Energy and Form

Book excerpt: The pertinence of this book's subject—energy conservation through architectural and urban design—will hardly need belaboring in the 1970s. For more than a decade, Ralph L. Knowles has investigated ways in which buildings, settlements, and even regions can be planned so as to take advantage of natural cycles—in particular, the daily and seasonal rhythms of the sun—in order to minimize the need for supportive energy inputs to maintain internal temperatures and other variables at desirable and steady levels. Energy and Formfully reports the results of Knowles's investigations, for which he received the 1974 Medal for Research from the American Institute of Architects.