ABSTRACT
The thermodynamic principles of maximum power, energy concentration hierarchies, and the co-cycling of materials expand the kinds of narrative available for environmental building design. Situating a project in its urban, economic, and natural hierarchies provides more comprehensive terms to explain its environmental costs and evaluate its contribution to the production of wealth. The survivalist camp actually mirrors the appeals of the all-glass building, on a reduced scale, according to the fears of imminent scarcity that lurk within the wealthy abundance of contemporary civilization. The fuel-powered civilization of the last 200 years has altered everything from the ways we build and organize cities to the ways we live together, and there is no reason to assume that the pace of change will slow as the fuels that powered that growth become more difficult to obtain and more costly to use.
