Discussion: A Chronology of Solar Architecture in the US
Less stringent legislation, the pressures of the free market economy for the quick amortization of property investment, and low energy prices have meant that energy-saving construction in the US has not developed with the same urgency as in Europe. In recent years, however, a change is slowly manifesting itself.The earliest American solar architecture can be found in the south-west of the country, where the Anasazi Native Americans built their climatically sensitive adobe settlements. The settler buildings of the modern age also obeyed climatic rules. The advent of industrialization and innovations in building technology, however, marked the first steps towards a greater independence of local climatic conditions. By the mid-19th century, central-heating systems were being developed, and a first wave of technology reached its peak. Frank Lloyd Wright's administration building for the Larkin company in Buffalo (1904) is regarded as the first modern office structure.
