Victor Olgyay

Victor Olgyay (September 1, 1910 – April 22, 1970) was an architect, city planner, and early researcher in the field of Bioclimatic design. He was an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Princeton University until 1970 and, with his twin brother Aladar, a pioneer in the field of Bioclimatic design in the 1950's and 60's. Background Olgyay studied English at the Royal Hungarian Institute of Technology in Budapest, before undertaking an architectural degree at the Scuola Superiore Di Architettura in Rome. In Hungary, he formed an architectural practice with Aladar, his identical twin. Victor moved to the United States in 1936, to undertake graduate study at Columbia University. The pair designed architectural works in Austria, Hungary and Turkey, returning to the United States in 1947. In addition to teaching at Notre Dame and MIT, they worked in their architectural practice Olgyay & Olgyay Architects until 1957, when Aladar died. Following Aladar's death, Victor designed approximately 20 buildings in Princeton, New Jersey. Victor Olgyay worked at Princeton University between 1953-1963. Their first article was "The Temperate House" (1951), followed by other works on "Bioclimatic Approach to Architecture" and "To Pave to Bio-climatical Control and Orientation to Meet Requirements" (1954). More articles arose like "Sun orientation" and finally,"Environment and building shape" (1954). As of that moment the Olgyays became a huge reference to various new kind of architecture like solar Architecture, passive Architecture, bio-climatice Architecture. In 1963, with support from the National Science Foundation, the pair invented the thermoheliodon, a machine that enabled the testing of the effects of climate on buildings under laboratory conditions. The energy crisis of the 1970's caused a significant economic damage to the developed world and greatly increased interest in the Olgyay brothers work.