Introduction and background

As senior year shifts into fifth gear, I have taken on the task of writing a Senior Honors Thesis for my Architectural Studies degree. A month has come and gone and, after a false start, I seem to have finally decided on a topic. Two weeks ago I re-proposed my topic and rewrote a chapter outline. You can read about them here:

Topic Proposal

Tentative Chapters Outline

And now for some background: My topic was inspired half a year ago by, of all things, thoughts of food. This led me to read a remarkable book, The Ominvore's Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, which set my mind a-whir thinking about humans' relationship to nature. Though I've always been a nature-lover at heart and been aware since kindergarten of an existing (practically clichéd) tension between humans and nature, I had never realized the depth and complexity of this tension, and the extent to which the human conflict with nature was a product of capitalism, industrial society and modernization. I became interested in finding out what the reasons behind our overall ignorance and disregard for natural environments and ecological reality were.

While thinking about this, I decided first that I would research sustainable architecture. While leafing through a huge stack of glossy, beautifully illustrated books on green architecture, sustainable building, and other permutations of those words, I slowly began to realize that, energy-efficient and well-designed all these pieces were, a great deal of buildings calling themselves green do not give their occupant any sense at all of "greenness," other than a monthly utility bill that is wonderfully low. Modernist paradigms of the glass box, transparent but austere and sterile, persist. These buildings, I felt, could do more, much more, to help solve the environmental crisis. Beyond just treading water via shortsighted "energy fixes," they could re-engineer the way people think about and relate to nature by expressing ecological truths (such as connectivity and complexity) and teaching occupants about the natural life-giving processes that industrial society has for so long obscured. My question, then, is how to do this?

That, then, is my premise. From here on, I'll use this blog both to free-write and to track my progress as I gather information and develop a more critical perspective. I'll also post any tangential thoughts and discoveries I may come across (sometimes such things may lead to valuable insights.)

I welcome your thoughts, opinions, and suggestions in the hopes that this will be a rewarding intellectual adventure for all involved. So please, comment copiously!