And even a fundamental decision such as choosing between a flat roof or a pitched one seems to defy climatic necessities, as the lamentably high number of leaking flat roofs in rain-swept Glasgow where I live demonstrates. Snowfalls became lighter and less frequent in the UK throughout the 20th century, but it would be unconvincing to tie this to the proliferation of modern flat roofs, which have become just as popular in snowy Russia. Such fine-scale responses between building and weather as far as I know, do not happen in the present. Heavy snowfall demands roof designs which don’t buckle under pressure. ![]() Exaggerating this climate connection in architecture might imply, wrongly, that premodern societies were predominantly shaped by some inexplicable harmony between people and nature, with an ability to respond to tiny changes in the environment that were lost in later periods. To prove a connection, the researchers would need a theory of how builders would be able to react to tiny changes in the climate with tiny changes in roof angles. It depends on the conscious decision of a particular person – a client, architect or artisan. The researchers nonetheless do not develop this point or explain why flatter roofs should be more cost effective.īuilding a roof is not a collective event akin to population decline, infant mortality or market prices, however. The researchers ought to be commended for trying to address this problem though, as the study notes that Chinese people may have failed to maintain steeper roofs in times when snowfall was less severe due to “costs and the diverse need for sunshine and rainfall sheltering”. It’s also unclear why roofs in warm times should become less steep. They could get away with it being historians as opposed to, let’s say, medical doctors, where sample size is the litmus test of sound methodology. The researchers mention studying around “200 remains over a millennium”, but it’s not clear whether these are equally spaced out across the study period. The second point, to my mind, is not coherently proven by this study and may even be impossible to prove. ![]() A carpenter will correct the roof angle once a building has collapsed under heavy snow, and showing this with the example of historic buildings in China has its merit. The first point is fairly easy to prove and probably undisputed among academics. And two, that there is a close correlation between weather patterns and roof angles that betrays a sensitivity in architecture to very small changes in the climate. One, that roofs are built steeper in eras and places with heavier snowfall. It’s a compelling story, but as someone who has studied architectural history for many years, I have some doubts. It’s incredible to think that something as subtle as the angles of pitched roofs might intimately reflect changes in the weather over ten centuries.
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