The Lightweight Natural Design Approach: Some Reflections about Designing and Building with Lightweight and Natural Structures in Architecture

摘要

Ecological and sustainable architecture is the talk ofnthe town: a difficult subject, sensitive and complex,nnot free from fashion symptoms and romantic dreams.nThat goes from the ivy covered surface hiding nudenconcrete walls and one’s own dunghill in front of anfarmhouse door, over the problem of populationnincrease, the exhaustion of resources and the gainingnof energy, up to the basic questions for the roots ofnhuman existence in a natural environment.nIn architecture, an important role is played bynseeking the rules and principles which govern thenrelations between form, structure, material, loading,nenergy and function. In order to find out what isnnecessary now and in the future to enable thenintegration of man and man-made objects into livingnand non-living nature, a clear standpoint has to benadopted towards the art of building: both understoodnin theory and realized in practise as the invention andnthe production of forms and structures, made for thenbuilt environment and compatible with the naturalnenvironment.