2. Buildings and their surroundings

What's special about a system is that it can also fully define itself in relation to its environment. This approach is particularly enriching in the case of buildings.

• Interest and purpose

• The main advantage is that we no longer consider the individual components, but rather the interactions between the building and its context. The latter must be considered according to several parameters, namely :

  • its immediate vicinity;

  • the region ;

  • the planet.

  Indeed, the living environment is an ecosystem that can be read on several scales. This is what we'll be doing in the next three chapters, with a view to identifying the tools that can be...