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Natural Architecture, by Alessandro Rocca,
and Natural
Metaphor: Architectural Papers III, edited
by Josep Lluís Mateo & Florian Sauter.
The idea of nature is typically something
understood but not explicated, a remnant of well-established
notions that split people from their surroundings and see
the latter to be dominated by and for the former. The words
nature and natural are thrown about without a consideration
of the implications of this split and the importance of
acknowledging and remedying the actual lack of a separation
in reality. We sense a separation from the hills, the trees,
and the creatures around us; in many cases this sensation
comes from the buildings we inhabit, via the materials of
which they are made, the forms they take, and the processes
they allow and inhibit. These two books address these two
aspects of the natural and the manmade: the conceptual split
and the relationship of architecture to its surroundings.
Natural Metaphor
is the third in the series of "architectural papers"
coming out of the ETH
Zurich. Calling itself an "anthology of essays
on architecture and nature," the book groups the pieces
into essays, voices, and found papers, with a quality roster
that includes Manuel Castells,
Olafur
Eliasson, Paulo
Mendes da Rocha, and Renzo
Piano. The variety of positions presented is to be expected
from the nearly 25 voices contributing. The best essays
don't directly address the theme but approach it from a
unique perspective, presenting the reader another way of
thinking of things. For example, editor Florian Sauter's
interview with artist Olafur Eliasson accompanies illustrations
of his environmental works that definitely must be experienced
to be fully appreciated; the interview illuminates the thinking
behind the artworks that grounds them in larger thinking
about the environment and our relationship to it.
One criticism of this book may be
in the projects presented, such as Frederic
Schwartz's Shotgun LoftHouse, a design that
contributes little towards the questioning of the historical
idea of nature, or even towards the relationship of New
Orleans to the natural events that affected it recently.
The apparent antithesis of this criticism can be found in
Alessandro Rocca's collection of primarily artworks in the
nevertheless intentionally-titled Natural Architecture.
Here architecture is not about the functions typically ascribed
to buildings; it is about the act of building.
It is about building from nature and returning the objects
of that building back to nature. In a way it is about blurring
that line between building and nature.
The projects presented by Rocca can
be as simple as demarcating a path in a forest or stacking
straw bales, or as complex as the training or manipulation
of trees or bamboo; the resiliency of these living things
is exploited to literally become canopies for shelters.
Patrick
Dougherty's amazing "stick work" that graces
the cover of the book attempts to straddle these two
domains of natural and architecture, recalling the latter
in form via the manipulation of the former; window and door
openings are present, even though an interior space does
not require them. Rather than present answers, these and
other artworks pose questions, geared towards our preconceptions
and our attitudes towards that which surrounds us and from
which we are a part.
or 
for Natural Architecture
or
for Natural Metaphor |
