1, 3, 9

The Integration of Architecture into the Natural Environment

The Integration of Building and Site,

with a broad view of Existing Site Systems and Conditions to include Biological and Environmental Systems and Processes

The Integration of Building Systems and Natural Systems

A System is a set of interacting or interdependent entities forming an integrated whole

In order to survive, organisms evolved to fit into a role or niche within natural systems that exist in their environment

Buildings are entities that should interact with their environment

Buildings should become nodes where many systems intersect

Interaction can be parasitic or symbiotic

Architecture should be symbiotic

Buildings should use local materials

Buildings should dissemble when they are no longer needed

Building materials should become entities within new systems when disassembled

In "Program Primer v1.0 A Manual for Architects," program is defined as being the formal written instructions from the client to the architect. However, unwritten and alternate requirements are also a part of the program. The article claims that the most important author of these alternate requirements is the architect.

The article introduces performative requirements in addition to the proscriptive requirements of the traditional definition of program. Ultimately, it is the architect's responsibility to actively redefine the program by considering performative requirements, as well as other issues that are relevant to the project.

The performative requirements imposed by the architect represents an extremely important part of the architects job. Many people could take a list of programmatic requirements, organize them, and erect a building to suit those needs. It is the experience and skill of the architect that allows him/her to identify and resolve all those additional issues that the project requires.

Undoubtedly, different architects will make different interventions and decisions on what is relevant. This is because each architect works with a different set of experiences and values that filters what he/she perceives as required by the project.

This idea to me is very closely approaching the idea of the diagram, an intrinsic base of knowledge carried within the architecture, the blueprints of how it works. Earliest forms of architecture were mediators between people and the environment, responding by necessity to the pressures of the outside world. An example of this are the many forms of passive heating and cooling that have been around for centuries. Similarly, contextual analysis can seen as reading or deciphering the diagram of forces (physical, social, environmental, etc...) that exist within the environment.

It is this analysis that begins to shape the performative requirements of a project. Without acknowledging and engaging in a dialogue with these external pressures, it is impossible for a building to be truly successful.

concept sketch

Response to "The Muses Are Not Amused"

Silvetti begins his essay by stating that architectural form is the result of every form of energy that exists within a place. Cultural, social, economic, ideological, technical, methodological... etc.

Later in his essay, describing programism, thematization, and blob architecture, Silvetti claims that these methods of "form finding" leave the architect's opinion out of the equation. In programism, for instance, Silvetti claims that by organizing vast amounts of programmatic data, one is left with an organizational strategy that almost directly transfers to architecture. In thematization, Silvetti's criticism is that architects simply copy older trends and themes to recreate an idyllic setting from the past or the imagination, requiring not only a suspension of belief but also amnesia as a necessary condition in order to submit to the theme. Silvetti continues on to criticize blob architecture as creating forms simply because we can, without any guiding principles. He goes on to say that with the advent of digital fabrication techniques, "Freedom from semantics, history, and culture was perhaps made possible for the first time in civilization." Lastly, Silvetti criticizes literalism as the "most weakening formal development of the last twenty years..."

As a solution, Silvetti looks to the Baroque movement. He sees similarities in that the Baroque style was a amalgamation of different art forms, a metaphor for present times. However, he sees the Baroque style as having a sense of theatricality, a sense of performance which is lacking in todays world.

1 3 9

Can architecture be symbiotically integrated into the natural world, and if it can, what would it do?

All organisms that exist do so because they fulfill a specific role in a niche of the natural world.

The role that they perform, however small or seemingly insignificant, is performed as a necessary part of a larger system.

Architecture should bear this responsibility as well by becoming a symbiotic part of our environment, not parasitic.

Symbiotic, as it pertains to architecture and the environment, can mean simply being a zero net energy building.

However, architecture has the opportunity and potential to provide significant and necessary functions that will improve the state of the natural environment.

Buildings could also repair the damage that has been done to the natural environment already, in addition to its other programmatic requirements.

Finding new uses for Pittsburgh's old and factories and mills could be an interesting way to explore these ideas.

Adapting these structures to what we need now, reusing these relics as urban farms to make organic produce locally, is a symbiotic use these buildings.

Most buildings today can be considered parasitic, drawing resources from the environment but not putting anything back.

Buildings could start to do even more than generating elecricity or growing food, for instance they could sequester carbon or clean the environment around them of pollutants.

More important than what the buildings would look like, are the types of functions they could provide, the connections or processes they could facilitate.

What are the consequences when you require that architecture be integrated into the systems and processes of the natural world?

Thesis Project

The project that I would like to use as an opportunity to "test out" my convictions is located in the mountainous rainforest of Puerto Rico. The required program for the building will be roughly something like an eco lodge, but one that also incorporates logging, scientific research, art, theatre, and seminars for the local community. This "eco lodge" is a part of Las Casas de la Selva, a bohemian non profit place outside the small town of Patillas, Puerto Rico.

The full extents of this property are about 2000 acres of land comprising three adjacent river valleys in the mountainous rainforest. Las Casas de la Selva operates on about 200 acres of this land, all that rainforest being used for a sustainable logging operation developed and implemented in the 70's by a non profit company called Global Ecotechnics.

Much of their infrastructure was damaged by hurricanes during the last couple decades, and the facilities that support these numerous undertakings have all been repaired as well as can be. It goes without saying that the operation needs a new facility.

It is within these programmatic requirements that I wish to design a new "eco lodge," for lack of better words. In addition, after having spent much time there, I am deeply invested in the well being and growth of Las Casas de la Selva.

"How to Draw Up a Project" Reading Response

Mateo's "How to Draw Up a Project" is an interesting essay on the process of designing architecture. While his writing exposed me to many new ideas, I also felt at many times during the essay that his perspective closely resembled my own. Mostly, I was only made aware of my own position after reading what Mateo had written, and then deciding that I agreed with it.

At first I felt strange that I could so readily accept ideas put forth by somebody else. However, in addition to genuinely agreeing with much of what I read, I realized that many of the metaphors that Mateo uses to describe the process of architectural creation very closely resemble metaphors used by a number of different philosophies to describe the natural process of creation.

Thinking of that relationship between architecture and philosophy led me to the realization that in the history of the human species, architecture or the definition and creation of space precedes the development of language. What I take from this realization is that architecture is a fundamental language of its own, possibly one of the earliest forms of expression.

The expression I am referring to contains a wealth of information. Architecture for the earliest of humans was born out of the necessity to survive. Each shelter and structure created had an innate diagram holding the knowledge of how that piece of architecture worked. These earliest forms of architecture eventually evolved into built structures that we might more readily recognize, even incorporating passive heating and cooling techniques, the principles of which are still practical today.

Much of this evolution, architectural and otherwise, happened before the use of language, when what governed the actions of early humans and animals alike was instinct. In early stages of evolution, humans likely operated from a more balanced distribution of instinct and reason, if not nearly exclusively on instinct. However, as our logical brains continued to grow, especially after the advent of agriculture and later, industrialization, where life became more sedentary and stable, instinct was less frequently relied upon in favor of the egotistic consciousness of reason. The two opposites of reason and instinct exist in a duality, much like many other things in the natural world.

Mateo briefly touches upon duality near the end of his essay. He says, "I like to see these dualities simultaneously," speaking about both lightness and heaviness. This is another one of Mateo's thoughts that I agree with. I enjoy very much the juxtaposition of two extremes, for example the feel of ice cold water on a hot day, or a hot cup of coffee on a cold day. This is because the existence of one extreme provides a benchmark for the perception of the opposite extreme. In this way, for example, if one never tasted bad food, he or she would never know what good food was. The knowledge of one extreme allows us to distinguish the opposite extreme, and for both Mateo and I, allows us to enjoy ourselves in the process of that distinction.

I believe there is a way that architecture can hold this information within itself, and express it to everyone who experiences it. Specifically, I believe that architecture has the ability to educate us about who and what we are. Architecture can show us a way to be balanced and in harmony with our instinctual and natural selves, something that society suppresses starting from the moment we are born, oftentimes to the detriment of our health and well being. This is the ego that is present within any logical construct, or in other words, the necessity for control. The instinctual self is without ego, it relenquishes control and flows with the natural movement of the world, relying and trusting in the flow of the current, so to speak.

I believe that the way to change the world into a better place starts with the expulsion of the ego. In my thesis project, I will attempt to achieve this goal through the creation and experience of architecture.