NATURE & CONSTRUCTED
by SHA WAN XUAN
Nature is the beauty of mother earth, when the term comes in we will think of the green; trees, flower, stream, sea, animals, creatures and others. As an architecture student, how do we relate architecture to nature? This is pretty clear that architecture and nature are strongly related and each playing important role in the life.
Nowadays, people coming out with the idea of “Green Architecture” which shows we starting to look at the nature and we try to attach to nature. But somehow architecture has become independent from its natural context since early twentieth century. We are trying to bring nature into our building but we forget that nature is the natural element that we cannot change instead we should have to work with the nature, attach our building into nature.
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Nature is an important part of the context in architecture, with the role of nature; it might affect the design of a structure. With the exist of nature, we did consider the contour, landscape, surrounding, wind, sun and etc and hence form our design out. Sometimes, nature also inspired us when creating form and space. It has become an element that we took in designing, a strong enough element. Formation of nature can be the idea of building, by then modifying the concept.
Branches form an incline that can be covered with leaves and moss, "so that neither the sun nor the rain can penetrate therein; and now the man is lodged." Marc-Antoine Laugier.
In my opinion, nature is a design metaphor. The form of a building can be the metaphor of the nature; the best example is Beijing Olympic Stadium by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron which inspires by the bird nest of its tightly woven lattice structure. Architect evolved the shelter of a bird to a million’s people stadium.
"... as a result of human action, is always already conceptually and physically constructed prior to building architecture—which is to say, preoccupied by the way it is known and by its history." Quoted by Carol Burns
Besides, nature also acts as a buffer and a landscaping. Nature is always a visual pleasing scene that will also trigger user’s senses. A forest will bring user peace and calm feeling and a pocket park will bring a spark to the user in the city. In the other hand, nature act as a medium to buffer the noise from city to our site, buffer the direct sunlight penetrate into our building.
Contemporary study in this topic can be “City Hall” of London.The form of building is designed by the spiral form in the nature.(metaphor of nature then derived from there) London City Hall is the home of the offices for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.The building has an unusual, bulbous shape, purportedly intended to reduce its surface area and thus improve energy efficiency, although the excess energy consumption caused by the exclusive use of glass (in a double facade) overwhelms the benefit of shape.
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Miho Museum by I.M.Pei on a scenic mountainside in a nature preserve near the town of Shigaraki ,Shifa prefecture, Japan. The project had a perfect connection with the nature. The architect believed that the journey of visiting this museum is an important part for the visitors to explore. The journey was then divided into 2 main journeys: the first is the 200m tunnel to enhance on the light which will give the visitor a feeling impact. In order to not disturbing the balance of nature, he used a light steel structure bridge to connect the building to the outside. These shows I.M.Pei had a consideration of taking nature into his design and keep his best to not disturb the nature. Understanding the site context, the building is built using raw material (timber) and collecting best sunlight into the museum (large panels of glass , penetrate form roof to floor).The most successful of this building is how it work with the nature and achieved a calm coordination’s balance.
In a nutshell, building is a language that connect user with the nature. The relationship of nature and architecture is very strong and it will bring a new context to the site. Hence, 21st century architecture should consider more about the nature in order to make a building more quality, working with nature to appreciate the beauty of mother earth. From my opinion, I think a building corporate with nature is more valuable compared to a building with exhaust the floor area.
Appreciate the nature , the man-made was just to beautifying the nature.