Biomimicry/Sustainability believe it or not.
I speak not of types - caves, huts, or tents - but of an over arching principle that includes every building ever built: to protect something from the elements. I strongly believe nature does a much better job of this than man. Every structure animals erect exemplifies sustainable, reasonable design for their place whether its a bird's nest, a termite hill, or a fox hole. It pains me a little to say this, but FLW employed a modern version of this method well and often in his flower inpired designs. Why can't building materials come from the site and immediate surrounding areas? If you can't find it close by then don't use it! This doesn't mean you can't be creative. Billie Tsien and Tod Williams cast the facade of the American Folk Art Museum literally on the site*.
Let me paint a better picture for you. The largest mud building in the world spoken of by Steve Ehrlich would look ridiculous in Antarctica, yet architects deliberately do just that everyday.
Was it ego that started a trend away from the architecture I speak of? I believe it stems back to the Romans who shipped their spoils of war to Rome for use in their buildings - We are not the Romans! Nature is all the inpiration we need for our buildings to be designed in a sustainable way.
*While this particular aspect of the building is a good example, the whole museum would not fit the idea I speak of.
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Is this whole thing a quote? I think this is very close to where i am but to take it past mimicry of nature and look at the human need to connect with nature literally as well as abstractly is the idea of biophilia which i mentioned to you earlier. It is that we are not happy, healthy or at peace except when we are connected to the natural environment of which we are inseperably a part. I love the tenants of biomimicry but i would like to see architecture that not only relies on nature for formal cues but one which cannot be successful without the weaving of living and built systems into one. I would like to see architecture that from schematic design looks at the tree as a wall or roof or room and that to take away the tree would be as ridiculous as removing all the walls of a building. My dream if you will is to see every architect design with plants the way they do with all other architectural elements and thereby design for the success of both in creating places where humans are a part of nature and not apart from it....
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