Author: MODU

Type: Book

Size / Date: 80 pages, 2015

Availability: Purchase the book here




MODU's book, "Weather in Climate: Schools," explores the differences inherent in the term "weather in climate"— arguing, essentially, that weather and climate are not the same. Their temporal, dimensional, and political differences are manifested architecturally in a series of studies for near (weather) and distant (climate) futures. This book, the first in a series on building types, focuses on schools and the idea of programmatic "weather rooms." Three school studies experiment with the different forms these "weather rooms" can take in adapting to different global climates.


Architecture’s relationship to weather is at the core of the design study by MODU, which asks: what future learning spaces can foster adaptive relationships to the environment, specifically to the weather? The typological studies are not conceived of as fully formed architectural proposals; instead, they are organizational models of schools that change according to the weather and the climate.


The most obvious difference between weather and climate is predicated on time schedules. If the weather is a near future, the climate is a distant one, albeit one that seems increasingly less distant. Weather is the current condition of temperature, humidity, air pressure, and sunlight; it is both immediate and undeniable.


Climate is the long-term forecast that has caused much debate, much of which is political and based on the claims of “climate deniers.” At the heart of this denial is the temporal relationship between weather and climate. This publication assumes that climate change is undeniable and that the temporal relationship between weather and climate can inform design scale, organization, and approach. It is MODU’s belief that architecture’s relationship to weather should be adaptive; to climate, architecture must be resilient.


Project Team: Phu Hoang, Rachely Rotem, Kamilla Csegzi