Convergence: An Architectural Agenda for Energy - Softcover

Moe, Kiel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415824915 ISBN 13: 9780415824910

Publisher: Routledge, 2013

Synopsis

Convergence is based on the thermodynamic premise that architecture should maximize its ecological and architectural power. No matter how paradoxical it might initially seem, architects should maximize energy intake, maximize energy use, and maximize energy feedback and reinforcement. This presumes that the necessary excess of architecture is in fact an architect’s greatest asset when it comes to an agenda for energy, not a liability.

But how do we start to understand the full range of eco-thermodynamic principles which need to be engaged with in order to achieve this?

Kiel Moe explicates three factors: materials, energy systems and amortization. When these three factors converge through design, the resulting buildings begin to perform in complex, if not subtle, ways.

By drawing on a range of architectural, thermodynamic, and ecological sources as well as illustrated and well-designed case studies, the author shows what architecture stands to gain by simultaneously maximizing the architectural and ecological power of buildings.

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About this title

About the Author

Kiel Moe is a registered architect and Assistant Professor of Architectural Technology at Harvard Graduate School of Design. At the GSD, he is co-director of the MDesS program and director of the Energy, Environments, & Design Lab.

Review

Looking beyond usual energy efficiency criteria, Moe uses a solid scientific base to uphold a paradoxical proposal, but which ultimately rests on the evidence that works of architecture “are anything but sustainable.” - Arquitectura Viva

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0415824915
• ISBN 13: 9780415824910
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304