Architects Respond to Nature, Beyond Sustainability: Living Architecture in the 21st Century

Although architecture itself originated from a need for shelter from nature, modern humans retain the desire to live with nature around or near them—even in urban settings. Since the development of plate glass in the 17th century and mechanized heating and cooling in the late-19th and 20th, the relationship between architecture and nature has continually evolved to the point that architecture is now including or mimicking natural processes of decay and self-replication.

Over the course of the last century, the work of two architectural giants, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, responded to nature in very different ways through their philosophies and approaches, influencing the work of other architects as well as builders and clients. Today’s architecture draws on the legacies of these groundbreakers, especially by integrating structures with the site, incorporating natural materials, or maximizing visual access to surrounding nature and the seasons.

March 24 Beyond Sustainability: Living Architecture in the 21st Century

During the later decades of the 20th century, a growing environmental crisis coupled with emerging technologies inspired several architects worldwide to explore more eco-friendly architectures. Since then, a growing recognition that the eco-sciences and building technologies must work together has yielded many advances in sustainable, biomimetic, and regenerative building, guided in part by the LEED program (Leadership in Energy Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and more recently by the Living Building Challenge, administered by the International Living Future Institute. Lindsay Baker, the institute’s CEO, discusses how 21st-century architects have addressed nature and the need to incorporate regenerative design and resilience in their work.