Between Nature and Culture
a garden
T. Tellarini (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
S. Pietsch – Mentor (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
M. Parravicini – Mentor (TU Delft - Building Product Innovation)
D.J. Rosbottom – Mentor (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
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Abstract
There’s Paulo Mendez da Rocha quote that stuck with me since I read it on my first year of Bachelor: “`Las naturaleza es una mierda`” Swiss architect Luigi Snozzi made this quote his mantra, and used to repeat it all the time to his students at the first year. “`The role of the architect is to intervene on nature, modifying it for the needs of human life. Nature tells us: please change me, I did not make this landscape for you, I did it for me, and if you want your own landscape you have to modify me, but if you want to change me you must always be against me`”. With his words, Snozzi is reminding his students that whether we like it or not, for our practice the act of destroying is just as critical as the act of building. There is an inherent and inevitable conflictuality between a building and the ground it stands upon. That is the main fascination from which this thesis started. On a more general level then, my thesis deals with the conflict between nature and culture, a conflict who’s history can be traced back to the birth of civilization itself. I believe that this conflict lies at the core of the architectural discipline, and that we - as architects in the age of climate change - should be very conscious of that.