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Thermal Delight in Architecture | 
 enlarge | Author: Lisa Heschong
Publisher: The MIT Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy Used: $7.84
You Save: $10.16 (56%)
New (22) Used (37) from $7.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 385357
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 94
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.4
ISBN: 026258039X
Dewey Decimal Number: 720.1
EAN: 9780262580397
ASIN: 026258039X
Publication Date: December 5, 1979
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Product Description
Our thermal environment is as rich in cultural associations as our visual, acoustic, olfactory, and tactile environments. This book explores the potential for using thermal qualities as an expressive element in building design.
Until quite recently, building technology and design has favored high-energy-consuming mechanical methods of neutralizing the thermal environment. It has not responded to the various ways that people use, remember, and care about the thermal environment and how they associate their thermal sense with their other senses. The hearth fire, the sauna, the Roman and Japanese baths, and the Islamic garden are discussed as archetypes of thermal delight about which rituals have developed?reinforcing bonds of affection and ceremony forged in the thermal experience. Not only is thermal symbolism now obsolete but the modern emphasis on central heating systems and air conditioning and hermetically sealed buildings has actually damaged our thermal coping and sensing mechanisms. This book for the solar age could help change all that and open up for us a new dimension of architectural experience.
As the cost of energy continues to skyrocket, alternatives to the use of mechanical force must be developed to meet our thermal needs. A major alternative is the use of passive solar energy, and the book will provide those interested in solar design with a reservoir of ideas.
Lisa Heschong earned a degree in Environmental Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and once in Architecture from MIT.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Unique information March 12, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I purchased this book for use with my Thesis research, and have been quite pleased with it. The book brings up ideas about human perception of spaces as influenced by thermal conditions. It goes into historical examples very nicely, but it is a little weak on more contemporary works. That being said, it is quite easy to apply the proposals to any work of architecture. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in 1) architecture or 2) human perception. For someone that is interested in the human perception of architecture, it's a must-have.
 And besides, its (cheap) December 15, 2000
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
This book does not provide much in the way of technical information on the art architecture, and that is perhaps its greatest strength. Rather, Heschong offers a more poetic, archetypal appreciation of buildings and environment, focusing, as the title suggests, on the role warmth plays in creating an enjoyable construction that is capable of influencing human bonding and interaction within its boundaries. Heschong's simple, lucid prose captures the subtle effects of the dynamics of warmth in our daily lives. I am not a student of architecture and have done little reading in this area (unfortunately, few books live up to the precedent set by Heschong and seem dull reading in comparison), but this book has had a profound impact on my perceptions and the way I experience my surroundings, opening up a whole new world of appreciation.
Unique approach to architecture. Concise, accessible to all. May 7, 1998
25 out of 25 found this review helpful
Of the many books I've read on architecture, this has been by far the most influential; it inspired by bachelor of architecture thesis. Heschong argues that thermal aesthetics in architecture, although almost universally overlooked, affect building users at least as much as visual aesthetics. She supports her thesis by naming dozens of examples linking thermal qualities to psychology/perception, culture, traditions, language, and, of course, architecture. The book is accessible to everyone and not just architects: it is not at all technical and is very concise. Yet it is thorough, and is sure to change the reader's perception of his or her thermal environments.
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