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Tag: architecture’s troubled relationship with nature


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Moneymaking Machines #7: Absolute Towers

Moneymaking Machines #7: Absolute Towers
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The 2005-06 competition for the design of Absolute Towers in Mississagua just outside Toronto in Canada was a privately-run competition open to anyone interested in entering. The following jury shortlisted six proposals from 92 entries. Ed Sajecki, civil engineer and professional planner, founding partner of LinkedIn Larry Beasley, urban planner, formerly Co-Director of Planning for […]

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Aesthetic Efficiency

Aesthetic Efficiency
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Prompted by this empty space outside a mall, I asked a few posts back if invisible design was an oxymoron. Despite having no obvious indicators of design, this empty space enables all the feelgood benefits we like to think more visible design can provide. It enables so much for so little obvious design input and […]

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Architecture Myths #22: Biomimesis

Architecture Myths #22: Biomimesis
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Learning From Nature introduced aspects of the troubled and confused history of architecture’s relationship with the natural world. The concept of biomimesis was never going to make it any clearer. On reading this, I did bristle at contemporary philosophy and wonder what was meant by sustainability in nature but the rest was good. I approved of the bit about not by replicating […]

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Zoomorphic Architecture

Zoomorphic Architecture
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I hinted at zoomorphic architecture briefly in a recent post. If Art Nouveau took advantage of plants for novel architectural stylings, then ZA did it with animals. The V&A exhibition is long gone, but the website lingers. Here’s that splash text again. Zoomorphic presents a startling new trend in architecture – buildings that look like animals. Animal resemblances […]

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Architecture Myths #10: Learning from Nature

Architecture Myths #10: Learning from Nature
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So what’s left then to ‘learn’ from Nature? We’re still very quick to want to do it but what have we ‘learned’ so far? It’s time for a quick roundup. In the not-so-dark ages before Architecture was invented, people managed to work out how to build buildings that suited how they wanted to live, using […]

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Stealth Developments

Stealth Developments
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Stealth is about staying undetected until your mission is accomplished. Many animals, for example, are stealth hunters. The polar bear, for example, walks to within 90 m of a seal and then crouches. If the seal doesn’t notice, it then creeps to within 9 to 12m of the seal and then uses a short burst of speed to attack. […]

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Architecture Myths #4: Gardens in the Sky

Architecture Myths #4: Gardens in the Sky
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A recent burst of pre-completion publicity for the Bosco Verticale in Milan came with a strong sense of seen-beforeness. This image is from the website of the architect, Stefano Boeri. The following press release can be seen on florafocuseu, inhabitat, jetsongreen, earthtechling, etc. etc. Bosco is Italian for forest. The Bosco Verticale consist of two towers covered in trees and shrubs. From […]

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Primitive Attributes

Primitive Attributes
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The primitive hut has been a standard of architectural theory since Vitruvius. He concluded that the different forms resulted from people using what they had available to use, rather than because they wanted to build things having those particular shapes. Perhaps he was the first misfit? – after all, this is how we here at misfits think things […]