THE BREATHING ENVELOPE : A NEW CONTRACT BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND NATURE

Abstract

There has been an increasing awareness in our world today over the issue of environmental degradation and destruction occurring at an unparalleled rate. Environmentalism, sustainability and its associated counterparts have pervaded our society towards commonplace, an imminent urge for people to reconsider their lifestyles, actions and decisions in light of such emergent issues.

Against this backdrop, a branch of new architecture known as "Green" architecture emerges. However, the term itself has become host to different forms of interpretations. This dissertation seeks to move beyond our current thinking regarding “greenness” and begin the advancement of sustainable design that is sophisticated and reflective of our increased understanding of the complexity of nature as well as its impact on scientific discovery.

Through the recent phenomenon of ‘skin’ architecture, the treatment of the building’s external envelope becomes the subject, a separating element that divides the two worlds, inside and outside, culture and nature. This research emphasizes on the build environment’s envelope as an emergent state of an architecture that is engaging in a new contract of co-operation between the built and the natural environments. With the emergence of a post-human era where computation and biogenetics converge towards the aspiration of biological movement and intelligence, the impact of these emerging and progressive biological advances are called upon architectural and design practice. It presents the current surge of experiments and creations that utilize design as a medium, to explore and manipulate actual biological material.

In this context, the living skin, is partly a designed object and partly a living material. This visionary natural envelope hopes to mediate the internal and external environment just like our very own skin. The line between the natural and the artificial is progressively blurred. The skin hence becomes a new contract between Architecture and Nature.