been the case throughout history. Often the convenience
of modern forms and materials makes their use attractive in the short
term. In the eagerness to become modern, many people in the Tropics
have abandoned their traditional age-old solutions to the problems
presented by the local climate and instead have adopted what is
commonly labeled "international architecture," based on the use of
high-technology materials such as the reinforced-concrete frame and
the glass wall. But a 3 x 3-m glass wall in a building exposed to solar
radiation on a warm, clear tropical day will let in approximately 2000
kilocalories per hour. To maintain the microclimate of a building thus
Environment and Architecture
9
exposed within the human comfort zone, two tons of refrigeration
capacity are required. Any architect who makes a solar furnance of his
building and compensates for this by installing a huge cooling machine
is approaching the problem inappropriately and we can measure the
inappropriateness of his attempted solution by the excess number of
kilocalories he uselessly introduces into the building. Furthermore,
the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Tropics are industrially
underdeveloped and cannot afford the luxury of high-technology
building materials or energy-intensive systems for cooling. Although
traditional architecture is always evolving and will continue to absorb
new materials and design concepts, the effects of any substitute material or form should be evaluated before it is adopted. Failure to do so
can only result in the loss of the very concepts that made the traditional
techniques appropriate.
Only a scientific approach to the evaluation of such new developments can save the architecture of the Tropics and Subtropics. The
thoughtless application of modern methods in this region is seldom
successful. A thorough understanding of the climatic environment and
developments based thereon is essential for appropriate solutions.
Although traditional architecture was evolved intuitively over long
periods, it was based primarily on scientifically valid concepts. The
modern academic world of architecture does not emphasize the value
of investigating and applying concepts scientifically and, therefore, has
no respect for vernacular architecture. Now is the time to bridge the
gap between these widely different approaches.
All traditional solutions should be evaluated scientifically before
they are discarded or substitutes proposed. The phenomena of the
microclimate must be analyzed and new building materials, methods,
and designs must be tested until the complex relationships among
buildings, microclimate, and human beings are fully understood. Fortunately, agriculture is perhaps even more intimately affected by the
microclimate than architecture, and agricultural scientists have long
made careful observations of the climate near the ground and in small
localities. Their findings are available to those interested in tropical
and subtropical architecture.
Another science to which architecture is indebted is aerodynamics.
The methods of investigating airflow around the wings and bodies of
aircraft are now being used to study airflow through, over, and around
buildings. Scaled and full-size models can be tested in wind tunnels to
determine the effect of the size, location, and arrangement of openings
on the airflow through individual buildings, as well as the nature of
wind patterns and forces between groups of buildings.
10
Chapter 1
Today more attention is being given to the relationship between
climate and architecture, and several building research organizations
are beginning to examine this relationship.
Various disciplines, including aerodynamics and meteorology, provide an impressive stock of facts that are extremely useful to
architecture. The architect is responsible for interpreting these facts
and applying them to his designs. In this respect, he resembles the
attending physician, who, though using the expertise of the physiologist, radiologist, or bacteriologist, is the only person who can actually
undertake the treatment of a case.
Purchase answer to see full
attachment