Nature and Architecture

One of my writings during my foundation years.

Architecture has many influences to and from many aspects. People, culture, and nature is some of the examples. One could say that architecture exists because it has those aspects, as well as other. Good or bad, architecture is something that always revolving at a certain point of which contains many subjective reasons.

How architecture affects the surroundings and how the surroundings affects architecture is usually a two ways or one way relationship. But what if some of the connections are not important? Do we leave it as it is, or we should just continue? Let us take a look in the connection between nature and architecture.

If we look closely, how architecture affects the nature could show many flaws for us as a human. One common effects of architecture to nature is the demolition of forests or green lands for the sake of advancement. More than 20 hectare of forest worldwide is cleared out every single year to build new buildings. While the human population has grown a lot especially after the start of the globalization era, more people means more demands, and more demands mean more work there is to do. Many new facilities need to be built and new housing areas are also need to be build as immigration occurs as well as localized growth of populace. The usage of woods and many other natural resources in order to construct is also a crucial problem. Trees play a major role in the biodiversity chain, and we have lost and disrupt the chain quite a lot. Plus, trees are the biggest carbon recyclers; one could say forests are the heart in regulating the Earth climate.

In addition to that, solid waste of construction and demolition are also playing a major role in polluting the environment, in many ways. Total annual U.S. construction and demolition waste generation: 13,000,000 tons; number of US commercial buildings demolished annually: 44,000; number of US housing units demolished annually: 245,000; portion of U.S .annual landfill waste stream associated with construction and demolition: 10-30% that is only for U.S. imagine how other countries like China’s and Russia’s statistic. China is the world top polluter last year and the year before. Most of the wastes are not properly treated, not to mention the synthetics material and many other biodegradable substances are left unattended.

We can control this kind of problem that is for sure, but we need to reform our mindset completely. We should try to research and do something so that architecture and nature can exist together without being a 'parasite' to one another, though in this case we are the one being the parasite. Then again there will be a problem in humanity as a whole or perhaps certain part of it in the process of the revolution. Do we need to pursue advancement and ingenuity and forget about the nature? We can choose one of it and we can also choose both – with a price that is which is effort, ideas and a bit of sacrifice in many things such as time, money and power.

Louis Kahn had once said, “It is my feeling that living things and non-living things are dichotomous. But I feel that if all living plants and creatures were to disappear, the sun would still shine and the rain still fall. We need Nature; But Nature does not need us.” Once we are gone nature will just go and takes its course, for an example we can see it in Chernobyl. Even after the disastrous nuclear explosion nature still finds its way to spring to life. The man made marvels that is made there experience many damage mainly because of plants. We can also take a look on how the London Bridge or the Eiffel Tower on how many engineers and workers needed to maintain the bridge which is facing constant danger due to nature, such as rusting, wind corrosion and many other factors. If we leave the Eiffel Tower unmaintained, it would take around 10 years or so for it to collapse. Two years of labors and the many thousand dollars spend in making and maintaining the tower would be to waste.

How nature would affect manmade marvels and how architecture is a wonder. In many aspects nature could influence us. Building materials, building planning, construction methods as well as a few more other aspects can be the example. Some of the architecture has invented many buildings in regards to this, like how a hurricane house is made in order to withstand the force of a hurricane; or perhaps the ingenious floating island, that is made from plastics bottles and recycled items. These kinds of ideas should be made wide, and valued as we cannot continue on neglecting the nature.

We can also learn many things from nature. Some of the greatest marvels of architecture in the world are greatly influenced by nature and its components. We can take for an example the Plank House. Using the materials such as the Cedar trees and making a nice home is that easy, plus the time the technology or the knowledge of building something in harmony with nature has existed for quite a long time already – perhaps during the first civilization occurs? So why we cannot do something like this now, in addition with our advance technology we can do something much better by combining the nature and the technology. This in turn can make us live better. Advancement without planning can only retard the growth of a populace, we should never do that.

Nature also provides us with many materials, like steel, copper and many compounds. We also modified some of it to become more and more useful in order to build or make something that can last long. Take iron for example; add carbon for durability or add steel for flexibility. Research in order to make a more advanced or higher grade material is always on the go, but the objectives are rarely to be ‘to live with nature.’

In the end, nature still holds the greatest influence in this relationship, not to forgetting some other organism are losing or gaining some benefits from this relationship. We are not alone in this world; it is time to think about the world as a whole. Not just for us. Maybe one day we could build a building that can use the simple nature laws, or a building that can have a good effect on the surroundings. Planned urbanism is a must if we want to live in a nice area with a healthy atmosphere. Perhaps we could one day see a city with lush green and all of the buildings are eco-friendly and somehow contributing something back to the environment. Although this is a dream or an idea for now maybe one day we could see something like this.

By:

Mohd Asyrani b Rosani, 1000819525

Foundation in Architecture, UCSI

References

Web Links

http://www.onesmallproject.com/pagesinformation/factsstats.html

http://www.sustainableabc.com/naa.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plank_House

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3575/is_n1185_v198/ai_17936306

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower

Documentary

National Geographic Channel

· Earth Day Special – Earth Report

· Mega-structures

Discovery Channel

· All You Need To Know – Steel, Diamond, Tornadoes

· Manmade Marvels

History Channel

· What Happens after Humans?

Books

Paul-Alan Johnson, (1994). The Theory of Architecture: Concepts, Themes and Practices

Emilio Ambasz. The "Green" Over the "Gray" - Architecture and Nature: Towards a Pact of Reconciliation.

Daniel Giralt. Nature in Architecture.

Sandy Stannard. Thesis Proposal “re:THINK: Architecture + Nature” Sandy Stannard

Rajif C. Shah. How Architecture Regulates