Sergio Los (born 1934 in Marostica, Veneto) is an Italian architect and thinker. He is considered one of the main interpreters of the Regional Bioclimatic Architecture, a design philosophy developed during the seventies (1972-1979) at the University Iuav of Venice under the pressure of the environmental and energy crisis. He developed a locally rooted architecture that adapts to the regional circumstances and uses the natural energetic potentials, especially solar energy. Already in 1980 he was extensively contributing to the organisation PLEA (Passive and Low Energy Architecture ), that promotes sustainable architecture on a worldwide scale.

The Early Years

Between 1964 and 1971 he was involved in a collaboration with Carlo Scarpa, working at the University Iuav of Venice and following many projects in his office. Involved in the Design Process Theories, he introduced in Italy the ideas of Christopher Alexander translating his Notes on the Synthesis of Form 1967, and the searches of the Cambridge University Martin Centre, editing and translating the book of L. March and P. Steadman The Geometry of Environment, 1974.

The Regional Architecture Experience

Between 1972 and 1979 he develops a regional bioclimatic approach to multi-scale architecture that drives him into designing and constructing some buildings and city plans. Through an experimental design and building activity, he deepen the concept of a sustainable resilient urban fabric, which is based on the network of civic architecture, aimed to produce a local microclimate in the open outdoor spaces. Having tested some realized projects his design solutions were confirmed and transferred through handbooks. He is involved in the development of lectures and a contribution to The Geography of Architecture (The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture).

Knowledge Civic Architecture

In the last twenty years, he is involved in increasing the city's communicative action, compared to the prevailing instrumental action of the actual metropolises. In his view the city is considered as a communicative system, analogous to the language and to other symbolic systems. The city operates for composing a common world, it becomes for its citizens a way of knowing, but sharing the construction of such knowledge. He is pursuing some cooperative design processes that deal with city plans aimed to activate a learning community. He thinks that only communities of citizens can pursue resilient, sustainable cities.