What is the main purpose of a building? Over the last century, the gap between engineering and architecture has grown so wide that we have lost sight of one of the fundamental purposes of buildings—to provide the necessary climate comfort.

In an era when glass and concrete structures can be built in the desert, relying on mechanical equipment and the ingenuity of engineers to ensure climate comfort. Architects and society need to regain an understanding of the consequences of such ignorance and what the alternatives might be.

For centuries, people around the world have developed traditional building practices to withstand climatic threats. Today, many of these strategies serve as inspiration for architects and climate engineers, who are creating passive solutions as opposed to complex mechanical systems.

Professor Thomas Auer is the head of the Chair of Building Technology and Climate Responsive Design at Munich Technical university.

His research primarily explores energy efficiency and its impact on the built environment, examining both the building scale—such as form, materials, and technology—and the district or urban scale, including urban form and infrastructure. He employs simulation tools to analyze and optimize the complex interactions between buildings and their technical systems.