Architecture’s Reliance On Nature’s Omnipotence

Pictures of architectural details that must exist the way they do because of the forces of nature and the surrounding ecosystems.

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Nature plays a key role in many of the cities that Marco describes, at times dictating with a certain omnipotence the very functioning of architecture and the behavior of its inhabitants. One example is that of Isaura, a “city Links to an external site. of the thousand wells” built over a deep lake, where “the inhabitants dig long vertical holes in the ground and succeed in drawing up water, as far as the city Links to an external site. extends.” Water, as a vitality of life, is a major driving force behind the formation of a necessary architectural typology (in this case, the dam) as well as the relationship between the city Links to an external site. and its people. The importance of water is further embodied in the people’s shared cultural understanding; its importance both as a substance and in formulating a kind of landscape architecture Links to an external site., hold elements of the divine.

The city’s Links to an external site. gods, according to some people, live in the depths, in the black lake that feeds the underground streams. According to others, the gods live in the buckets that rise, suspended from a cable, as they appear over the edge of the wells…

Now in the age of the Anthropocene, our definition of what constitutes as natural is more varied than before, given our drastic alteration of the natural world in which architecture itself is complicit. As a result, global environmental change will dictate architecture’s role more than ever, in order to mediate this and assume a coexistence with its landscape Links to an external site.. This notion is apparent in the city Links to an external site. of Thekla, which is constantly under construction “so that its destruction cannot begin”. When one asks if stopping the construction will cause the city Links to an external site. to fall to pieces, the reply is: “not only the city Links to an external site..” Soon, it is made apparent that this constant work is being ordained by the cosmic order of the stars, and though this does not directly compare to the threats of global warming, both are natural conditions that call for an architecture to abide by them, to prevent Thekla’s demise.

What is the aim of the city Links to an external site. under construction unless it is a city Links to an external site.? Where is the plan you are following, the blueprint? We will show it to you as soon as the working day is over… they answer. Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. There is the blueprint, they say.

https://www.archdaily.com/875409/three-principles-of-architecture-as-revealed-by-italo-calvinos-invisible-cities