HUMAN><NATURE
(2024) Pratt Institute SOA, Brooklyn and Arts Letters & Numbers, Albany
Advanced Architecture summer studio 2024. Professors: Sine Lindholm and Richard Yoon Joo
Nature Therapy and measuring natural phenomenas.
“Nature must be experienced through feeling” - Alexander Von Humboldt
The studio offers a unique structure that diverges from traditional architecture education by splitting its time between immersive experiences in the woods and studio work. Distinctively situated in nature—our most fundamental and original habitat—the course emphasizes that nature, with its intrinsic cycles of change, is our ultimate mentor in fostering interconnectedness and coexistence. This is designed to deepen students’ understanding of the dynamic, ever-changing nature of our environment and how it contrasts with the often static nature of built structures. By fostering a symbiotic relationship between architectural practice and the natural world, the studio aims to cultivate architects with a profound grasp of both realms.
Emphasizing hands-on research in nature, students engage directly with their environment, learning to integrate the principles of constant change and cycles into their designs. The culmination of this journey is the creation of built structures in the woods that embody the studio’s philosophy that architecture should be attuned to the deeper rhythms and fundamental systems of the natural world.
Integrating Isolated Natural Phenomena into a New Ecosystem
Students have each discovered a ”letter” in nature that turned into a ”word”. We will now join these words together to form a new ”language.” This language represents the ingredients of a new, growing ecosystem. They have each learned the traits and characteristics of their selected natural phenomena, their biotope. Just as humans struggle with loneliness and depend on each other to thrive, so does biotopes.
With samples or ingredients/pixels from nature that resonated with each of the studens and their personalities, they represent their natural phenomena. Some phenomena fit together perfectly, while others might repel each other. Some depend on each other to survive, mirroring human relationships.
Everything we’ve learned in this studio—from our assignment in the woods—shows that we are all connected, and so are your natural phenomena. The feedback loop theory further emphasizes this interconnectedness. Through this performance - mating dance - they practised this by integrating their isolated natural phenomena into a new, interconnected ecosystem using the grid and feedback loop as unifying frameworks.
