The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment

by Reyner Banham

Reyner Banham was a pioneer in arguing that technology, human needs, and environmental concerns must be considered an integral part of architecture. No historian before him had so systematically explored the impact of environmental engineering on the design of buildings and on the minds of architects. In this revision of his classic work, Banham has added considerable new material on the use of energy, particularly solar energy, in human environments. Included in the new material are discussions of Indian pueblos and solar architecture, the Centre Pompidou and other high-tech buildings, and the environmental wisdom of many current architectural vernaculars.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, History, Design, Theory, Environment, Science

295 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1964

About the author

Peter Reyner Banham (1922-1988) was a prolific architectural critic and writer best known for his 1960 theoretical treatise "Theory and Design in the First Machine Age", and his 1971 book "Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies" in which he categorized the Angelean experience into four ecological models (Surfurbia, Foothills, The Plains of Id, and Autopia) and explored the distinct architectural cultures of each ecology.

He was based in London, moving to the USA from 1976. He studied under Anthony Blunt, then Siegfried Giedion and Nikolaus Pevsner. Pevsner invited him to study the history of modern architecture, giving up his work Pioneers of the Modern Movement. In Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960), Banham cut across Pevsner's main theories, linking modernism to built structures where the 'functionalism' was actually subject to formal strictures. He wrote a Guide to Modern Architecture (1962, later titled Age of the Masters, a Personal View of Modern Architecture).

He had connections with the Independent Group, the This is Tomorrow show of 1956 (the birth of pop art) and the thinking of the Smithsons, and of James Stirling, on the new brutalism (which he documented in The New Brutalism, 1955). He predicted a "second age" of the machine and mass consumption. The Architecture of Well-Tempered Environment (1969) follows Giedion's Mechanization Takes Command (1948), putting the development of technologies (electricity, air conditioning) even ahead of the classic account of structures. This was the area found absorbing in the 1960s by Cedric Price, Peter Cook and the Archigram group.

Green thinking (Los Angeles, the Architecture of Four Ecologies, 1971) and then the oil shock of 1973 affected him. The 'postmodern' was for him unease, and he evolved as the conscience of post-war British architecture. He broke with the utopian and technical formality. Scenes in America Deserta (1982) and A Concrete Atlantis (1986) talk of open spaces and his anticipation of a 'modern' future.

As a Professor, Banham taught at the University of London, the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He also was the Sheldon H. Solow Professor of the History of Architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. He also starred in the short documentary Reyner Banham loves Los Angeles.

Banham said that he learned to drive so he could read Los Angeles in the original.

Reviews

[Delroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those great books that makes people instantly regret having asked what you are reading. The onerous 70s era cover design, the blandly mechanical title, the mention of architecture. . . all of these serve to stop conversation short. Thankfully, without undue explanation, you can get back to reading with minimal effort what is a truly brilliant work on the history of HVAC systems that is more kindly and engagingly written than any book-of-the-month romantasy, and more lucidly technologized than a Tom Clancy potluck at the Apple store.

[Douglas Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly very good, one of Banham's less celebrated works I think. It's interesting that it comes from the period immediately before he decided to become 'hip', and thus the tone is much more academic than his later writings, although in the conclusion, when he brings in Archigram and all that lot, you can see signs of where he was about to go.

This early edition marred by a couple of examples of lazy prejudiced language that you wouldn't see now, btw.

[Waqar Ahmad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reyner Banham was a pioneer in arguing that technology, human needs, and environmental concerns must be considered an integral part of architecture. No historian before him had so systematically explored the impact of environmental engineering on the design of buildings and on the minds of architects. In this revision of his classic work, Banham has added considerable new material on the use of energy, particularly solar energy, in human environments. Included in the new material are discussions of Indian pueblos and solar architecture, the Centre Pompidou and other high-tech buildings, and the environmental wisdom of many current architectural vernaculars.

[Renato D'Alençon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reyner Banham's “The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment” (London: Architectural Press, 1969) is a fundamental text that he develops with the depth and sharpness typical of his author a lucid look at the relevance of environmental conditioning conditions as the core of architectural thought and practice. In 12 chapters, Banham goes through architectural conditioning strategies that various works collect substantively as project strategies, from the “well-tempered” home to the exhibition and control of energy.

[Found Object · Rating 5 out of 5]

Groundbreaking work. Banham is not a technological determinist, as many have accused him. He seeks technological realism, namely the participation of architectural form in the production of indoor environments. Written at a time when the modernist movement reached its last stretch, and machine aesthetics were waning rapidly, this book did not turn away from modernism. The issue with modernism is not so much that it is over but that the modernists are not modern enough.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little dense, assuming a great deal of familiarity with the rush and sweep of architectural reputation over the 20th century, still a very level headed account of architecture’s struggle to engage with the freedoms and simultaneous restrictions of the advances in environmental technology. Great case studies and photos.

A book that could stand an update, 30-40 years on.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reyner Banham remains one of my favorite architectural writers -- his gift for making subjects (such as a history of air conditioning and ventilation systems) that ought be dreadfully boring -- both engaging and easy to follow is truly remarkable.

[Timmytoothless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read on the details of comfortable architecture.