Dean Hawkes is Professor of Architectural Design at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. Koen Steemers is a director of the Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies and a senior lecturer at the University of Cambridge Department of Architecture.

As a primer for students, the book is a success. It puts the subject into a historical context and an intellectual framework, it illustrates its thesis with case studies which form a good starting-point for further research, and in its checklist it offers a tool which can be implemented in the design of projects. - Adam Voelcker, Architectural Review

• Preface  List of Illustrations  1. Introduction  2. Nature, Architecture and Environmental Inquiry  3. Context: the Regional Dimension  4. Comfort and Climate in the Selective Environment  5. Typology in Environmental Design  6. Generic Models for Selective Design  7. Case Studies for Selective Design  8. An Environmental Design Check List  9. A Selective Bibliography  Index