About the Author
Victor Olgyay, born September 1, 1910, was a Hungarian architect, city planner and author. He was a pioneer in the field of bioclimatic design along with his twin brother Aladar Olgyay. He was an associate professor at the Princeton School of Architecture and Urban Planning. The Olgyays became the doorways to entirely new concepts in architecture such as solar architecture, passive architecture techniques and bioclimatic architecture. The 1970s energy crisis created a huge demand for energy-efficient buildings and structures and led to increased interest in the work of these brothers. As practising architects, they designed residential, commercial, and exhibition structures for an international clientele.
Book Review
Design with Climate: Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism is a very necessary reading material for the architectural community. From first-year architecture students to professionals looking to integrate climate in their designs, this book helps identify the various climatic elements and examines them in detail. Victor Olgyay, the author shows and explains the influence of climate on various building principles with examples.
The book explores the relationship between humans, climate and shelters. It works around the climate and takes advantage of it instead of introducing artificial climatic conditions inside the building for comfort. The first step in this is defining the comfort requirements. The next is to review the pre-existing climatic conditions. The final step is to analyse the collected data and brainstorm and simulate able solutions. There is also a lot of relation between climatic solutions with other fields such as meteorology, biology, climatology, engineering and physics.
The book is divided into three parts: Climatic Approach, Interpretation in Climatic Approaches and Application.
Climatic Approach
This section discusses the different climatic elements with the help of graphs and images. Climatic elements such as temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, winds, humidity and vegetation are analysed and defined. This first part is also of great importance as it is here that the Bioclimatic Chart is introduced.
Bioclimatic Chart
A bioclimatic chart is a preliminary analysis tool used in the early planning of building construction. It is a psychrometric chart that presents, analyses, and simplifies climatic data and characteristics of any certain location from the point of view of human comfort. It helps an architect design the structure according to the best passive technologies based on the climate and location. It was originally proposed by Victor Olgyay and then presented in a chart by Brown in the book, “Sun, Climate and Architecture”.
Interpretation in Architectural Principles
This section of the book focuses on how the climate can be interpreted in terms of architectural features and principles. Site features such as the topography, sun, winds, natural and built-up surroundings are talked about. The factors for site selection are discussed based on the different climatic zones and the features that they demand. The orientation of buildings according to the direction of the sun’s rays and regional adaptations to the layout of plans is also discussed.
An important passive design technique, shading devices are discussed in this section. Their design, economy and workability are talked about. Various types and designs are shown and the shading effects of natural elements such as trees and bushes are also talked about. The wind directions, orientation as per the wind and analysis of wind patterns are done. Various other features such as properties of materials, effects of moisture, insulation, heat transmission and resistance to sound are also discussed.
Application
This section does a deeper study on the architecture of the four climatic zones – temperate zone, cold zones, warm barren zone, and the warm humid zone. A detailed heat analysis is performed for these zones and the thermal comfort conditions are evaluated. A method of heliothermic planning is expanded upon and case studies on settlements in the given areas are also done.
Planning buildings according to the climate is an urgent problem of the present. It is necessary, now more than ever, to take into consideration these passive design technologies and analysis of climatic data to implement climate-responsive features into the structures right from the planning stage. This book is a wonderful reference for any climatic data and puts information forth in such an easy and friendly manner that the reader cannot help but feel responsible for the designing for efficient structures. Sustainable buildings are the future of architecture and this book acts as a guide for architects to create more environmentally friendly designs.
Other Works by Victor Olgyay
Victor Olgyay wrote several articles, co-authored by his brother, such as The Temperate House (1951), To Pave to Bio-climatic Control and Orientation to Meet Requirements (1954), Sun Orientation and finally, Environment and Building Shape (1954). Olgyay died in 1970, as an outstanding professional, specialising in bioclimatic design.
References
Design with Climate: Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism
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