4.0 | Factors

The interest in climate-sensitive architecture in the late 1940s-early 1950s was driven by a few factors which include the following:

4.1 | THE QUALITY OF NEWLY CONSTRUCTED SUBURBS

  • The inadequacy of post-WWII residential construction and the planning of developer housing
  • The growth of suburbs spurred an interest in creating smarter, greener developments

4.2 | THE PRESERVATION AND PROMOTION OF MODERNISM

  • An interest in bringing the qualities of modern architecture to a wider audience and broader clientele
  • An interest in finding a functional applicability for the aesthetic and principles of modern architecture
  • A concern over the dominant aesthetic of American architecture (a desire for the promotion of modernism over historicism)

4.3 | THE THREAT OF THE FUTURE

  • A temporary war-time threat of a fuel shortage
  • The threat of longer-term shortages 20-30 years into the future as predicted by economists and scientists

4.4 | AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND TECHNOLOGY

  • The availability of solid climate data from the National Weather Service
  • The availability of new building technologies which architects and clients were anxious to find uses for

4.5 | THE PROMOTION OF AN 'AMERICAN' AESTHETIC AND LIFESTYLE

  • Efficiency of space, materials, money
  • Efficiency and productivity of man
  • Efficiency and productivity of a nation
  • The association of climate-sensitive design with an 'American' aesthetic or identity


Magazine spread from House Beautiful, 1949. Photograph by author.

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