The word nature

The word nature is, in all european languages, feminine: la nature, die Nature, la natura etc. The very word "natura" in latin means "birth". Nature is verbally personified as "mother nature", in german "Mutter Natur", it is an archetype.
But along with the scientific revolution in the 17th century, nature became something dead, dead material, although even the word "material" derives from the same origin ("mater"-mother).

Indigenous religions and their respect for the planet

"In the indian way, we have a lot of respect for the natural universe, the earth, the sun, the moon. All our ceremonies are centered on this. When the sun rises, we thank her for the new day. When it rains, we thank for the irrigation of our plants. We believe that we as humans are only one part of the whole. And that we therefore are always in relationship with all other living species, even with plants and insects. 
Because the creator has placed them here for purpose." (Dan Old Elk)

"Ich verbinde mich ganz mit der Natur. Wenn ich auf einem Berg sitze, dann bin ich Stein, ich ruhe. Wenn ich durch die Steppe gehe, dann bin ich Gras, ich wachse, ich raschle, ich verdorre. Ich identifiziere mich vollkommen mit der Natur, und in dem Augenblick habe ich keine andere Aufgabe. Wenn ich Stein bin, dann bin ich einfach Stein, ich ruhe. Wenn du diese Fähigkeit erreicht hast, dann steht dir die Natur zur Verfügung." (Galsan Tschinag)


"Everything was created, then came the human being. So we are connected to everything. (...) The stone will connect with you, the water will connect with you, everything will connect with you." (Percy Conqobe)

Christianity as root of (all) environmental evil?

"God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28)

Dominium terrae is the official term for this phrase. So, how does evaluation of christianity, its mission and spreading this idea all over the planet, look like in this context? Why did all "nature religions" (this term itself is obsolete, just to show its extreme reference to nature already in the nomination), that are so much older than christianity, care about nature in the most self-evident way?

Voronoi Diagrams

This diagram does not only look good, it also make a lot of sense in various contexts. The idea behind this diagram is the division of a space into smaller regions defined by points inside that space. The division is made by borderlines that have the smallest distance to the points. 

Leaf detail, via physics.utoronto.ca

Construction of voronoi diagrams (via http://www.pushpullbar.com)

Voronoi diagrams can occur in 2 and 3-dimensional spaces. So it´s possible to get 3dimensional structures based on a voronoi diagram, which I found a pretty amazing idea. Some examples:

via math.berkeley.edu

3d voronoi (via qhull.org)

The Japanese Metabolists

 Nakagin Capsule Tower (wikipedia.org)

Kisho Kurokawa Helix City (Floating City), via www.fgautron.com

In 1959, a group of architects came together to form the new movement called "Metabolists". Their subjects were the city in its urban context, the city in the upcoming mass societies, and creating architectural structures for people in these environments. The habitat should then be flexible and extendable to huge scales.
They understood architecture as a way to fulfill the needs of people in that changing society whose laws should be built on new laws of space instead of the old ones: form and function.
In light of this, totally new and modular architectural structures were created.

City in the air (via workjes.wordpress.com)

Archigram

„You can roll out steel – any length. You can blow up a balloon – any size. You can mould plastic – any shape. Blokes that built the Forth Bridge – they didn’t worry.” (David Greene)

What may have seemed like an inaccessible future for people in the 60s, has become reality- at least theoretically. The Archigram was an architectural movement initiated by a group of british Architecture students in the years 60-74 of the last century, and shows incredible futuristic work. They were frustrated about architecture at that time, so they created something totally new. Key characteristics are modularity, living space, community, futurism. 

The movement started with an exhibition and a magazine they printed on the cheapest paper available and sold it for 9 pence each. There were 6 architects (Warren Chalk, Peter Cook, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herron, Michael Webb), and their creations must have been mindblowing at that time, but it was a time of radical changes in general: soviets had sent the first man to space, the Beatles released their first single "Love me do", Bob Dylan became popular, and there were radical technological novelties. 

Walking City (via tangentialvignettes.blogspot.com)

Plug-In-City (via essential-architecture.com)

Instant city (via popemup.de)

Reyner Banham: Megastructure (1976)

Someone else always has had your thoughts before, always. This was what came to my mind when reading about this book. Modular structures have such a strong affection to me at the moment, that I just cannot resist to read about them all.the.time. Well, they appear everywhere, and once you have begun to think about them, you cannot NOT see them in everything, everywhere.

The finest structures are made out of modules, which means, they are similar or equal, and they are a kind of holistic thing when put together, which means they form a new structure with new functions and new appearance, while still being each one singular for itself. 

What is so compelling to me, is the fact, that they can be extended without any limits. There is no visual, no logical border for their combinations, which is something I like, I cannot tell why. Imagine a modular structure that you build and you keep putting the modules together, and you have always more modules, and you keep building and building and.....

Cool.