Biophilic attitudes towards architecture : a historical perspective

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly well demonstrated that contact with nature has real, measurable benefits for people with regards to aspects related to human performance such as productivity, learning, healing, emotional well-being and stress reduction. Also, from an environmental point of view, contact with nature inspires an interest in, and a greater appreciation of it, which should in turn lead to a greater protection of the environment. The author has developed an interest in architecture's interplay with nature and how the boundary between the interior and exterior of a building may be blurred to bring people in closer contact with nature. After analysing the topics of biophilia and biophilic design and studying the benefits to be gained by man from a close connection to nature in a range of contexts, this dissertation analyses how various architects address the theme of creating a connection between a building and its environment through diverse architectural means and building forms. The dissertation focuses on three different situations where the indoor-outdoor boundary is broken to bring architecture and environment in unison. The first involves interior spaces which open themselves up towards their surrounding environment, the second explores buildings where nature has been introduced internally and the third deals with buildings which are built into their natural environment in such a way that they are practically engulfed and camouflaged by it. Historical, Modernist and contemporary projects of varying types and from different cultural and climatic contexts are discussed, highlighting the methods used to fuse architecture and environment. Keeping in mind that architecture involves the creation of experiences and that a person's perception of space depends on stimuli received from all the senses, interior-exterior interactions in architecture are here approached from a multi-sensory perspective, rather than solely from the visual point of view.