Solar adobe : energy, ecology, and earthen architecture /
How a centuries-old architectural tradition reemerged as a potential solution to the political and environmental crises of the 1970s Against the backdrop of a global energy crisis, a widespread movement embracing the use of raw earth materials for building construction emerged in the 1970s. Solar Ad...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Minneapolis :
University of Minnesota Press,
[2024].
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| Summary: | How a centuries-old architectural tradition reemerged as a potential solution to the political and environmental crises of the 1970s Against the backdrop of a global energy crisis, a widespread movement embracing the use of raw earth materials for building construction emerged in the 1970s. Solar Adobe examines this new wave of architectural experimentation taking place in the United States, detailing how an ancient tradition became a point of convergence for issues of environmentalism, architecture, technology and Indigenous resistance. Utilized for centuries by the Pueblo people of the American Southwest and by Spanish colonialists, adobe construction found renewed interest as various groups contended with the troubled legacies of modern architecture and an increasingly urgent need for sustainable design practices. In this period of critical experimentation, design networks that included architects, historians, counterculture communities, government weapons labs and Indigenous activists all looked to adobe as a means to address pressing environmental and political issues. Albert Narath charts the unique capacities of adobe construction across a wide range of contexts, consistently troubling simple distinctions between traditional and modern technologies, high design and vernacular architecture. Drawing insightful parallels between architecture, environmentalism and movements for Indigenous sovereignty, Solar Adobe stresses the importance of considering the history of the built environment in conjunction with architecture's larger impact on the natural world. |
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| Physical Description: | 294 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781517914073 1517914078 9781517914066 151791406X |