THE

CIVIL ARCHITECTURE

OF

VITRUVIUS.

SECTION IV.

CHAP. I.

ON THE MODE OF ADAPTING BUILDINGS TO VARIOUS

CLIMATES.

The manner in which we arrange the several parts of privatehouses, should he made subservient to our position uponthe earth’s surface conjointly with the nature of the climate.Egypt should have a mode of building peculiar to itself;Spain another; Pontus a third; and again Rome another:and generally in all countries the method of building oughtto depend upon local circumstances.

In some countries the heat of the sun is frequentlyoppressive; in others it is scarcely felt: again in othersthe temperature is a mean between these extremes.Since, therefore, different spots upon the earth’s surface areunequally affected by the inclination of the poles and thesun’s motion through the zodiac, it follows, that the aspectswhich buildings are made to assume should have a certain