Investigation of Iconic Architecture-Nature Relationship

Abstract

Architects have mostly seen nature as a source of inspiration in the process from the past to the present. Nature has always been a source of inspiration for architectural design in terms of form, aesthetics, and harmony. The prominent approach in today’s design approach; is not to use nature directly as a figural source of inspiration, but to evaluate nature as a production process that deals with it as a whole. Advances in technology and natural sciences and information technologies in the 20th century enabled architecture to work integrated with physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics; The functioning of nature has begun to be used in architectural design, not only as a form but also as a structure and material. Today, iconic buildings with their different and innovative designs are often inspired by nature with the aim of being original and different. Because iconic buildings need a strong associative meaning in order to remain in the memory of the viewer, and at this point, living and non-living nature offer architects an unlimited source of inspiration for iconic design. In this study, the iconic building-nature relationship was discussed, nature-inspired iconic buildings designed at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century were selected and these buildings were classified and analyzed according to their source of inspiration from nature. A detailed literature review was conducted for the selected structures; The identity of the buildings, the architectural design story, and the source of inspiration were investigated. In light of all this information, the findings obtained as a result of the architectural analysis of the selected contemporary icon structures and the analysis of their relationship with nature were evaluated, the future of these structures and their importance for the cities they belong to were discussed.