COOLING OUR ENVIRONMENT

An architect considers the challenges of and solutions to climate change.

In her nonfiction debut, Sutaria relates her own experiences growing up in the boiling-hot summers of Ahmedabad, India, before moving to America in 1976 to study at the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. After her studies, she worked at a number of private design firms, then for Austin’s Public Works and Transportation Department, collaborating with politicians and industry leaders in her capacity as a member of both the United States Green Buildings Council and the American Institute of Architects. In these pages, illustrated with photos, charts, and blueprints, the author draws on all of this experience to explore the ways in which rising temperatures and worsening climate conditions present challenges that thermal-conscious building designs might help to meet. Sutaria refers to her approach as “vernacular architecture,” a climate-friendly process to create spaces that respond to environmental needs and enrich the lives of those who dwell within. “The deepest roots of any culture,” she writes, “are as immersed in the environment they develop as they are in the attitudes toward that environment.” Using many examples drawn from both Indian and American building environments, the author underscores the practical benefits of her project (as greenhouse gas emissions decrease, savings in public health increase). Sutaria writes with the forceful compassion of a true believer, bluntly telling her readers that we can’t just air-condition our way out of the climate crisis—we must adapt, not only with green initiatives but also with architecture that’s less wasteful. Some elements of her book may prove almost physically painful to readers in a 21st-century America whose government has recently begun abandoning any notion of environmental stewardship in favor of “drill, baby, drill” policies, but the text’s can-do optimism will counteract a good deal of this gloom, and Sutaria is knowledgeable enough to make it all very convincing.

A smart, energetic, and wide-ranging series of ideas for more climate-responsive building.