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climate
Climate that triumverate of air, temperature and precipitation, stitches the human and natural worlds together. A change in the weather is marked by a change in the human body. Dry winds parch lips and the thick heat of summer strings them with beads of sweat. So too does climate mark changes in the the most rudimentary acts of human dwelling: what one eats depends on on the seasonal availability of fruit, vegetable and fish. Climate conditions basic acts of construction. In the Mediterranean, houses are embedded in the ground to take advantage of the cool, mediating temperature of the earth and are oriented to catch prevailing breezes. In Ireland, the wind is freezing and wet: farm cottages have small interior vestibules and three doors to protect inhabitants from the exigencies of weather. Climate suggests Watsuji Tetsuro, is the agent through which humans discover themselves. The artifacts that are created in response to the particular conditions of a place-the sun, the rain, the amount of wind, its soil are records of the "the prehistory of a place, its archaelogical past and its subsequent cultivation and transformation across time." Climate demands immediacy in humanresponse: questions of shelter and sustenance hinge on the weather.
Climate is equally crucial to entire communities. Vitruvius recommends the choice of a very healthy city site and counsels the careful examination of wind direction, exposure, the amount of moisture in the air and an understanding of the habits of wild creatures. The health of the site determines the health of the citizenry and his advice is particularly potent today when the water and soil hold hydrogen suflide, creosote and other pollutants and urban breezes stain the surrounding sky. At the same time his recommendations belie an understanding of natural forces that modern technology has eroded. It is not so crucial to construct a dwelling that is naturally cool. There are fans and air conditioning. And yet, in Henry V an old king lays dying and the auguries of his bad fortunes are a string of unseasonal events: gees migrating early, the birth of a lamb in winter, and darkness at midday in July, events without cause, without climate.
Climate determines the most basic individual and collective acts of dwelling. Accuracy and care in response to its vagaries make the poetics of water, wind and light concrete and expressive of the discourse between people and the place in which they live