what does "for all" mean in this context

Question

This is the sentence:

The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the north. Cold for all the summer beyond the panes, for all the tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light glared through the windows, hungrily seeking some draped lay figure, some pallid shape of academic goose-flesh, but finding only the glass and nickel and bleakly shining porcelain of a laboratory.

Well, I highly think that for all in that context is an expression, I'm not sure because I couldn't understand the meaning of the sentence.

Could you help please ?

Answer 1

The opening of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World has the imagery of a cold place both physically and emotionally.

For all gets used literally, meaning during the entirety (summer) and also to mean "in spite of" (tropical).

Cold for all the summer

cold during the summer

( cold ) for all the tropical heat of the room itself

figuratively cold even in the presence of (in spite of) tropical heat, both of these descriptions add to the setting of a north (read: cold) facing room.

A very good analysis of the passage can be found here