Nature and Its Role in Architectural Design

Nature and the attitude towards nature have been two fundamental concepts historically used in interpretation of world, science and arts resulting to various definitions during different periods of human thought.Nature and the attitude towards nature have been two fundamental concepts historically used in interpretation of world, science and arts resulting to various definitions during different periods of human thought. Major changes in modern living have created a need for research about nature because of its inherent complexity. A study into the history of understanding nature indicates that it was earlier considered to be among metaphysical issues. However, it was replaced by a physical view with the passage of time. The metaphysical view belongs to pre-modern era and material and physical view belongs to modern era. The discovery of new ways and tools after industrial revolution has brought about advancements in science, technology and production leading to abusive exploitation of nature as the main source of raw materials. Depletion of resources along with ecosystem and environmental pollution has made nature once again the focus of attention in various scientific groups. Environmental protection has now become one of the main issues for sustainable development in scientific societies of the world. The implemented concept of sustainability was originally proposed as a theory in applied sciences and arts for relieving environmental crisis created during industrial and modern eras. Architectural design, as an instrument for integrating human, environment, and space, has adopted various environmentally friendly approaches in creating different types of spaces. Under the influence of dominant thoughts in the society, many of these approaches have proposed certain principles to fulfill objectives spelled out for sustainable architectural thinking. These principles are used to create architectural spaces which, in turn, make up various styles of sustainable architecture. It is necessary to examine the relationship between architecture and environment in an attempt to provide a proper definition for nature and the concept of sustainability in architectural field. The historical evolution of architecture has witnessed varied relationship between architecture and nature. The relationship among human, nature, and architecture has gained importance and has been researched extensively. However, the true relationship among these elements still remains unknown. Understanding nature as an important issue, providing a definition for the role of nature in architectural field, and the study into the relationship between human nature provide the characterization of the situation in the past and present. The clarification of the role of nature in architecture will create a new opportunity to examine architectural principles including content, form, and matter. This paper studies the role of nature in architecture by evaluating its elements. It attempts to provide a base for a suitable interpretation of the relationship between nature and architecture. It finally provides a model for improving the quality of this relationship.