Boxes, Rectangles, Curves, Natural Forms, Hyperboloids, Paraboloids, Nature as Architecture School

When I was a boy I met an architect who had designed a school in the shape of a circle. I was immediately intrigued. It wasn't a very beautiful building, but it was functional, and what I liked about it, was what it wasn't: rectangular or square. I'm not opposed to rectangular or square buildings, I've just wondered whether all buildings should be based on this template and form. Maybe I was also influenced by Malvina Reynolds' song, "Little Boxes". I didn't think every one should live in a box. Though some boxes are fabulous to live and work in.


http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/MALVINA/mr094.htm


Naturally I got interested in Antoni Gaudi and Frank Gehry. (In a BBC presentation on Gaudi, presenter Robert Hughes states about one of Gaudi's "signature works" that "it feels raw and primitive, and yet it's immensely sophisticated".) 








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHXGKROfjuw


"Organic Architect" Eric Corey Freed 


http://organicarchitect.com/

... introduced me to architect Bart Prince:

http://bartprince.com/

I've long been intrigued by Arcology at Arcosanti. 


http://www.arcosanti.org/theory/arcology/intro.html


Northern California's eco-architecture innovator Sim van der Ryn's architectural autobiography Design for Life is not to be missed.



http://www.amazon.com/Design-Life-Sim-Van-Ryn/dp/B000H2MESM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283102924&sr=8-1




























Earthships creator Mike Reynolds has explained that even with the wild, extraterrestrial looking shapes of his early work, over time the essence becomes undeniable: the building has to function, has to work, is inevitably made up of systems and subsystems that need structural elements to perform tasks that take care of us who live and work inside.


http://www.dreamgreenhomes.com/plans/earthship.htm


Meanwhile, vertical farms have come under scrutiny in terms of whether they pencil out or not on the bottom line. It's intriguing to think we can grow food way up high in dense cities if we plan and build for doing so, but can we.


http://www.verticalfarm.com/
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/08/george-monbiot-girds-for-battle-vertical-farms.php
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/vertical-farms-food-problems.php

Richard Cook, of Cook+Fox, talks about being in buildings that are essentially seamless with their natural surroundings, so that we don't have to feel harsh separation from nature while also being sheltered from its harsher elements.


http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currents/2010/08/richard-cook.html
http://environment.bankofamerica.com/article.jsp?articleId=Tower
http://www.durst.org/properties/one_bryant_park.php


Early eco-architecture often focused on energy efficiency so much that it may have neglected to also include the beauty that is in the eye of the beholder, the aesthetic that gives us comfort and delight as much as natural heating and cooling.


Meanwhile, Frank Gehry's had headaches with buildings that have leaked, with controversies about whether this has been due to the design or the construction. And some have complained that Gehry's Guggenheim Museum is such a work of art that it distracts attention from the art that it houses; or is that a compliment.


http://www.guggenheim.org/bilbao


Form and function, natural shapes and effective systems, are intriguing and challenging when viewing Architecture As Ecology. 

Architecture As Ecology

Architecture As Ecology ... 


The inspiration for this blog is to explore the idea that a building can be an ecosystem that informs the senses and soul of a visitor or inhabitant to be in harmony with the human world of artifice and structure with the natural world of surrounding ecological complexity and biodiversity.


This is not a new idea, only that it goes deeper than a building that, as the saying goes, chases LEED points to look green and sell well in an evolving ecology-informed society. As Richard Cook (architect, LEED Platinum awarded B of A tower in NYC) said recently in an interview with Paul Goldberger (architecture critic, New Yorker magazine), any design that goes for the highest possible level of ecological design will get all the LEED points it needs to be recognized, even if the LEED rating system is not perfect, it's the best we currently have.


After years contemplating, as a lay person, the energy and aesthetics of architectural design which is ecologically aware, this blog is largely inspired by that interview, which can be found here:


http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currents/2010/08/richard-cook.html


This blog is also inspired by Earthships and other "autonomous buildings" which attempt to not only free visitors and inhabitants from depending on the grid (food, water, and waste management "grids" as well as energy) but also to free the "commons" from the impacts of multiple, individual, highly-consumptive structures. 


http://earthship.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_building


As a student of Permaculture and other approaches to organic food growing, but also some one who, like many, once hoped and planned to be an architect (I used to design curvilinear residences as a hobby), I have found myself intrigued by any system that puts food growing and individual homes and community altogether.


So much of this is experimental, and living this way, or working this way, involves adjustments. I hope to explore all of these permutations by inaugurating this blog.


David Glober
San Francisco, CA
August 26, 2010