Essay

The Different Benefits Nature Brings

Nature presents an ever-changing array of patterns that bring beauty, delight, and renewal. Nature is an amazing force, and what it brings to buildings and their occupants differs from location to location. People respond differently to the natural elements like sunshine, rain, or wind. For example, some people just love a sunny afternoon, while there are others that really love a gentle rain. For this reason, architecture that blocks such experiences may be depriving occupants of the natural elements that really serve to sooth, inspire, or energize. This leads one as a designer to really think more deeply about the boundaries that a project creates — one may ask: Do they serve to unite, divide, or filter?

Architecture with nature can become a bridge that links occupants to their dynamic surroundings. And with the emergence of architectural interactivity, new and innovative architectural experiences that present nature in new ways can be born. Just imagine if a home could filter in the sounds of a gentle rain for the inhabitant that loves this occurrence. Or, you can imagine an architecture that creates a grand experiential moment out of a sunrise or sunset. Perhaps experiencing these types of natural occurrences can be enhanced, interpreted, or even filtered to present them in new and innovative ways. You see, architecture can be about more than “framing” a sunset through a window — it can instead be about re-presenting that sunset in ways never experienced before.

Architectural Transience that Uses Nature to Meet Occupant Goals

What if nature could be used to help people meet their dreams and subsequent goals? Well, architecture can be used to channel such nature benefits for occupants. For example, exposure to nature is beneficial for people in ways that help them to be more productive in the workplace, or in ways that help them to heal while in a hospital. In this light, architecture really does become a bridge that harnesses nature’s empowering benefits for occupants.

As you design your architecture, expand the way you design your environments to harmonize with nature. Ask yourself how you can go beyond simply co-existing with nature — to instead, pulling from its incredibly beautiful and health-enhancing benefits. Of course, this does not mean that your designs need to allow all of nature in at once so that your interior environment is indistinguishable from the exterior environment. (unless that is your design intent) Instead, this means that your architecture can act as a bridge that allows nature’s benefits to cross into an occupants perception in new and exciting ways. This “bridge” can be used to unite, divide, and filter — particularly, if this is an interactive “bridge” that can transiently change over time.

Architecture’s Role in Leveraging the Best of Nature

The innovation of occupant experience is key. As a designer, ask yourself: What could be gained by an occupant if nature were to be presented in a new and more creative fashion? Might this occupant think or feel more deeply? Might they attain new habits and behaviors for which they strive? And might they learn at deeper levels? Thus, design should not take the nature which surrounds it for granted. Use the emerging interactivity of architecture to tap into why nature is so beneficial for people. After all, the right natural occurrence, presented at just the right time, to the right person, can affect their well-being in wonderful new ways. Your job as an architect is to discover what these are within the context of your building design.

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