Restoring Reciprocity, between nature, humans and building
By: Gardiol Crous
Mid-year review, MArch(Prof) student work
What happens when the result of our quest towards achieving a Modern civilization has comprised the very grounds of human existence? What happens when pollution and smog, fine dust and biotechnology, genetic manipulation and global warming are increasingly impacting our health and well-being within cities? What happens when our bodies have become so compromised by disease that even nature, the ideal source of healing, makes us sick?
The dramatic modifications to modern life have put increased pressure on human bodies, which are not biologically suited to cope with the sudden environmental changes they have been subjected to in recent decades. This is reflected in rising trends of “diseases of affluence” such as allergies, food intolerance and asthma, which are increasingly affecting urban citizens of all walks of life. There is thus a great urgency to understand the real crises underpinning this rise in "urban disease", which is only a symptom of a deeper problem.
The deeper problem is that of disconnection between humans and the rest of the living system that they form a part of. This dissertation therefore explores new means to restore reciprocity between nature, humankind and building on equal terms, especially for people whose health is compromised, not improved, by nature. The possibility arises to not explore building in a landscape, on a landscape or even for a landscape, but rather to consider designing a building to function AS a landscape. In other words to mimic the physical qualities of nature within a building without bringing nature into the building. By investigating this notion, the building is not viewed as the antagonist but rather as the mediator to restore the reciprocity between both the compromised landscape and compromised health and well-being of man.
The development of the modernist city, focused on zoning principles, severely influenced territorial management and urban planning choices, contributing to blue and green ecosystemic dilapidation. The metropolises of Gauteng are particularly exposed to these risks that contributes to climate change, energy scarcity and processes of decay, presenting hazards to the health of our cities and its inhabitants.
The Urban vision is directed towards The Discarded Landscape Of The West and aimed to address the unsustainable and problematic developmental trend, taking place towards the east of Pretoria. The vision for the West is to revitalize marginal space, instill developmental energy and re-establish the West as an essential part of the city’s future. The dissertation will attempt to restore the ecological conditions predominant in the West. The landscape is therefore viewed as the most prominent medium of urban analysis.
The site sits within a 400m walking distance from the present Pretoria Gautrain Station.
It used to house a relocated Mercedes Benz dealership building, facing a piece of open land that presents huge opportunities to form part of a larger ecological corridor. The site is located near the periphery of Nelson Mandela drive, a main transport artery connecting the southern and northern areas of Pretoria. The Apies River, which is adjacent to the road, can be integrated into the vision of ecological reclamation.
The aim is to explore how architecture can be designed from the positive qualities of
nature to instigate a new way of city-making. This will contribute to create a habitat that
promotes resilient health in both nature and humans that is not only perceived as the absence of illness, but is expanded to include a state of general wellbeing, shifting the disconnected condition of “humans versus nature” to a reciprocal relationship of
“humans with nature”.
The task of this dissertation becomes to identify what the positive qualities of natural landscapes are and explore how it can be translated and reinterpreted in spatial and architectural qualities. For example a canopy of leaves in forest with dappled light filtering through can be interpreted using architectural devices such as roof lights or clerestory windows. The notion that natural qualities can be mimicked in building is based on an extensive theoretical research which includes Regenerative architecture, Bioremediation, Biophilia and Biomimicry. These theories will be investigated and adapted at different scales to create a theoretical design framework, which will support and inform the notion of Building AS a Landscape.