2014 volume 11 | issue 1

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY SURVEY

Vandana Baweja

ABSTRACT critiqued. Environmental history is one of the fastest growing fields

of history, and is not a subdiscipline of history but a metadiscipline,
Architecture and urbanism have engaged sustainability as an action-
given its scope and inclusivity. Writing architectural histories within
oriented objective through the practice of green design and sustainable
the metadiscipline of environmental history is emerging as a new way
urbanism, which have several iterations. Architectural history has yet
of producing architectural histories. The architectural history survey
to produce a significant body of work in response to environmental
taught from an environmental history perspective can contribute to an
discourses that are currently dominated by sustainability. The
understanding of fundamental concepts about architecture and cities
architectural history survey – when taught from an environmental
within the environmental discourse and therefore position the idea of
history perspective – can serve the purpose of understanding not
just sustainability, but the relationship of architecture and urbanism sustainability historically.
to the environment through history. I address the question, how
can sustainability, a 1980s paradigm, be addressed in the teaching INTRODUCTION
of the architectural history survey that ranges from pre-history to Since the 1990s, sustainable development has emerged as
contemporary times? Sustainability is a dominant contemporary
the new paradigm of economic growth based on the carrying
paradigm of environmentalism produced through economic
development discourses of environmental management. I argue that capacity of the earth. Consequently, the built environment
the architectural history survey can provide opportunities to engage – architecture and urbanism – have been amongst the core
environmental histories in unearthing and disseminating ecological sectors of intervention to achieve sustainable development.1
histories of architecture and urbanism. The architectural history survey In the field of architectural practice, there is a substantial body
– when taught from an environmental history perspective – can serve of scholarship on sustainable architecture as a goal. However,
the purpose of understanding the environmental discourses that have as a discipline architectural history has not yet engaged
informed sustainability historically, across different times and cultures. environmental histories to produce substantial scholarship
I propose that teaching architectural history within the larger field of on how societies have addressed architecture in its ecological
environmental history is one way through which sustainability, as an
context. I argue that the architectural history survey can provide
environmental management paradigm, can be grasped, defined, and
opportunities to engage environmental histories in unearthing
and disseminating ecological histories of architecture and
urbanism. The architectural history survey – when taught from
Permissions and copyright an environmental history perspective – can serve the purpose of
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an
understanding the environmental discourses that have informed
acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal (Attribution-ShareAlike). sustainability historically, across different times and cultures.
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)
You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. Adapt — remix, Sustainable development was first defined in the Brundtland
transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke Report, titled Our Common Future, as development that “meets
these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, future generations to meet their own needs.”2 The Brundtland
and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that
suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Report was written from the perspective of the economy, that is,
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally how the deteriorating quality of the environment and diminishing
restrict others from doing anything the license permits. supplies of finite natural resources can be impediments to
How to cite:
Baweja, Vandana. 2014. “Sustainability and the Architectural History Survey.” Enquiry 11 (1): 40-51.

ISSN 2329-9339 40
economic growth. The genealogy of the Brundtland Report can the depletion of oak and naval grade timber on their mainland
be traced to older manifestoes, such as the Club of Rome’s The territories; the Ming dynasty’s concern over Beijing’s water
Limits to Growth: a Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on pollution and the consequent southward extension of its
the Predicament of Mankind, and E. F. Schumacher’s Small is southern boundary; Mughal notions of the paradise garden, its
Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered.3 After the Brundtland application in water management and gardening; concerns over
Report, the Rio Summit generated the next manifesto on atmospheric pollution in England over coal burning in the 1600s;
sustainability, titled Agenda 21, which laid out clear guidelines for sustained yield (Nachhaltigkeit) German forestry; hygiene and
sustainable architecture and settlements.4 Subsequently, based urban pollution problems related to the Industrial Revolution;
on the Brundtland definition, the term “sustainability” entered preservation and conservation movements; environmental
the public discourse and has had an enduring impact on several concerns in the European colonies; Malthusian theories of the
disciplines in academia.5 Sustainability translates into practices finite resources of the earth; and the modern environmentalist
that achieve balance between economic growth and the earth’s movement which gained significant traction through the
regenerative and carrying capacity. work of women like Rachel Carson and Lois Gibbs. By framing
sustainability historically through the lens of environmental
There are several definitions of the term “sustainability” architectural and urban histories, the idea of sustainability can
and there is no unanimity on what it means. It is an abstract be grasped. The survey can be a critical forum for examining
concept that has been overused to include so many goals that how architecture and urbanism have made societies sustainable
the very breadth of its scope has made the term problematic or unsustainable in the past. The architectural history survey,
and somewhat inconsequential.6 In this paper sustainability is taught within environmental history, can offer the opportunity
defined as a paradigm of environmental management based to understand environmentalisms in relationship to architecture
on the carrying capacity of the earth. Sustainability began and urbanism through human histories.
as a goal to achieve sustained economic growth and is being
transformed into a discipline.7 Architecture and urbanism have I propose that teaching architectural history within the larger
engaged sustainability as an action-oriented objective through field of environmental history is one way through which
the practice of green design and sustainable urbanism, which sustainability, as an environmental management paradigm, can
have several iterations. Architectural history has yet to produce a be grasped, defined, and critiqued. Environmental history is one
significant body of work in response to environmental discourses of the fastest growing fields of history, and is not a subdiscipline
that are currently dominated by sustainability. Architectural of history but a metadiscipline, given its scope and inclusivity.
historians have reflected on the impact of sustainability on the Writing architectural histories within the metadiscipline of
architectural academe, with reservations that the increasing environmental history is emerging as a new way of producing
emphasis on sustainability may further marginalize architectural architectural histories. The architectural history survey taught
history.8 I propose the contrary: the architectural history survey from an environmental history perspective can contribute to
– when taught from an environmental history perspective – can an understanding of fundamental concepts about architecture
serve the purpose of understanding not just sustainability, but and cities within the environmental discourse and therefore
the relationship of architecture and urbanism to the environment position the idea of sustainability historically. The architectural
through history. history survey could engage with questions such as how
architecture and cities have been related to ecological regions,
I address the question – how can sustainability, a 1980s paradigm, bioregions, and earth systems through histories. In addition, the
be addressed in the teaching of the architectural history survey survey can also provide a framework for understanding ways in
that ranges from pre-history to contemporary times? Sustainability which societies have faced environmental stresses, managed
is a dominant contemporary paradigm of environmentalism their environments, and produced environmental knowledge
produced through economic development discourses of throughout history. Such an approach would potentially facilitate
environmental management. Primarily based on the limits of a more integrated delivery of environmental education in the
resources and minimizing the impact of harmful anthropogenic history of architecture curriculum and the design studio, as is
processes on the planet, sustainability has an intellectual becoming evident in new texts such as P. Tabb and A. S. Deviren’s
trajectory that intersects with the history of architecture and The Greening of Architecture: A Critical History and Survey of
urbanism. The intellectual origins of sustainability can be traced Contemporary Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design.9
to several older paradigms of environmentalism that have
existed throughout history. Examples include Aristotle’s and
Pliny’s concerns over deforestation and soil erosion; medieval
European concerns over deforestation; Venetian anxieties over

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THE NEED FOR AN ARCHITECTURAL ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY paradigms, such as net zero buildings, dominate the discourse
SURVEY in their centrality to state policies related to architecture in
The discipline of architecture has absorbed the discourse of the United States and the European Union. Since architecture
sustainability largely through the fields of building construction and urbanism constitute primary areas of intervention in
technology and environmental technology, all within the sustainability manifestoes, architectural discourses can question
larger field of science. The relationship between architectural how and why sustainability is defined in terms of carrying capacity
studio education and sustainability is heavily weighted toward and sustained economic growth. An architectural environmental
the applied sciences, leaving little room for the discipline of body of knowledge such as the history survey can effectively
architecture to engage with humanistic questions of sustainability. question the place of architectural design and urban planning in
In the design studio, the environmental problems emphasized the sustainability discourses.
in the Brundtland Report – for example, energy consumption
and the diminishing reserve of fossil fuels, depletion of natural ENVIRONMENTAL AND ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIES
resources, exponential urban growth, and inadequate housing – As a field of inquiry, environmental history emerged out of the
are seen as design problems. These are addressed by solution- environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s.15 J. Donald
driven approaches such as Cradle to Cradle, Ecological Design, net Hughes defines environmental history as human history through
zero buildings, and zero-carbon buildings.10 These performance- an ecological lens.16 Environmental history is an emerging
based paradigms operate through empirical measures such metadiscipline that faces the daunting task of unifying ecological
as energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, resource histories, societal formations, histories of technology, and
management, life cycle assessment, indoor air quality control, cultural histories into a meta-narrative.17 John McNeill has
and waste management. Olgyay and Herdt define green classified environmental history into three broad categories:
buildings as “examples of applied ecology,” where architects material histories, cultural and intellectual histories, and political
treat the construction site as an ecosystem, and the building in histories.18 Architectural and urban histories can be classified
an ecological relationship with its site.11 Climate change and its as subsets of the metadiscipline of environmental history as
metrics – energy consumption and the carbon cycle – dominate material environmental histories, that is, the history of human
green design. A manual of green design titled The Green Studio habitats. To that effect, it would be useful to think of a history of
Handbook: Environmental Strategies for Schematic Design architecture and cities as a history of ecosystems, where the built
defines the ethical objective of green design thus: environment is conceived as a set of ecological relationships.19

While green design focuses upon reducing the The Environment in Architecture History Surveys
environmental impacts of energy, water, and Architectural histories, which have their intellectual origins in art
material usage (including, presumably, carbon history and cultural studies, focus on the socio-cultural processes
emissions), truly informed designs must explicitly in the production of architecture and urbanism. The major
reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from history of architecture survey textbooks, such as A Global History
buildings.12 of Architecture; World Architecture: a Cross-cultural History; A
History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals; Buildings across
The definition of green design in terms of the carbon metric Time: An Introduction to World Architecture; and Architecture,
links individual buildings directly to global systems such as from Prehistory to Postmodernity chronicle how culture and
climate change. Design studios emphasize the problem-solving technology determine architecture and urbanism.20These
approach, where design is expected to provide the solution to the histories emphasize a formal, spatial, technological, and cultural
built environment’s challenges to our survival, namely finite and reading of architecture. They construct a narrative that is based on
unequally distributed energy sources, and the limited supply of the finest architectural and urban achievements of civilizations,
building materials. A plurality of paradigms such as “eco-technic,” empires, dynasties, nation-states, tribes, and individual architects.
“eco-centric,” “eco-aesthetic,” “eco-cultural,” “eco-medical,” and As textbooks they constitute effective strategies to meet the
“eco-social” are used to locate buildings on the environmentalist curriculum requirements. However, environmental history is not
spectrum.13 However, these applied approaches are often adequately represented in these surveys. The environment is a
inadequate in addressing the cultural, social, ideological, and passive locale on which architecture and cities, as products of
ethical aspects of green design.14 human agency, are constructed.21 The environment is seen as
providing a stable set of deterministic criteria, such as: climate,
History and theory of architecture can question how the topography, natural features, and water availability. These
sustainable design discourse has been constructed and why some texts rely on human agency as a driving force in the making of

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architecture and cities. The role of the environment as an agent following section, I look at ways in which environmental histories
in architectural and urban transformations is not emphasized can intersect with the architectural history survey.
enough.
THE GOALS OF AN ARCHITECTURAL ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
Within architecture, there is growing scholarship on how to build SURVEY
green buildings, but there are not enough architectural histories A history of architecture survey that is taught within the broader
written from an environmental perspective to warrant a field discipline of environmental history can have multiple objectives
of architectural environmental history. The only architectural that can engage sustainability’s relationship to architecture and
environmental survey of Modernism is Reyner Banham’s The urbanism in several ways. These goals can be: one, to historicize
Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment. Banham’s book environmental problems in relationship to the built environment;
is written from the perspective of the environmental design two, to understand architecture and cities as ecosystems, in
of buildings. The emphasis is on how buildings in Western terms of resource cycles such as building materials, fuels, and
Europe and the United States changed as building services water; three, to grasp environmental management in the
advanced and transitioned to fossil fuel powered electricity. service of architecture and urbanism; and four, to understand
The survey focuses on how architectural technology impacted how civilizations change under environmental stresses. In the
the spatial configurations of buildings in the fossil fuel age, following section, I illustrate how these themes can be included
but not on the impact of a fossil fuel dependent architecture in the architectural history survey and through specific examples
on the environment. There are only a handful of architectural I will show how environmental histories can inform architectural
histories that intersect with environmental histories, including histories.
P. Anker’s From Bauhaus to Ecohouse a History of Ecological
Design; M. Murphy’s Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Environmental Problems in Relationship to the Built
Uncertainty: Environmental Politics, Technoscience, and Women Environment
Workers; David Orr’s Design on the Edge: The Making of a The problems addressed in the Brundtland Report – rising
High-Performance Building; and P. Tabb and A. S. Deviren’s The population, food insecurity, loss of ecosystems, diminishing
Greening of Architecture.22 They mostly focus on the twentieth biodiversity, dependence on non-renewable polluting energy
century. These histories chronicle the change in architecture and sources, inefficient industrial production systems, inefficacious
urbanism with the rise of modern environmentalism. land use for agriculture and urbanization, and deteriorating
commons, have precedents in human history. John McNeill in
Architecture within Environmental History Surveys Something New Under the Sun notes that with a few exceptions,
Environmental history surveys include cities, insofar as city like the thinning of the Ozone layer, most environmental
building is one kind of human activity amongst many – such as problems of the twentieth century are not new. However, they
agriculture, deforestation, hunting, and irrigation – that have are unprecedented in their scope, acuteness, and scale.26 For the
transformed the environment. There is very little emphasis first time in history, the extent of human induced environmental
on architecture in environmental histories. Given its scale, the transformations matches the magnitude of naturally generated
city has been established as an enduring unit of analysis in environmental changes.27 An environmental architectural
environmental history, as it represents several large scale and history survey can illuminate how architecture and cities have
complex transformations of the environment.23 In the early contributed to environmental stresses in the past and the
1990s, the Worsterian “agroecological” perspective, which transformation of societies under those environmental stresses.
focused heavily on agriculture as the primary human process in
the transformation of the environment, dominated the discipline Let’s consider Roman aqueducts, which are regarded as marvels
of environmental history.24 Historians such as William Cronon, of Roman hydraulic engineering. The architecture of water
Martin Melosi, Christine Rosen, and Joel Tarr, who were interested collection, storage, and distribution is useful in examining water
in environmental histories of cities, argued that environmental consumption and its impact on water sources. The pollution of
historians had not given enough recognition to the city, both as the Tiber due to waste discharge necessitated the construction of
an environmentally transformative process and as a field of study such aqueducts.28 The aqueducts are celebrated in architectural
within the discipline of environmental history. Consequently, history as a prime example of arcuated construction and how
the field of urban environmental history emerged as a body of they made the Roman leisure culture of baths possible. However,
knowledge to study the city as an ecological process. While the the Roman aqueduct and water distribution system incurred high
field of urban environmental history has matured since then environmental costs due to the consumption of large amounts
to produce a significant body of work, the field of architectural of water – 350,000,000 gallons per day.29 This impacted the
environmental history has yet to realize its full potential.25 In the

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ecosystems of the places from which the water was drawn; the use of these materials relate architectural histories to the
creating a deficit at the source that left the local vegetation and ecological histories of the Roman Empire.32 The Roman processes
animal life with an inadequate supply.30 The case of imperial of mining and quarrying altered the landscape by creating cavities
Rome’s water consumption can offer insights into the ecological that eroded the land, which in turn deteriorated the quality
costs of creating an enormous infrastructure to facilitate the of the ground water.33 The production of bricks, ceramics, and
indiscriminate consumption of a finite natural resource such as metals placed further stresses on the environment through the
water. combustion of wood and charcoal.34 Environmental historians
argue that a loss of an optimal adaptation with the natural
Architecture and Cities as Ecosystems environment was one of the reasons for the decline of Rome.
The analysis of the flow of natural resources and energy – building The social, political, and ecological impacts of the excessive use
materials, fuels, and water – opens up questions for examining of resources beyond the carrying capacity of the city of Rome in
architecture and cities as ecosystems. By adding knowledge of the the context of the Roman Empire can be thematically related to
life cycle analysis of natural resources historically, the surveys can current environmental themes such as the unsustainable use of
be closely aligned to contemporary discourses on sustainability fossil fuels and water.
where architecture and cities are viewed in terms of resource and
energy flows. The architectural surveys are fairly comprehensive Environmental Management
in addressing the use of building materials in construction. In As a paradigm of environmental management, sustainability calls
order to focus on the flow of building materials as part of an for the efficient management of land, water, forests, commons,
ecosystem, enquiries such as how the building materials were and human settlements.35 Sustainable architecture discourses
acquired, the environmental impact of extracting them, the call for a sustainable use of building materials and a change in
social group that extracted them, the rate of consumption of material cycles from the cradle to grave to the cradle to cradle
those building materials, and the afterlife of building materials model.36 The impact of architecture and urbanism on natural
can establish architecture in terms of ecological relationships resources and the underlying environmental management is,
with the environment. however, marginal to existing architecture history surveys.

Take the case of Greece. Architectural histories illuminate the Environmental management can potentially be a key theme in
relationship between architectural form and the transition from understanding not only the environmental stresses generated by
timber to a combination of timber and stone in Greek temple building activity, but also how natural resources, especially forests,
architecture. The evolution of the temple form is a narrative were regulated by societies to achieve sustainable growth. The
of progress with an ascending trajectory that begins with the mechanisms through which societies managed natural resources
megaron and culminates with the Parthenon. It is possible that in the past can provide us with ways of thinking about sustainable
the Greeks started using stone because their forests became societies and their relationship to the environment.
depleted and timber became scarce. By speculating on the
environmental reasons for this transition, that is deforestation, In the case of medieval architectural and environmental
the environmental stresses due to building construction can histories, cathedral building dominates architectural history and
be brought into the fold of architectural history. The impact deforestation is the major theme of environmental histories.
of the Greek consumption of timber and its environmental As a resource, forests provided fuel, timber for architectural
consequences in terms of diminishing timber resources, construction and ship building, and land for farming and
deforestation, soil erosion, and the subsequent introduction of pastures. Environmental histories chart increases in population,
malaria can establish how architectural consumption of natural agricultural production, and economic activity as key factors in
resources altered the ecosystem.31 the shrinking forest cover.37 The three key categories of medieval
cathedral architecture, which are Carolingian, Romanesque, and
The ecological cost of the consumption of energy and building Gothic, dominate architectural histories. One of the main themes
materials in imperial Rome constitutes one of the most effective in the development of Romanesque architecture is the objective
case studies in the survey. Romans are cast as the greatest to create a nave that is vaulted with stone to eliminate the use
engineers of the pre-modern world for their achievements in of timber.38 Fire is the major reason cited for this structural
the sphere of infrastructural projects such as roads, bridges, transformation, but it can also be attributed to the rising demand
aqueducts, and sewers. The architectural surveys narrate for and short supply of timber. The medieval growth of cities and
how the Romans used construction materials such as marble, the rise in building activity make a strong case for examining the
tufa, travertine, concrete, and bricks in the context of Roman pressures exerted on the timber supply chain and the consequent
technological achievements. The ecological consequences of change in forestry practices.

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Two examples – medieval northern France and Venice – are Historians contend that the fragmentation of the Western
noteworthy cases where forestry histories intersect with Roman Empire might have been partly due to unsustainable
architectural and urban histories. They can be used to illustrate social structures and lifestyles involving excessive inequitable
the impact of building activity on forestry practices. In medieval consumption of natural resources.44 Such histories can open
northern France the changing woodland management practices up room for drawing parallels between the Roman Empire and
caused the shift towards coppicing – a sylviculture practice that our present-day attitudes toward inequitable social structures
entails chopping trees at their trunks to achieve fast growth and and consuming natural resources. 45 J. Donald Hughes argues
regeneration of trees from stumps, as opposed to completely that the Roman social stratification concentrated wealth and
uprooting a tree and planting a new one.39 Coppicing is a land in the possession of a few powerful people in the society.46
sustainable practice, which met the rising demands of medieval This unequal distribution of resources, the unchecked depletion
timber consumption. As a consequence of the pressure on timber of natural resources, and the practice of slavery contributed to
supply in northern France, the forest management practices environmental stresses. Hughes makes a compelling argument
changed from gathering naturally available products to actively that environmental factors led to the deterioration of the quality
managing forests.40 of life in the Roman Empire and hence to its fragmentation.47
While a centralized top-down society makes it possible to
Venice’s environmental management of its Italian mainland construct large-scale architectural and infrastructural projects,
forests and its relationship to Venetian urbanism constitutes as the Romans did, according to Hughes such a social structure
an important case study of how cities depend on distant is ultimately unsustainable as the slaves had no interest in caring
resources. The city, built on the sea, did not exist in isolation. for the land they worked on. The Roman example raises questions
Its mainland possessions, which provided the city with supplies such as what kind of societal structures are sustainable and why
of lumber and firewood, included northeastern Italy, the social justice issues are also often environmental issues. Hughes’
western half of the lstrian Peninsula, and most of the Dalmatian argument in the case of Rome can be weighed in the context
coast. Venetian buildings were built on tolpi (wooden piles), of the causal relationship between poverty and environmental
which constituted load-bearing foundations. The larch, alder, degradation as postulated by the Brundtland Report.
and oak beams that form the primary structural material on
which Venetian architecture is founded were sourced from its For another example of environmental stresses, the case of
mainland possessions.41 The Venetian Republic actively managed Mayan cities, specifically Tikal, and water management offers an
their forests through what Karl Appuhn calls “managerial interesting . Mayan cities depended on seasonal rainfall cycles
organicism,” a paradigm of environmental management based to sustain agriculture and urban life. Architectural histories are
on conservation through a prioritized selective use of forests.42 rich in their emphasis on Tikal’s urbanism in relationship to the
Managerial organicism relied heavily on knowledge generated Mayan cosmic geography. The role of water collection in the city
through aggressive mapping and surveying. layout can enrich the study of the relationship between water
infrastructure and urbanism. Tikal’s urban spatial layout in terms
Venetian environmental management included not only early of its plaza, pyramids, and platforms was designed to collect
modern forest management on the Italian mainland, but also the rainwater for storage in reservoirs for consumption during the dry
rigorous regulation of water in the city to maintain the delicate months.48 The Maya routinely utilized the topography of the site
balance between the ocean and the lagoon. The present-day in city building to engineer hydraulic gradients in the distribution
problems related to the sinking of Venice that include rise of of water. Mayanists speculate that the Mayan population grew
sea levels, sinking buildings, and decaying infrastructure can exponentially during the classic Maya period, reaching close to
be historicized in relationship to the building of Venice and its the carrying capacity of the region, placing excessive stress on the
environmental management.43 environment. The population pressure and successive droughts
may have depleted water reserves.49 One of the reasons for the
Civilizations Under Environmental Stresses Mayan collapse might have been the centralized control of water
The unsustainability of our lifestyles is not an unprecedented reservoirs by Mayan rulers.50 Multiyear droughts could certainly
problem. Environmental stresses have been attributed as causal have played a role in deflating the authority of the rulers due
agents in the change of civilizations such as the Roman, the Mayan, to water conflicts, creating social unrest. The centralized control
and the Indus Valley. The environmental adaptation capabilities of water can also illuminate the relationships between resource
of civilizations that went through extreme stresses offers an management and unsustainable societal structures. The study
opportunity to examine what makes societies sustainable and of water management and its societal impact can be used to
how societies cope with environmental stresses. raise fundamental questions such as why it is important to have
an equitable distribution of resources like energy and water.

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As we run the risk of water scarcity in the coming decades History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals; A Global History of
with retreating glaciers, drying rivers, and polluted springs, Architecture; and World Architecture: A Cross-Cultural History –
water management has become an integral part of sustainable are primarily cultural histories of architecture. In the absence of a
architecture and urbanism. One of the ways in which the history text that takes the proposed new approach, it is possible to use any
survey can establish a dialogue with the design discourse is to one of the existing books in combination with an environmental
raise relevant questions that address water consumption and history text such as J. Donald Hughes’ An Environmental History
management. of the World: Humankind’s Changing Role in the Community of
Life or Stephen Mosley’s The Environment in World History.
The ways environmental histories can intersect with architectural
histories to historicize environmental problems in relationship to As this field evolves, there are several existing challenges of
the built environment – to understand architecture and cities teaching the architectural history survey within the larger
as ecosystems, in terms of resource cycles such as building discipline of environmental history. The periodization and
materials, fuels, and water; to grasp environmental management taxonomies of architectural histories do not always neatly
in the context of history; and to understand how civilizations correspond with the organization of environmental histories.
change under environmental stresses – are merely few ways in Nevertheless, given the limitations of existing scholarship, at
which the two histories can establish a dialogue with each other. several points in the architectural survey it becomes particularly
challenging to include existing environmental history texts.
CHALLENGES OF TEACHING THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY
SURVEY WITHIN AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY PARADIGM The histories of globalization are treated very differently in the
In order to accredit architecture programs, the National two fields. The global history of the environment is defined in
Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) requires that students ecological terms, while the global histories of architecture are
be educated to grasp historical traditions and global culture “in based on the cultural histories of globalization. The project of
terms of their climatic, ecological, technological, socioeconomic, creating global histories has raised interesting questions in the
public health, and cultural factors.”51 Architectural and urban disciplines of architectural and environmental histories. The
traditions have so far constituted tectonic expressions, spatial term “global” in the architectural history survey is related to
configurations, and construction technologies. The way globalization as a cultural and political project tied to the flow of
societies have used environmental knowledge in the making ideas, people, styles, tastes, and capital across political borders.52
of architecture and cities can also contribute significantly to The practice of writing the global survey in architectural history
the cultural understanding of architecture, by illuminating calls for including marginalized world regions that in earlier
how environmental knowledge determines architecture and histories were cast through a Euro-centric lens. In the field of
urbanism. An environmental history of architecture would environmental history the project of creating a world history
strengthen the survey in meeting NAAB guidelines that require necessitates the task of examining human pasts in the context
an understanding of architecture in ecological terms. of the transformations of earth systems.53 The biggest challenge
to the project of writing global environmental architectural
The most formidable challenge to delivering an architectural histories will be to combine cultural and ecological histories of
history survey through an environmental history paradigm is globalization.
the fear that such an approach would significantly increased
the content of the survey, which is under considerable pressure Although both architectural and environmental histories are
because of the teaching of global histories. The critical question bound by place, the definition of what constitutes a place, as
is whether a deeper investigation of environmental histories will a unit of analysis, does not neatly coincide in the two fields. In
dilute the survey. This paper rests on the premise that teaching the architectural history survey, the definition of a “place” as an
the survey from an ecological point of view is a new way of entity of investigation is determined by competing and shifting
writing, organizing, and teaching the survey, where some of the parameters, such as political borders (empires, monarchial
old paradigms and ways of organizing the survey will have to be states, city-states, nation-states), cultural regions, architectural
abandoned to make way for a fresh environmental approach. movements (Renaissance, Baroque, Art Nouveau), and the work
Such a survey awaits its authors, and certainly this paper is of individual architects (Palladio’s Vicenza, Gaudi’s Barcelona,
intended to inaugurate a dialogue concerning the writing of South Asia in the context of Le Corbusier and Kahn). The construct
an alternative survey. The key history of architecture survey of places in environmental history, by contrast, is beginning to
textbooks – Architecture, from Prehistory to Postmodernity; depart from politically and culturally defined regions to places
Buildings across Time: An Introduction to World Architecture; A defined by ecological actors.54 Architectural and urban histories

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engage with place-making as a cultural project with marginal history is an emerging field. There is not enough scholarship
emphasis on the role of the environment in place-making. The on the period before the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
cultural production, consumption, reception, and circulation of that can be related to histories of architecture and urbanism.
the architectural object are central to the architectural survey. There are not enough environmental histories from within
From the disciplinary perspective of environmental history, it is the discipline of architecture. Writing histories of architecture
important to understand architecture and cities as ecological from an environmental perspective will require drawing upon
processes. science, ecology, history of technology, and environmental
histories, as well as a different kind of training for architectural
Consider the cases of early river valley civilizations such as Egypt historians. It will require collaborations between people trained
along the Nile, the Mesopotamian civilization along the Tigris and as architectural historians and environmental historians.
Euphrates, the Indus Valley civilization, and the Chinese civilization
on the Yellow River. In regard to these river valley civilizations, Acknowledgments: I would like to thank my colleagues Victoria
the definition of a region is somewhat synergetic in architectural Pagan and Hui Zou at the University of Florida for their valuable
and environmental histories. Yet the architecture of South Asia feedback. I am extremely grateful to Philip Plowright and the
in the survey is structured on the basis of colonial historiography anonymous reviewers of this article for their valuable suggestions
whereby architecture is grasped through the taxonomies of in revising this paper.
“Buddhist,” “Hindu,” and “Islamic.”55 In order to teach this history
from an environmental perspective, it would be more useful to ENDNOTES
refer to histories that are ecologically place-bound. For example, 1 The United Nations Conference on Environment and Develop-
it would be better if the history of the cities and architecture all ment (UNCED) – held in Rio de Janeiro, 3–14 June 1992 – is popu-
along the Ganges could be taught in relationship to the hydraulic larly known as the Rio Summit. The conference produced a mani-
regime of the river. The cultural histories of architecture and festo tilted “AGENDA 21,” which lists six key themes – quality of
urbanism with respect to the ecological histories of the Ganges life on earth, the efficient use of the world’s natural resources,
are yet to be written. 56 the protection and management of our global commons, the
atmosphere and the oceans, the management of human settle-
ments, the use of chemicals and the management of human and
CONCLUSION
industrial waste, and global economic growth based on sustain-
Through the architectural survey we might be able to create ability. See United Nations Conference on Environment and De-
a curriculum that includes ecological and cultural histories velopment and D. Sitarz, Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy
of architecture and cities. Including themes such as the to Save Our Planet (Boulder, CO: EarthPress, 1993).
anthropogenic transformation of the environment, the 2 World Commission on Environment Development, Our Common
Future (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).
impact of architecture and urbanism on the environment, the
3 D. H. Meadows and Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth: A Re-
environmental transformation of civilizations, and the history port for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Man-
of environmentalism can enrich the architectural survey by kind (New York: Universe Books, 1972); E. F. Schumacher, Small
establishing various methods through which the relationship Is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered (New York: Harper
between architecture and sustainability can be examined. These & Row, 1973).
areas of knowledge have traditionally been the territory of 4 UNCED and Sitarz, Agenda 21.
environmental historians. 5 See Academic Programs in Sustainability on AASHE’s (Asso-
ciation for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education)
One would think that there would be a natural and seamless website: http://www.aashe.org/resources/academic-programs-
sustainability
synergy between architectural and environmental history
6 B. G. Norton, Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem
surveys. However, there are several disciplinary gaps of Management (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
knowledge between architectural and environmental histories. 7 In the discipline of engineering, see J. R. Mihelcic et al.,
This necessitates the production of new architectural histories “Sustainability Science and Engineering: The Emergence of a
that are refracted through an environmental lens. These new New Metadiscipline.” Environmental Science & Technology, 37,
histories and the architectural environmental survey, yet to 23 (2003), pp. 5314–5324.
be written, would occupy the interdisciplinary intersection of 8 M. Jarzombek, “Molecules, Money and Design: The Question of
environmental and architectural histories. Sustainability’s Role in Architectural Academe.” Thresholds, 18,
Design & Money (Spring 1999), pp. 32–38.
There are many challenges to producing a revisionist
9 P. Tabb and A. S. Deviren, The Greening of Architecture: A Criti-
environmental history survey of architecture. Environmental cal History and Survey of Contemporary Sustainable Architecture

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 and Urban Design (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013). ty: Environmental Politics, Technoscience, and Women Workers
10 See P. Anker, “The Closed World of Ecological Architecture,” (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006); D. Orr, Design on the
The Journal of Architecture, 10, 5 (2005), pp. 527–552; W. Mc- Edge: The Making of a High-Performance Building (Cambridge,
Donough and M. Braungart, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way Mass.: MIT Press, 2006); Tabb and Deviren, The Greening of Ar-
We Make Things (New York: North Point Press, 2002); V. Olgyay chitecture. See also P. Anker, “Science in Culture: Bauhaus at the
and J. Herdt, “The Application of Ecosystems Services Criteria for Zoo.” Nature, 439, 7079 (2006), p. 916; R. Banham, The Architec-
Green Building Assessment,” Solar Energy, 77, 4 (2004), pp. 389– ture of the Well-Tempered Environment (London; Chicago: Archi-
398; D. W. Orr, The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Hu- tectural Press; University of Chicago, 1973); A. Kirk, “Appropri-
man Intention (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); ating Technology: The Whole Earth Catalog and Counterculture
Tabb and Deviren, The Greening of Architecture; N. Todd and J. Environmental Politics.” Environmental History, 6, 3 (2001), pp.
Todd, From Eco-Cities to Living Machines: Principles of Ecologi- 374–394; S. Mosley, “Fresh Air and Foul: The Role of the Open
cal Design (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1994); U.S. Green Fireplace in Ventilating the British Home, 1837–1910.” Planning
Building Council, LEED Green Building Rating Systems (Annapolis, Perspectives, 18, 1 (2003), pp. 1–21; A. W. Rome, “From the Solar
MD: Office of the Secretary of State, Div. of State Documents, Home to the All-Electric Home,” in The Bulldozer in the Country-
2006); S. Van der Ryn and S. Cowan, Ecological Design (Washing- side, Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmental-
ton, DC: Island Press, 1995). ism (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001),
11 Olgyay and Herdt, “The Application of Ecosystems Services Crite- pp. 45–86; S. Sadler, “Drop City Revisited.” Journal of Architectur-
ria for Green Building Assessment,” pp. 389–398. al Education, 59, 3 (2006), pp. 5–14; Sadler, “An Architecture of
12 A. G. Kwok and W. T. Grondzik, The Green Studio Handbook: Envi- the Whole.” Journal of Architectural Education, 61, 4 (2008) pp.
ronmental Strategies for Schematic Design (Oxford: Architectural 108–129; F. D. E. Scott, “Revolutionaries or Drop Outs,” in Archi-
Press, 2007), pp. 1–6. tecture or Techno-Utopia: Politics after Modernism (Cambridge,
13 S. Guy and G. Farmer, “Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture: MA: MIT Press, 2007), pp. 151–184.
The Place of Technology.” Journal of Architectural Education, 54, 23 See M. Gandy, Concrete and Clay: Reworking Nature in New York
3 (2001), pp. 140–148. City (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002).
14 For recent scholarship that analyzes design discourses in terms 24 C. M. Rosen and J. A. Tarr, “The Importance of an Urban Perspec-
of the cultural and ethical aspects of sustainability, see M. Jar- tive in Environmental History.” Journal of Urban History, 20, 3
zombek, “Sustainability, Architecture, and ‘Nature’ Between (May 1994), pp. 299–310.
Fuzzy Systems and Wicked Problems.” Thresholds, 26, Denatured 25 See Joel Tarr’s historiographic essay on urban environmental
(Spring 2003), pp. 54–56; Orr, The Nature of Design; K.Tanzer and history: J. A. Tarr, “Urban History and Environmental History in
R. Longoria, eds., The Green Braid: Towards an Architecture of the United States: Complementary and Overlapping Fields,” in C.
Ecology, Economy, and Equity (London; New York: Routledge, Bernhardt, ed., Environmental Problems in European Cities in the
2007). 19th and 20th Century (Munster; New York: Waxmann, 2004),
15 S. Mosley, The Environment in World History (Abingdon, UK; pp. 25–40.
New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 1–13. 26 J. R. McNeill, Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental
16 J. D. Hughes, An Environmental History of the World: Human- History of the Twentieth-Century World (New York: W.W. Norton
kind’s Changing Role in the Community of Life (Abingdon, UK; & Co., 2000), pp. 3–17.
New York: Routledge, 2009), p. 4. 27 Ibid. McNeill argues that the human induced environmental
17 R. White, “Environmental History, Ecology, and Meaning.” The problems of the past were localized in their impact, which is
Journal of American History, 76, 4 (1990), pp. 1111–1116. no longer the case as we deal with global problems, such ris-
18 J. R. McNeill, “Observations on the Nature and Culture of Envi- ing sea levels. In addition, we face the possibility of crossing cer-
ronmental History.” History and Theory, 42, 4 (2003), pp. 5–43. tain thresholds that consequently unleash a chain of events that
19 Hughes, An Environmental History of the World, pp. 30–51. progress on a non-linear trajectory, like exceeding the 26 degree
20 F. Ching, M. Jarzombek, and V. Prakash, A Global History of Ar- Celsius temperature mark in the tropical Atlantic that promotes
chitecture (Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2007); R. Ingersoll and an increased number of hurricanes of greater intensity.
S. Kostof, World Architecture: A Cross-Cultural History (New York: 28 Moffett, Fazio, and Wodehouse, Buildings across Time, pp. 110–
Oxford University Press, 2013); S. Kostof, A History of Architec- 139.
ture: Settings and Rituals (New York: Oxford University Press, 29 Trachtenberg and Hyman, Architecture, from Prehistory to Post-
1985); M. Moffett, M. W. Fazio, and L. Wodehouse, Buildings modernity, p. 125.
across Time: An Introduction to World Architecture (Boston, MA: 30 J. D. Hughes, “Urban Problems,” in Pan’s Travail: Environmental
McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009); M. Trachtenberg and I. Hy- Problems of the Ancient Greeks and Romans (Baltimore: Johns
man, Architecture, from Prehistory to Postmodernity (New York: Hopkins University Press, 1996), pp. 149–168.
Harry N. Abrams, 2002). 31 J. D. Hughes, “The Impact of Greek Civilization on the Natural
21 Mosley, The Environment in World History, pp. 1–13. Environment,” in Ecology in Ancient Civilizations (Albuquerque:
22 P. Anker, From Bauhaus to Ecohouse: A History of Ecological De- University of New Mexico Press, 1975), pp. 68–86.
sign (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010); M. 32 J. D. Hughes, “Environmental Impacts of the Roman Economy
Murphy, Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertain- and Social Structure: Augustus to Diocletian,” in A. Hornborg, J.

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 R. McNeill, and J. Martínez Alier, eds., Rethinking Environmental Raj (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 24–54.
History: World-System History and Global Environmental Change 56 See environmental history books that have been written from
(Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2007), pp. 27–40; Hughes, “Urban the perspective of the human transformation of rivers in the
Problems.” context of nineteenth century engineering, for example: M. Cioc,
33 J. D. Hughes, “Industrial Technology and Environmental Dam- The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815–2000 (Seattle: University of
age,” in Pan’s Travail, pp. 112–129. Washington Press, 2002); D. H. Porter, The Thames Embankment
34 Ibid. : Environment, Technology, and Society in Victorian London (Ak-
35 UNCED and Sitarz, Agenda 21. ron, OH: University of Akron Press, 1998).
36 McDonough and Braungart, Cradle to Cradle.
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