Weaving Architecture & Nature

Landscape from its beginnings has a man-made connotation with associated cultural process values. The idea of having a landscape does not suggest anything natural at all. Yet there are instances of projects where the landscape itself suggests natural connotations as though there is no interface between nature (site) and culture (architecture).
In Chichi Art Museum, Today And made a radical decision to create an underground space to create minimal changes to the current natural environment, exposing only very basic geometries as the openings for the underground gallery. He transformed the site into a natural work of art, interfacing with the internal works of art. On the other hand, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Billingsgate transforms the original site into a beautiful monumental landscape and brings nature into the house by using materials found on site, creating natural experiences through his architecture.
Yet the ideas of the interface between Nature and architecture are translated very differently for the 2 projects. Nod’s idea of the interface was a stark exposed one while Wright’s was more clear and rational. This paper seeks to find out whether one of their interpretations questionable, or it is Just harder to comprehend one than the other. Keywords: Nature; Integration; Art; Landscape; Culture 1. INTRODUCTION Figure 1 . Illustration of the Phases of Museum Development The concept of museums since the late 18th century evolved through 3 different phases (Figure 1).

The first generation are mostly built by royalties as part of their collections, the second generation museums are more particular in presenting artworks and collections in their raw form, where exhibition spaces are designed to segregate the works from any context using spaces that is ere and abstract. As art works progressed further, artists evolved to creating works that are more specific, works that interact with surroundings and also visitors.
This concept itself brings out the definition of cultural landscape by Saucer (Saucer 1925, 46), where the art works themselves represents the cultural interference to the surrounding natural landscape. Here, the architect undertakes a special role as the direct influencer to the landscape. The Chichi Art Museum by Today And is one of the first of the 3rd development of museums, specially designed to house the works f Claude Monet, Walter De Maria and James Turrets, or on a higher level, to integrate their works with the natural environment.
The way Today And created his cultural landscape, interfacing with nature with his strong use of man made materials concrete and glass, gives us a new perspective on how one interfaces with their surroundings. 2 THE ORIGIN The concept emerged due to a similarity between the artists in the history of art – they question modern art and architecture and the “quality of aesthetic experience” in a three-dimensional space. By congregating them into one space could form “a lace for aesthetic experience” (Watchmaker and Mammoth 2005, 83). Figure 2.
Mashing, Japan (Source: http://architects. Files. Wordless. Com/2011 /06/chichi_panorama Jpg) The chosen site (Figure 2) was based on the likes of the initial client, Choirs Effectuate whom had a special liking towards the views of Sets Inland Sea and other islands from a place in Mashing (Watchmaker and Mammoth 2005, 83). The site was a good match with a three dimensional space envisioned by Monet – a space that by itself is a piece of art giving birth to the idea of a space that blends art and architecture together seamlessly.
Hence instead of a monumental building sitting on the site, the building took the form of 2 an underground building with no apparent form. The visitor world experience each artist’s space, one by one independently, and was prevented from looking at the building as a whole. Upon gathering all the experiences, they would then discover the structure in its entirety, and the relationships and arrangements between spaces (Figure 3). Figure 3. Illustration of Separate volumes coming together in the site (Source: Today And at Mashing: art, architecture, nature. )
The final museum itself, shown in Figure 3 embodies a mastery of light and materials that seek to reconnect with the elements of “art and nature”. To maintain the existing environment and aesthetics of the site, And chose to ‘bury’ the museum underground. Only a series of concrete openings and geometrical skylights float among the greenery shown in Figure 4. He dedicated a separate space for each of the artists’ gallery, bounding them together with a triangular courtyard that connects all the exhibition spaces via a mixed sequence of spaces – light and dark, open and closed. Figure 4.
Concrete opening and Skylight 3 THE INTERFACE . 1 Today Nod’s Chichi Art Museum Mashing 3 From Section 2, we understood that And made the decision to integrate art and nature as one by placing the building underground thus giving Chichi its name. Yet in his design, we see stark signs of man – made influences to the site, the most obvious being the introduction of concrete volumes that encompasses the entire site. As visitors enters the 27,700 square foot reinforced-concrete Chichi Museum, they will discover the diminishing sunlight taken over by the disorientating semidarkness.
The tunnel-like passageway provides a full separation from the external environment ND leads them into a square-sis forecourt carpeted with green stalks of bamboo-like grass (Pollock 2005, 116). This initial experience that And created as his entrance sounds rather intimidating. The uniqueness and unfamiliarity created a rather daunting feeling, and nature is nowhere mentioned or considered when one enters the space. Is the integration with nature only a surface treatment to the architecture by infusing the building underground?
Perhaps And was looking more into interfacing art and architecture together rather than interfacing the culture with nature. For our interpretation of a seamless interface with nature seem to be different from Nod’s radical representation of nature in his work. Yet where did our interpretation come from? 3. 2 Frank Lloyd Wright’s Billingsgate Figure 5. Billingsgate and the terraces (Source: HTTPS://blobs. Alt. VT. Dude/Kristin/files/2012/12/few Jpg) One of the historical buildings that perfectly epitomize the concept of one with nature is Frank Lloyd Wright’s 4 Billingsgate.
Wild animals live near it; Trees surround it; Water swirls underneath; huge beclouded rest at its feet; the house’s terraces echo the pattern of the rock ledges below (Figure 5). Billingsgate seeks to find harmony with nature. Instead of scoping a natural landscape for its inhabitants, the Kauffmann, Frank integrated the waterfalls with the architecture and hence integrated the falls into their lives. Figure 6. Elevation and Section of Billingsgate with materials (Source: Billingsgate: Frank Lloyd Wright’s romance with nature. ) Wright furthered the integration with nature via his selection of materials.
He kept his selection to merely 4 materials – sandstone, reinforced concrete, steel and glass and integrated them as part of the natural environment (Figure 6). All the stone at Billingsgate was quarried from the bottom of the waterfalls. Beams are designed in an arc shaped Just so to allow tree to grow through the trellis. The chosen concrete was of a pale ochre color to match the back of a fallen rhododendron leaf (Hangman 2011, 40). Exposed steel was painted red to give a raw feeling; reminding people of the red color of iron ore and also of the fiery method used to create steel.
Clear glass was used to extend the nature into the interior of the house, sometimes becoming reflective like mirror-like surfaces of a calm pool, and at night, disappears to eliminate any distinction between the interior and exterior. Understanding Wright’s design and linking it to integration with nature seemed almost redundant as the building encapsulates the whole concept. It is simple to relate the architecture as part of the landscape, and the concept of integration was strongly showed in every angle, which was not seen for the case of Chichi Art 5 Museum. 3. New Interpretation As a 3rd generation museum, perhaps we should not Judge the interface at its mere surface. Was there more to its looks for the Chichi art museum? From the Periphery of Architecture, And wrote “Nature in the form of water, light ND sky restores architecture from a metaphysical to an earthly plane and gives life to architecture. A concern for the relationship between architecture and nature inevitably leads to a concern for the temporal context of architecture. I want to emphasize the sense of time and to create compositions in which a feeling of transience or the passing of time is a part of the spatial experience. (And 2005, 465) Nod’s interpretation of the interface between architecture and nature showed that it should not be merely a visual effect, but a more in-depth understanding and experience towards nature. It is thus reasonable to feel that what And is doing with his architecture was in particular, to isolate natural elements in blending them with the architecture. Yes one would not feel the natural environment, for we have never experienced nature in its rawness. Our idea of sunlight goes together with landscape, with clouds, with mountains and seas.
We do not see light as a unit on its own. Figure 7. A Collage of the Monet Gallery at Chichi Art Museum This ideology was translated rather well in the Chichi Art Museum project. For Motet’s Gallery where the 6 tater lilies situate, the experience starts with changing your shoes to soft indoor slippers at the shoebox followed by a vacant room before the exhibition gallery. The dim experience diminishes through the rectangular open entrance, where silky light trickles in. Once we enter the Motet’s room, the transparent veil of light surrounds us.
The completely white atmosphere, the white frames, white walls, white ceiling, and white floors seem to be representative of the raw sunlight, as it fills the environment. This enabled the paintings to have an illusion that it is relieved of its endings to the frame and Joins the space as floating scenery (Figure 7). The gentle ramp that circulates around the central triangular courtyard features a slit in the walls, exposing elements of light into the dim passageway creates a transition of space yet connecting the spatial qualities of the Monet gallery to the other galleries (Figure 8).
This triangular courtyard exposes only rough stones at its surface, propelling vision from the visitors towards the sky (Figure 8). In James Turret’s Installation of the Open Sky, visitors are given the opportunity to enjoy the natural sky IA a framed skylight and observe the changes where visitors may see sunlight shining through the window, clouds drifting by or a lingering evening glow. Figure 8. The triangular courtyard (Source: Chichi Art Museum: Today And builds for Walter De Maria, James Turrets, and Claude Monet. The entire approach of Chichi Art Museum in integrating with nature forms a critical questioning of the natural environment. It forcefully brings out nature via the use of concrete envelope. The physical interface here is the concrete building, although man-made, it seems to be the perfect medium to bring the isolated 7 tater into the art and architecture. The Chichi Museum is thus a successful effort between the architect and the artists, people and nature, acting as a specific artwork in itself. Even the form as seen from the exterior, is like an art piece, infused within the mountains (Figure 9). This made the argument in 3. Invalid as the approach took by And in creating a dramatic entrance was Justifiable if his intention of integrating with nature is as discussed. Figure 8. Series of mediums illustrating the building infused into the site. (Source: Chichi Art Museum: Today And builds for Walter De Maria, James Turrets, and Claude Monet. ) The isolation of nature to provide the integrated experience is not a new concept. Even in Wright’s Billingsgate, we can see hints of this method used. In integrating the waterfall into the architecture, instead of scoping a view, Wright chose to situate the house right on top of it.