Second Nature: Artificial Ecology

Abstract

Starting from the premise that architecture and nature cannot be separated entities, the question of their mutual relations and the traditional boundaries are contained in the architectural process that follows logic of nature in the function of generating space. Nature as a substantial component of the project, in that sense, is not an ambient articulated by architecture, but architecture and nature determine each other. The natural mechanisms engaged in producing artificial environments, assume field of techniques, concepts and terms involved in the creation of new technological nature, and in the same time, in conjunction with a different, naturalized architecture. These mechanisms are not antagonized, instead they are included in the process of disappearance and emergence of various forms of materiality. Where disappears first, the second matter rises - new, artificial nature. Research of the relationship between architecture and nature defines process of disappearing borders – between inside and outside, so the architecture and landscape dissolve in the state of dynamic tension, which may challenge traditional relations - architecture / nature as inseparable or ontologically different. Concept of nature as methodology of architectural design becomes process of presentation of natural-artificial dialogue. Ecological aspect on that occasion suggests the way in which the internal organization of the project uses the information in constant process of becoming. Observing panorama of contemporary architecture, examples in this paper suggest the need for creating new models of analysis that instead of being relevant only to formal explanations of architecture, they could be integrated with environmental parameters that are constantly changing. Comparison of different approaches reveal the same preoccupation with the analysis of associated meanings, both local and global that determine the area of intervention. As a result of such a view, the topography arises as fluid construct or variable ground for current production of space.