Description: Based on documentation originating in the environmental sciences, history of science, philosophy and art, Architecture of Nature explores the materiality and the effects of the forces at play in the history of the earth through the architect's modes of seeing and techniques of representation. This book presents the research work developed for the past eight years in the Advanced Research graduate studio "Architecture of Nature/ Nature of Architecture," created and directed by Diana Agrest at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union. Architecture of Nature departs from the traditional approach to nature as a referent for architecture and reframes it as its object of study. The complex processes of generation and transformations of extreme natural phenomena such as glaciers, volcanoes, permafrost, and clouds are explored through unique drawings and models, confronting a scale of space and time that expands and transcends the established boundaries of the architectural discipline.
Brief description: John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American writer, widely considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He won the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction in 1999 for Annals of the Former World. In 2008 he received the George Polk Career Award for his "indelible mark on American journalism during his nearly half-century career." John McPhee is a Professor of writing at Princeton University where he has taught since 1974.
Review Quotes: "...a vivid catalogue of material and physical processes that are as alluring and troubling as the oily rainbow when on a contaminated puddle. The speculative schemes--products of a nearly decade-long series of design studios taught by the book's lead author, architect and educator Diana Agrest, at Cooper Union's School of Architecture to 'deal with environmental issues'--present a dangerous kind of beauty." --Edward Eigen, Architectural Record