Nature X Constructed
Nature is an important part in traditional architecture, in general. Architecture responds to local conditions such as climate, geology and seismic conditions. Local building materials and their properties are key in the technical design.Architecture has become independent from its natural since early twentieth century. With becoming an independent art, architecture found references in its own realm. The materials used do not necessarily indicate the geographical location of the project.
A leaf unfolds, its parts self-assembling from a slurry of nutrients, using ancient blueprints encoded on a molecular level to spread into a photosynthesizing, thermal regulating, pest-resistant and water-repelling surface. Our greatest technologies look mild compared to such simple, integrated eloquence.Buildings are always taking the formation of nature as an idea, and then modifying the concept , finally come to a final design which is ‘’nature’’ ( usually we would said it is contextual, because context is basically including nature)
First of all, from the very general view of it ,nature plays a role of being the role model of every building before it is being designed.Nature around the site , nature at the site becomes the first consideration when architect wants to implant an idea into the piece of land.Nature can be a land full with potential , or just weather , or basic elements ( soil , fire -from sun , water etc)
You think of nature , then only it comes forward to context when designing .
Another role of nature in contemporary architecture is , nature is a buffer to building.Considering about the nature surrounding , architect can try to change and modify their design which suits the users’ need.Nature can act as a medium between the building to the traffic , to the public etc.Beyond this buffer zone which create by nature , architecture can achieve another level which is only experience by users .The water elements in the site create a frequent sound to the building , producing an atmosphere which is sanitary , vegetation blocks the sun , reflect the sounds which will affect the building comfort.
To my mind, nature is a design metaphor and a set of physical factors to overcome .From the history of architecture we can see most of the construction method is taking the nature concept as basic consideration.’’The column must be tapered from bottom to top in imitation of nature where this diminution is found in all plants.’’ Mac-antoine Laugier stated this quote as taking the construction of column as metaphor to the nature ( the tree etc).Building also has to be simple in form ( geometry form),well proportion and having the natural spatial quality to reach the NATURE requirement.Besides that ,consisting a lot of elements inside it , nature is a combination of physical elements which is needed to be solved when site planning.Anyone who ignore the nature is gonna experience the worst situation by nature.Whenever there is a river flowing across your site , you have to overcome it , even you take it as a potential condition , to put in your ideas , to make the water element enhance its quality in the site.listing out the nature elements, from there it becomes the problem solving or factors to make your building to be iconic or interesting.
Suzhou museum
Im Pei
Suzhou is a heaven for someone who loves nature in China , most of the historical building brings in the water to the site , merging the nature with the design and enhance the natural feeling of the site , with the surround of trees ,mountain or the visual of sky.This suzhou museum , was beyond the nature elements in Suzhou, surrounded by the trees , ( LIU SHU- a kind of traditional plants in china.),and the big pond in site , metaphor to the nature of suzhou , bringing out the visual quality of the site .
The museum is designed as plain colour outlook, as a respect to the nature, white and grey, just wanna have the low contrast with the nature ,( the green color is the main colour at the site).Using the reflection of the water , there is an illusion made like the building is moving into the nature .Besides that,interior is bright with natural light,to nearer the distance between user and the nature.Pei saw the site as constructed site , to preserve the historical parts in nature , bringing in his ideas to overcome the factors in nature , and enhance the space quality with the aid of nature elements , fusing the famous architecture creation by the master .
Man seeking shelter from nature was the start of architecture. Nowadays we find large densely urbanized areas where nature is almost totally banned. We acknowledge that man needs a balanced relationship with nature instead of total separation from it and we seek for pieces of nature in our artificial environment. Green is seen as an essential part of architectural context. Therefore again nature is key in architecture, be it that nature is considered an important issue in urban planning. Clearly that is a different thing than nature being an important part of the architectural context.Although nature is differ from natural , which is nature is the noun while natural is more towards the feeling ( adj ) , the site is nature , but the building is not necessary to be said natural . A natural building is not equal to '' nature '' as it can be using another way to achieve the feeling or quality which makes user think of it is natural.