Sacramento architecture can and should be designed for the city's climate, architect and green builder Matthew Piner said Wednesday.

With its temperate Mediterranean climate, Sacramento usually experiences hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Its location on two rivers in a valley between the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Pacific Ocean contributes delta breezes to cool off most summer nights, he said at a monthly architectural design forum, Design Dialogue, sponsored by the Urban Design Alliance of Sacramento.

Builders here — the same as builders throughout the world — once worked with Sacramento's natural climate to keep people comfortable when they sought shelter inside houses and other buildings. But builders moved away from such design with the inventions of conveniences such as electricity and air-conditioning.

That trend must change if Sacramento wants to reach a goal for carbon-neutral architecture by 2030 and join other Northern California cities on the cutting edge in developing clean, green technology, he said.

"We need to change the way we think — not just rely on using little boxes on roofs and pumping air around," said Piner, who owns PinerWorks Architectural & Building Group. He was guest speaker for Wednesday night's forum, "Integrating Climate + Form: A Valley City in Paradise," held at the local office for the American Institute of Architects.

Piner discussed the idea of architectural regionalism, a design approach developed for a unique place. He talked about experiments with such design and new technology and materials including photovoltaic paint and solar fiber. Piner also shared "ecofantasies" from designers in other areas, such as vertical urban farms and a phototropic skyscraper that uses biomimicry.

Climate-appropriate architecture can still be found throughout the world. Desert homes are cooled by wind towers on the Arabian Peninsula. Some Australian homes use fly roofs to provide ventilation. There are also Southeast Asian homes shaded by palm trees and raised on stilts to allow air circulation, Inuit igloos dug into the ground for warmth and earthern-wall adobe houses in Mexico.

Historic examples include the Native American cliff dwellings of Canyon de Chelly in Arizona and Mesa Verde in Colorado.

Sacramento has unique historic architecture designed for the climate before air-conditioning and even electricity existed. "High-water" Victorians and Arts and Craft bungalows were often built with basements and raised first floors that helped protect against flooding but also allowed cool air circulation underneath. High ceilings also provided circulation. Early city dwellers planted elms and other trees to shade the streets and houses, he said.

Piner presented a slide show with dozens of images, including photos of local buildings adapted to the climate and those that seem to ignore it. The state Department of General Services Resources Building, 1416 Ninth St., was one example of the latter, with an exterior that was the same on all four sides.

"This is a building I don't think gets it," Piner said. "This could be anywhere."

This city is most impacted by radiant heat. Now that most people no longer migrate with the seasons, those living here adapt to the heat first with the use of clothing. Designers and builders should take a cue from how our bodies are best heated and cooled when planning new buildings, Piner said.

"If we look at how we control the temperatures of surfaces, rather than air, we can look at different ways to build," he said. "We need to start thinking of our buildings as places for living things, rather than as mechanical boxes. I think that's how we unlock the (future of building)."

One way to do that is by orienting the building in relation to the sun to take advantage of daily and seasonal sun angles, he said.

More than 50 people attended the forum. Those in the audience included developers, neighborhood activists, preservationists, designers, builders, planners and government workers. During the discussion, one person pointed out that the dominance of mechanical solutions have allowed many people to forget why houses and other buildings were built the way they were years ago.

Others discussed ways the city will need to adapt to changing realities in the future. People will need to decide how to replace mature, dying trees that have shaded Sacramento throughout decades of summers, said Tina Suarez-Murias, a state environmental planner.

"Sacramento is known for its trees," she said.

"If we really want to look at how Sacramento as a city adapted in the past — they planted those trees for us," Piner added.

Ideas for the future include buildings with plant-shaded "green" walls, incorporating solar panels into buildings as shade canopies, roofs that allow rainwater collection, and breaking up boxy buildings with balconies, porches, rooftop gardens and more.

Obi Agha, a designer and planner who grew up in Africa, said his family and others living around them had no choice but to live in harmony with the earth. But they and other indigenous cultures are moving away from that because they are developing "Western tastes."

"They want to be like America," he said. "They want to have air-conditioning — because that shows they have arrived. They have made it. So they are losing all those things."

While many people want to have the comforts and conveniences of the West, the planet simply can't sustain such a lifestyle for the whole world, several people agreed.

"We would need seven planets for all the world to live like that," Piner said. "We may be conveniencing our way into oblivion and destroying this beautiful place."

As world leaders, the United States and other Western countries must now lead the way in designing climate-appropriate architecture and developing technology to create more energy-efficient conveniences, then export that to the world, he said.