The Unconquerable Sun And How We Build
Helios as Personification of Midday by Anton Raphael Mengs, 1765
Sol Invictus translates to “The Unconquerable Sun”, and was the Sun God in the Roman Religious Belief. In a time where the Roman Empire was supposedly standing on its final legs, it was experiencing many break away states such as that of Palmyra (modern day Levant), and Gaul (modern day France), Emperor Aurelian conducted a 4-year campaign to reunite the empire, in which he did quite successfully.
With the reunification of the empire from the enemies of Rome, Emperor Aurelian heavily used symbolism from Sol Invictus as a religious tool, as well as a political strategy to mend any cracks in said empire. The Emperor would be given many titles, “Restitutor Orbis“ or Restorer of the World.
The Sun being seen as an entity that will never be conquered in this story is metaphorical, but even in reality, we see that the Sun is unavoidable, indifferent to our wishes, a source of good and bad, and constant, irrespective of politics, taste, or fashion. The sooner we make peace with the Sun, the better for us humans.
Many cities around the world were organized at an urban level for the climate they are situated in, as well as their architecture being fine-tuned for the kind of environment you would expect for all seasons of the year. Hot cities had narrow streets for shade while cold cities were more spread out to maximize for sunlight, this has been said before, over and over, the point of this section is to indicate a big issue in society today and it is that of tunnel vision, we don’t build for humans anymore, but instead build for supposed efficiency. The issue is the way we built our cities today are the least efficient it’s ever been in almost every aspect.
As of the Summer of 2026, the entire world is feeling the effects of the heat, but what makes this year different to every other year? Global warming has shown that its gradual increase can do significant damage to our infrastructure, lampposts are melting, traffic lights are malfunctioning and people are unfortunately dying because of how poorly we built our cities for such heatwaves, it’s not the first heat wave nor the last.
A couple outliners stand out, we can’t build without having the climate in mind anymore, this misjudgment has become fatal, so what can we do? You are but a mere, insignificant person, who holds no power, right? Quite the opposite.
Do not look at the smallness of a good deed, rather look at who you are doing it for - Imam Ja’far Al-Sadiq
This Summer’s heatwave taught us one thing, we can’t continue on this destructive path, so what can we do? A simple list can explain:
Minimize sunlight exposure during noon time;
Add as much greenery as you possibly can;
Shade is the go-to solution when greenery is not viable;
Replace cars with alternatives, we don’t need hot metal boxes everywhere;
Introduce architecture that is suitable for the climate;
Ban skyscrapers because glass boxes in the Summer cost a ton of energy to cool;
Revive houses with courtyards and courtyard urbanism;
Discontinue black asphalt and replace it with other materials, or just make the tarmac another colour;
Reform architectural school to be taught about Traditional Architecture because back then if you didn’t build for the climate, you’d die.
There is always something you can do, if you are a writer, videographer, architect, engineer, urban planner, dentist, poet, painter, teacher or whatever, we urge you start today because tomorrow is not guaranteed.
