Climate Architecture

12 Aug 2024, Monday

SDE3, Level 4, LT424 (Please note venue change)

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

CPD points: 2 points

Abstract

Architecture and urbanism were traditionally based on climate and health, where exposure to wind and sun, variations in temperature and humidity influenced the forms of cities and buildings. These fundamental causes of urban planning and buildings were ignored in the second half of the 20th century thanks to the enormous use of fossil energy, that today cause the greenhouse effect and global warming. The fight against climate change forces the architects and urban designer to take back seriously the climatic issue in order to base their design on more consideration to the local climatic context and energy resources.

Faced with the climatic challenges of the 21st century, we propose to reset our discipline on its intrinsic atmospheric qualities, where air, light, heat or humidity are recognized are real materials of building, convection, thermal conduction, evaporation, emissivity, or effusivity are becoming design tools for composing architecture and cities, and through dialectical materialism, are able to revolutionize esthetic and social values.

Bio

Philippe Rahm (born in 1967) is a swiss architect (M.Arch EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 1993 and Ph.D University of Paris-Saclay in 2019), principal in the office of “Philippe Rahm architectes”, based in Paris, France. In 2002, Mr. Rahm was chosen to represent Switzerland at the 8th Architecture Biennale in Venice, and was selected to the 2008 Architectural Venice Biennale. His recent work includes the first prize for a masterplan of 62 hectares new district and a 15 hectares park at the Farini competition in Milan in 2019, the First Prize in 2011 for the 70 hectares Taichung Gateway Park (Jade Eco Park / Central Park) in Taiwan, completed in 2020, the First Prize for the 1800 m2 Agora of the French National Radio in Paris. Monographic books include “Constructed atmospheres” published by Postmedia, Milan, Italy, in 2014 and “Le Jardin Météorologique” published by B2 in France in 2019.

 He has received the Silver Medal of the French Academy of Architecture in 2019 and was made a knight of the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco in 2017. He has held professorships at the at Princeton University (2010-2012), Harvard University (2014-2016), Cornell University (2018-2020), Columbia University (2016 and 2023 where Mr Rahm is currently Dean’s Visiting Associate Professor). He is a tenured associate professor at the National Superior School of Architecture in Versailles, France (ENSA-V). In 2020, he is the curator and author of the exhibition and book “Natural History of Architecture” at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal in Paris. Climatic architecture”, a monographic book is published by Actar at Fall 2023.