With TD 16 and Hurricane Omar lurking in the Caribbean it seemed appropriate to be giving the lecture on Climate and Architectural Design. The lecture was not meant to be a scientific discovery rather an introduction to practical applications of passive design for the third design generator - climate. So we acquainted them to the lexicon of climate data used to assist the architect (solar altitudes, azimuth and Olgay charts, hurricane maps, sun angles, biometric meters, etc) in designing environmentally responsive structures.

As a prelude to the project we asked the students to investigate the environmental considerations on the following sculptures and buildings: Torre Cube - Carme Pinos, Carpenter Center - Le Corbusier, Spiral Jetty - Robert Smithson, Marika Alderton House - Glenn Murcutt, Future Shack - Sean Godsell and two local projects as well, a residence by the former dean of the school David Harrison, and a powerstation turned offices by Marvin Goodman (associate Michael Lorde)

The next step for the project is the design of an abstract mask that acts as a filter for the senses. Following students will be required to design a site specific structure using passive controls only. The sites are near identical (20 degree slope with a 6m tree on the south east corner) but behave significantly different due to their locations one at 18N on an island the other at 5N in a valley of a rain forest.

Looking forward to what the students will produce...