Fire, together with its counterpart, water, is always an elemental component and condition of architecture, as are the earthly solid materials buildings are made of, and the air or ‘space’ which they define, channel, or shelter. The basic elements of architecture are still, in other words, the four elements identified by pre-Socratic philosophy: fire, water, earth, air. In stating this, we follow Gottfried Semper (1803-1879), who explicitly stated, a century before, in his elemental and environmental conception of architecture...