Architecture as Connector to Nature

How can architecture connect us to our environments?

Is architecture responsible for connecting its user to their surrounding context? Can our spaces inform us about the world around us? There are numerous ways that humans can feel a connection to nature. But, what ways are more universal than others? What aspects of the natural world cross geographical and cultural boundaries? Perhaps, architecture can connect us to our environments by revealing the universal passing of time through natural daylighting by way of structure, materiality, and texture.

As the primary instrument, daylighting will be used in this body of work to explore time on an hourly and seasonal basis. It will do this by housing two light-sensitive programs, a painting conservatory and gallery space. By pairing these programs together, the architecture will investigate time by comparing and contrasting two user types and their corresponding needs from each program.

Finally, by setting the architecture in the center of a urban block, the thesis can draw upon this high contrast to reinforce the connections it has constructed and made between the user and the natural environment.