ARTIFICIAL NATURE: SYMBIOTIC RELATIONS OF BUILT-FORM AND NATURE IN THE POST-ANTHROPOCENE ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

This study aims to demonstrate a design transformation that demonstrates symbiotic
relationship between built-form and nature with the overarching objective of fostering
ecological sustainability in the emerging post-Anthropocene epoch. This study can be
considered as a direct response to current architectural paradigms that
predominantly prioritize human needs and requirements, often at the expense of
environmental well-being. Most of our built environment stands on the modes of
resource extraction and consumption, frequently relying on finite, non-renewable
materials, generating substantial pollutants that disrupt delicate ecological
equilibrium. This study begins by exploring the idea of symbiotic between architecture
and nature in current design discourse. The exploratory design study follows by
establishing potential natural elements that can be accommodated within built-form
as living systems. The study identifies three specific roles in the environment as part
of the symbiotic programming, which are to feed, to fuel, and to heal. This speculative
study further develops architecture proposition as a form of artificial nature through
connections of these different programs. By exploring mutually beneficial symbiotic
relationships between built-form and natural elements, the study found that artificial
nature can create interdependent outputs, where outcomes from feeding can be used
for either healing or fueling, and vice versa. This study highlights the need to create
architecture that transforms and unfolds as open and collaborative systems. Such
discussion informs a systemic form of architecture, where its spatiality enables growth
of biological organisms that metabolize the spatial process and its surroundings.