Hot to cold. An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation

After the global success of YES IS MORE, one of the best-selling architecture books of its generation, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group presents HOT TO COLD, an odyssey of architectural adaptation. The book coincides with the HOT TO COLD show at the National Building Museum in Washington DC and presents 60 case studies in harsh climate conditions in order to examine where and how we live on our planet.

As we travel from one end of the spectrum to its opposite we will see that the more harsh the climate gets, the more intense its impact on the architecture. The central challenge is to mitigate the climatic extremes for hospitable human life, while finding solutions that can be both economically and environmentally profitable.

Architecture is the art and science of accommodating the lives we want to live. Our cities and buildings aren't givens; they are the way they are because that is as far as we have gotten to date. They are the best efforts of our ancestors and fellow planetizens, and if they have shortcomings, it is up to us to continue that effort, pick up where they left off. HOT TO COLD stays true to BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group's grand mission to find a pragmatic utopia, shaping not only a particular structural entity, but the kind of world we wish to inhabit.