ABSTRACT
Passive solar architecture is a symbiotic response to the context in which it occurs. One of the tenets of modern design was that with industrial progress, architecture could be freed of the constraints of the site. Passive solar design reverses that assumption, proclaiming that the site is a major design consideration not only compositionally, but in regard to thermal sources and sinks the site offers to serve the building's energy needs. Psychrometrics chart allows the plotting of specific climatic data in relation to standard comfort zone and appropriate passive design strategies. This type of control is very straight forward for the seasonal extremes. A demographic look at the history of world population growth reveals patterns that repeat though three successive cultural eras. Passive solar architecture is a key part of this transition. Architecture is a cultural and social artifact as much as a technical planning and construction process.
