ABSTRACT
As was evident in the discussion of how archi-tecture and sounds interact, there are immutable laws of physics that must be dealt with. We cannot wish them away. Nor can we forget that a building, like any other object in the world, becomes a part of the world. In the West, one of the legacies of the Renaissance is the tendency to think of buildings primarily or initially as objects of artistic or social significance, but not as objects operating within the environment. Landscape architects escape this myopia from the outset, since they deal with living objects, and their success as designers depends on whether they know that the soil and the climate in a particular area will support the plant materials they propose to use. Especially in the twentieth century, after the development of effective heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning equipment, architects in the industrialized West largely stopped thinking about such concerns as sun exposure, wind patterns, and prevailing local temperatures, because they felt confident that, given enough equipment, they could overcome any difficulty. More technology seemed to be the solution to all problems and impediments. There was a price to be paid, of course, but that was a challenge to be borne by the client and the user in the long years after the completion of the building. Architects did not then worry much about that.
