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Image: Patrick Haney | Flickr
I invite you to think about how you can use dynamic installations within your built form designs to enhance effects for your occupants as they travel and experience your buildings. For example, with video installations you may make a statement, create a new kind of beauty or even “reframe” something that has been in existence without changing for a long time.
The Crown Fountain in Millennium Park, Chicago, presents quite a unique experience. Through video that is integrated into its built form, this design brings forth activity, meaning and engagement for its users. As you can see in the image above, the video (of the face) has been set to synchronize with natural elements that are also in motion — and as water springs forward, human curiosity to engage is triggered.
By giving built form a way to reframe its context in real time — where LED lights light the front face of each tower as water streams outward — the combination between nature (in this case water), built form, and video create such a unique dialogue that those experiencing it will likely Read more
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Image: La Citta Vita | Flickr
What will turn your architecture from merely being a place that people go to, into a place that people feel attached to — a space where they have made a connection and one that is meaningful? Many theories exist and contribute to what can make a place…well, more than a “place”.
In reading the article entitled What makes neighborhood different from home and city? Effects of place scale on place attachment, I found that this study determined that scale plays a large role when it comes to predicting and creating place attachment for those that experience it. So, this leads me to consider this notion of scale and its meaning for you, as an architect, when it comes to designing architectural spaces that attract — versus just standing to exist.
My personal notion about “spaces of attachment” also brings up the aspects of socialization. I deem that providing a community place within your architectural designs is important. The way in which your occupants interact not only Read more
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It is fascinating to think about the “between-state” of nature and built form. Each can support, erode, filter or even sculpt the other. Both architecture and nature seem to continuously creep into each other’s territories, as if to propel the notion that they are really inseparable — as you will see in the following slideshow.
It is my hope that these simple “captured moments” will spark an idea for you regarding architecture’s interplay with nature. As architects, we always should be aware of our green environment…for so many reasons. It is important that we build with our environment and not against it. Here are nine simple reasons why:
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- Architectural Weathering — displaying nature and built form’s delicate balance.
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- Improving Building Systems — a vertical display of nature texturizing our environments.
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- We Reflect Nature — The sky looks as if it is coming from the building’s interior.
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- Nature’s Growth— Nature most always finds a way to make an appearance.
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- Nature’s Perspective — This water droplet reflects buildings on its surface.
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- Feeding Our Experiences — Light “striking” an interior space.
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- Local Natural Systems — A nest “built” within a building’s fixture.
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- Capturing Nature’s Beauty — An old brick wall reveals nature, as if to filter it through.
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- Socio-political Factors — an abandoned city taken over by lush nature.
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