Green Architecture

Green Architecture, written in 2000 by James Wines, is still an interesting read and relevant. The book features a lot of underground projects, a good approach for extremely hot and extremely cold climates.

Cool air flows down and hot air rises. If you build underground in hot dry inland climates, you can open up the house to cool dry air overnight. Houses in cold dry climates can benefit from massive layers of earth for insulation. Wet climates run the risk of flooding and it is noticeable that some examples of underground buildings are on the top of a hill.

My first though about many of the projects is the lack of natural light indoors, followed by a question about natural air flow. While many of the projects could be said to look natural and some feature natural materials, living inside them would not be natural.

Before you dive in expecting everything to be about architecture, note that James's first book was Architecture as Art. Green Architecture spends a long time discussing art and the look of projects, instead of how they are built or how they work. There is little information about how the buildings were built or work.

Large format paperback: