Architecture as an Energy System

The content of this paper consists of excerpts from the lectures given by the author on the course “Architecture as an Energy System” which, as an optional subject, was introduced (2003) into the curriculum according to the Bologna system of study at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Sarajevo. As the course is situated at the very end of the master's study, it was assumed that the students have mastered the complete basic material of the study of architecture, and that at the end of the study they can approach the consideration of architecture as an extremely complex activity. One of the (according to the author) most effective approaches to understanding complexity is treating architecture as a system. Since the author also dealt with some other topics in architecture (in bachelor's, master's and doctoral studies) in the way of treating architecture as a system, the topic dealt with in this paper is the mutual relationship between architecture and energy. This topic became one of the fundamental questions of architecture at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. This approach to understanding and studying architecture was founded by the author (1988) in his doctoral dissertation. Architects must not only be transmitters of investors from their wishes and messages to physical architectural structures, but always creators of the framework for a fuller and richer life of people, which always implies an awareness of the relationship to the natural and social environment. In architecture, there are no problems and small tasks, but good and bad solutions. This work has the message that good solutions are those that confirm the generic essence of man, values that are common to all people, coexistence with nature and respect for everyone's cultural and historical heritage.