Ways of “Building” as an Integral Part of Nature
Ways of “Building” as an Integral Part of Nature

Summary/Abstract: This research is positioned in an anthropological, ontological, and anthropic framework, where creativity and art have been vital modes of expression for humans, in accordance with their own perception of their body and the world around, and while having the ability to transform the surrounding materiality, as a form of habitation, since ancient times. If, in the distant past of human existence, "building" settlements was an integral part of inhabiting nature, today we are concerned with ways of reconnecting these natural bonds, focusing on environmental protection and sustainability. By examining certain historical approaches to art and architecture—two fields that were indistinguishable until relatively recently in human history—we can consider art as a mediating force between human modes of expression. Over time, art has established connections across nearly all domains of knowledge, and it can continue to function as a trans(-)medial bridge, mediating the reconnection of humanity's way of "building" together with the environment. This is probably the reason why art is called to share its expertise, characteristics, and mode of operation with other fields, as it has a unique way of connecting to different areas of knowledge. In relation to the architectural heritage, it can operate either as a simple insertion/action in the urban space, making a different kind of contribution to the act of landscaping, or as a reconversion of derelict areas. These are just parts of art’s multiple contributions and functions. In the last decades, the art implications for imagining new ways of perceiving the world, in which the privileged human point of view began to fade, leaving room/right to equal existence to other forms of life or even to matter itself, and encouraging a shift beyond immediate consumptive needs toward a clearer awareness of environmental consequences, have also emerged from the modes of expression and the reactions of certain artists. To work “like nature [1]” means integrating ourselves into the larger organism of the living world, where the spider's web is one of the most intricate constructions [2], where tricopters assign equal value to construction materials, whether they are gems or simple pebbles at Hubert Duprat, and where scaffold structures organically reshape themselves in the case of Tadashi Kawamata, suggesting the eventual natural reintegration of all human constructions back into nature.

• Details
• Contents