ABSTRACT
In the days of agrarian societies, economic and cultural systems were dependent upon local resources and flows of energy, such as the rain and sun that fell directly upon the land where settlements were located. Buildings of those times were based upon designs that expended the least amount of energy and used the materials closest to hand. The architecture of the Industrial Age has not fitted Nature as well. Witness the effects of fossil fuel use on climate change. Witness that most buildings are uninhabitable without continuous, high-intensity infusions of energy. Each of the architects in this section has found an architectural expression that is his own profound attempt to return environmental balance to the creation of buildings.
