SENSE AND RESPONSE

The paper examines the historical relationship between human settlements and their environments, contrasting traditional sustainable systems with modern industrial disengagement. It proposes a new regionalism in architecture that uses climatic data to inform design and advocates for 'ecological utilities'—buildings designed primarily to repair and rebuild the environment by providing ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, water remediation, and soil regeneration.

• Traditional land-use systems, such as the Balinese rice terraces and the Hawaiian ahupua'a, demonstrate successful environmental stewardship by optimizing existing hydrological and climatic resources through community cooperation.
• Modern industrial and agrarian revolutions have created a 'disassociative way of life' where humans are disconnected from their biological interdependence, leading to the externalization of environmental costs and the creation of 'ecological deserts'.
• Climate change is manifesting in specific regional ecological crises, such as the pine beetle infestation in the Rocky Mountains, Arizona, and Canada, which is strongly correlated with rising temperatures and the absence of extreme cold spells.
• A new, performance-based regionalism is emerging in architecture that uses climatic information—such as orientation, shading, and thermal mass—to reduce building loads and minimize negative environmental impacts.
• The author proposes a transition from 'green building' (which focuses on reducing negative impacts) to 'restorative' architecture that functions as 'ecological power plants' to actively improve degraded land and provide ecosystem services.
• Specific visionary architectural responses to ecological degradation include 'living machines' for wastewater treatment, biological frameworks for CO2 absorption, and urban-scale compost factories for soil regeneration.

APA

Olgyay, V. (n.d.). SENSE AND RESPONSE. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_ASES-2009-Sense-and-response-5-12-09-1.pdf

Chicago

Olgyay, Victor. SENSE AND RESPONSE. RMI, n.d. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_ASES-2009-Sense-and-response-5-12-09-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Olgyay |first1=Victor |title=SENSE AND RESPONSE |publisher=RMI |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_ASES-2009-Sense-and-response-5-12-09-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{olgyayndsense, author = {Olgyay, Victor}, title = {{SENSE AND RESPONSE}}, institution = {RMI}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_ASES-2009-Sense-and-response-5-12-09-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }