The environmental and ecological semeiology in architecture

In idyllic Athens of the 5th century B.C. while gazing out at the Aegean Sea, Aristotle codified the theory of the presocratic philosophers on the value of the 4 basicelements fire(sun), air, water, earth and the 4 basic qualities hot-cold, dry-wet.Today, 2,500 years later, at the beginning of the twenty-first century AD, what else can we do but invoke respect for the environment, as we wander in the landscape of the architecture and urban planning of the future?What else but the environment can be the referential link betweenthe cultural values of the past and those of the future?The International conferences on the protection of the environment, the most important of which was that held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, have done no more than expressintentions. They remain ineffective as far as definingspecific measures is concerned, because the political-and military powers that impose their own terms, set their own agendas. This futile situation leads unilaterallyto a general disenchantment among people, the users of the environment, and even an aversion as far as taking measures for its protection is concerned. The result is the easy way out; indifference.