Thermal Architecture

This book is structured in four parts: First, it analyzes the sustainability objectives established for the building stock and the importance of thermal comfort in this aspect. Second, the existing adaptive thermal comfort models and the main energy-saving measures associated with these models are analyzed.

A recent discussion at Archinect prompted me to pick up my copy of Zumthor's out-of-print, 60-page collection of four lectures ("A way of looking at things", "The hard core of beauty", "From passion for things to the things themselves", "The body of architecture") and an essay "Teaching architecture, learning architecture". While the words span eight years, the ideas are consistent, particularly the importance of image. Zumthor culls imagery from his past, especially his youth, recalling places like his Aunt's kitchen, "a kitchen that has imprinted its memory indelibly on my mind". It is apparent that he puts as much care into his words as he does into his buildings, the Thermal Baths in Vals his most well-known, for good reason. In this project a timeless way of designing is achieved, the interiors cave-like and primal yet contemporary. Even more than Libeskind's recent book, Thinking Architecture reminds one of the power of architecture, reinstilling the drive to create architecture that resonates with people for years and generations to come.

The inspiration for this book came from numerous buildings, books and people. Two books that have remained with us since our student days — Rasmussen’s Experiencing Architecture and Heschong’s Thermal Delight in Architecture — conveyed to us a sense of enjoyment of architecture that went beyond the spatial and stylistic. This was reinforced by the Cambridge Masters course in Environmental Design in Architecture, which we both attended, founded and coordinated at that time by Nick Baker and Dean Hawkes. If there is an axiom that came out of that education then it could read as ‘Building science is at the service of architecture, and architecture at the service of people’.

by Ignaz Strebel (Editor),‎ Jan Silberberger (Editor)