New environmental problems exist today which have increased the demand for sustainable building and lead to the invention of 'green' technologies such as green roofs, solar panels, and water collection and storage systems. Today, due to mechanically conditioned spaces and other social factors, buildings designs have become independent from their natural environment and forgotten many of the important 'green' building techniques of the past. In addition, commercial industries of the past were dependent on specific climate conditions which in turn began to define the region's character. Designers of the past had to create buildings that addressed their climate zone or else survival through a harsh winter or an extremely hot summer might not be possible. In fact, these structures depended on its natural surroundings and this dependence informed the architectural expression. Before the age of electric heating and cooling systems and thermal insulation, buildings were designed to take advantage of their natural surroundings. The final result being a building whose expression reflects a new regional vernacular. This analysis of ancient building strategies will examine similar climate areas to the Southeast United States and combined the information with modern 'green' technologies. This topic will involve an analysis of architecture of the past to reveal how sustainable design techniques were dependent on the natural environment of a specific climate region.
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