Form Follows Fuel: 14 Buildings from Antiquity to the Oil Age

Modernists believed that “form follows function.” Form Follows Fuel shows that in fact energy has been the biggest influence on the world’s architecture throughout the history of our species. The availability of energy under different fuel regimes – including human labour, firewood, coal, oil, gas, and renewables – shapes architecture at all scales, from what gets built to how its doors hinge.

This book is the first to quantify energy inputs for a range of buildings worldwide and across the ...