Form Follows Energy: Residential Design Before and After Fossil Fuels

From First Period Houses to contemporary forms to the traditionally inspired homes of today, fossil fuels have impacted the form of our houses. According to the US E.I.A., over 43% of the energy consumed in our country is used to run our buildings today. Most of this energy comes from the burning of fossil fuels. The burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that are changing our climate. We must find a way to dramatically reduce the amount of energy our buildings consume. How can we design and construct our buildings to meet this challenge? We might look at traditional building forms before the introduction of fossil fuels into our energy economy. Buildings constructed pre-fossil fuels are the original zero net energy/zero carbon structures. They were built with carbon neutral materials and heated with carbon neutral fuel. They were built to respond to a particular climate. Once fossil fuels were discovered, such as coal, our buildings dramatically changed. They no longer had to use local materials or relate to the local climate. This event is presented in partnership with Kevin Cradock Builders and generously sponsored by Geberit.