ORO Editions

Methow Valley, Washington, 1999

The arrangement of framework elements blends partially with the surrounding forest, yet also delineating and emphasizing it —as in a good dialogue.

photos Art Grice

see also in chapter 2 Nordic Pavilion,

Situated Scenes

steward visual resources, touching the earth lightly with a relating, non-consumptive gaze to nature.

subtle frames curate fitting view to this domain no thoughtless vistas

Buildings offer the inhabitant an intimate experience of participating in and belonging to Nature. This can include an individual dwelling in the lived moment and, by narrative extension, humanity at large—as the collective embrace belonging to a larger natural order. Architecture frames humans' Nature experience in the contemporary world; what it means depends on the design. How people understand Nature is largely determined by how architecture presents and interprets it visually—as an object in perspective or, instead, as a continuity of life where the built and natural environments constitute a co-defining network. In the former, the building communicates the relative identity, position and power of observer and observed; in the latter, a wholeness. Design can narrate an objective view of building-in-Nature and a more participatory view, with neither primary. Additionally, Nature occurs as what is seen out the window and as the view from afar of architecture in context. Both are important as visual resource and psychological support; each can be treated in consumptive or in conservative ways.