ABSTRACT
Since the very beginning of hum an civilisation, nature has provided our most profound source of understanding and reference to the world. The earliest civilisations found both literal and metaphoric inspiration and significance in the natural world around them . Certainly nature, that is the human body and the biological and physical world, were the original fertile sources of the development of our own technology and culture. However with the advent of Euclidean geometry and widespread understanding of m athematics, the works of m an began to take on an abstract character and significance in their own right, in opposition to nature, leading to the apotheosis of the machine itself as the source of reference early in the 20th century . However, with our m ore recent understanding of the actual complexity of mathematics, as expressed in chaos theory and fractals, increasing understanding of com plex natural sy stems, and the evolution of computer technology into a web of neural networks, our perception of the world has progressed from a purely mechanistic perspective towards a m ore organic understanding of existence, and once more, both literal and m etaphoric references to nature are gaining preeminence
A. Carter Department of Architecture and Design, Aalborg University, Denmark
P.H. Kirkegaard Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Denmark
R. Tyrrell School of Architecture, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
ABSTRACT: Since earliest tim es m ankind has sought inspiration from nature for our built structures. However until the dawn of the m odern era in architecture and design, the true structural character of a building was invariably fully or partially encased in an ornamented cladding, of often sty lised motifs of nature. The m odern emphasis on honest structural expression has resulted in more sincere and innovative interpretations of nature in spatial structures. With reference particularly to the exemplary nature inspired tectonic architecture of Jørn Utzon, the writings particularly of Kenneth Frampton, this paper will argue that the direct inspiration of nature and the increasing use of advanced param etric digital design tools that replicate virtually instantaneously evolutionary processes results in structures that are not only elegant tectonically and in terms of economy of m eans, but also aesthetically pleasing, profoundly satisfying experientially and often culturally significant.
