UNIT – 2

NATURE AND MAN -

ARCHITECTURE AS AN
INTERFACE
 NATURE - ITS FIVE BASIC ELEMENTS
Nature - its five basic elements - earth (material, site,
vegetation etc), water (rain, humidity etc), fire (light,
temperature, radiation), wind (ventilation), sky (space);
The dynamic interactions between elements of nature and
elements of architecture –

 Earth material is a general term that includes minerals, rocks,

soil and water. These are the naturally occurring materials found
on Earth that constitute the raw materials upon which our global
society exists. Earth materials are vital resources that provide the
basic components for life, agriculture and industry.
 Earth materials can also include metals and
precious rocks.
 Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground
cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference
to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any
other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader
than the term flora which refers to species composition.
 Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but vegetation
can, and often does, refer to a wider range of spatial scales than
that term does, including scales as large as the global. Primeval
redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnum bogs, desert
soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated
gardens and lawns; all are encompassed by the term vegetation.
 The vegetation type is defined by characteristic dominant species,
or a common aspect of the assemblage, such as an elevation range
or environmental commonality. The contemporary use of
vegetation approximates that of ecologist Frederic Clements' term
earth cover, an expression still used by the Bureau of Land
Management. Natural vegetation refers to plant life undisturbed
by humans in its growth and which is controlled by the climatic
conditions of that region.
 WATER
 Water is a transparent and nearly colourless chemical substance
that is the main constituent of Earth's streams, lakes, and oceans,
and the fluids of most living organisms. Its chemical formula is
H2O, meaning that its molecule contains one oxygen and two
hydrogen atoms that are connected by covalent bonds. Strictly
speaking, water refers to the liquid state of a substance that
prevails at standard ambient temperature and pressure; but it
often refers also to its solid state (ice) or its gaseous state (steam
or water vapour). It also occurs in nature as snow, glaciers, ice
packs and icebergs, clouds, fog, dew, aquifers, and atmospheric
humidity.
 Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface. It is vital for all known
forms of life. On Earth, 96.5% of the planet's crust water is found
in seas and oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in glaciers and the
ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, a small fraction in other
large water bodies, 0.001% in the air as vapour, clouds (formed of
ice and liquid water suspended in air), and precipitation. Only
2.5% of this water is freshwater, and 98.8% of that water is in ice
(excepting ice in clouds) and groundwater. Less than 0.3% of all
freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, and an even
smaller amount of the Earth's freshwater (0.003%) is contained
within biological bodies and manufactured products. A greater
quantity of water is found in the earth's interior.
 Water on Earth moves continually through the water cycle of
evaporation and transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and
runoff, usually reaching the sea. Evaporation and transpiration
contribute to the precipitation over land. Large amounts of water
are also chemically combined or adsorbed in hydrated minerals.
 Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other life forms
even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. Access to
safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost
every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still
lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to
adequate sanitation
 .However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than
half of the world population will be facing water-based
vulnerability. A report, issued in November 2009, suggests that
by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand
will exceed supply by 50%. Water plays an important role in the
world economy.
 Approximately 70% of the freshwater used by humans goes to
agriculture. Fishing in salt and fresh water bodies is a major
source of food for many parts of the world. Much of long-distance
trade of commodities (such as oil and natural gas) and
manufactured products is transported by boats through seas,
rivers, lakes, and canals. Large quantities of water, ice, and
steam are used for cooling and heating, in industry and homes.
 Water is an excellent solvent for a wide variety of chemical
substances; as such it is widely used in industrial processes, and
in cooking and washing. Water is also central to many sports and
other forms of entertainment, such as swimming, pleasure
boating, boat racing, surfing, sport fishing, and diving.
RAIN
 HUMIDITY

 Humidity is the amount of water vapour present in the air. Water

vapour is the gaseous state of water and is invisible to the human
eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood of precipitation, dew, or
fog. Higher humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating in
cooling the body by reducing the rate of evaporation of moisture
from the skin. This effect is calculated in a heat index table or
humidex. The amount of water vapour that is needed to achieve
saturation increases as the temperature increases
 As the temperature of a parcel of water becomes lower it will
eventually reach the point of saturation without adding or losing
water mass. The differences in the amount of water vapour in a
parcel of air can be quite large. For example, a parcel of air that is
near saturation may contain 28 grams of water per cubic meter of
air at 30 °C, but only 8 grams of water per cubic meter of air at 8
°C.
 There are three main measurements of humidity: absolute,
relative and specific. Absolute humidity is the water content of air
expressed in gram per cubic meter or grams per kilogram.
 . Relative humidity, expressed as a percent, measures the current
absolute humidity relative to the maximum (highest point) for
that temperature. Specific humidity is the ratio of the mass of
water vapour to the total mass of the moist air parcel.
CONNECTION OF RAIN AND HUMIDITY
 When it rains, it will increase the relative humidity because of the
evaporation. The air where the rain is falling may not be
completely saturated with water vapour. However, the longer it
rains, the more the humidity will increase because of the air
constantly drawing the water.
 The evaporation will cool the air and increase the absolute
moisture content of the air locally. On a larger scale, rain will
remove water vapour through air condensation and deposit it on
the surface. This means that across larger volumes, the average
relative humidity reduces through rain.
 There are a variety of factors that need to be taken into
consideration, including:
Amount of rainfall
Temperature
Volume of space
 When the air is hotter, it will cause the water to evaporate faster,
thus creating a higher level of humidity. If the air is cooler, the
water will reduce the humidity level and actually make it seem
cooler than the temperature outside.
 There is also the matter of the dew point temperature, which
talks more heavily about moisture and the amount of water
vapour in the air. It is the temperature that the air must be
cooled to in order for air to reach saturation. Dew point can vary
from the mid-60s all the way up to the high 80s depending upon
location and the time of year. It’s also important to remember
that humidity levels will affect everyone differently. However, the
dew point will remain the same.
FIRE
 Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic
chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various
reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or
digestion are not included by this definition.
 Fire is hot because the conversion of the weak double bond in
molecular oxygen, O2, to the stronger bonds in the combustion
products carbon dioxide and water releases energy (418 kJ per 32
g of O2); the bond energies of the fuel play only a minor role here.
At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition
point, flames are produced. The flame is the visible portion of the
fire.
 Flames consist primarily of carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen
and nitrogen. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to
produce plasma. Depending on the substances alight, and any
impurities outside, the color of the flame and the fire's intensity
will be different.
 Fire in its most common form can result in conflagration, which
has the potential to cause physical damage through burning. Fire
is an important process that affects ecological systems around the
globe. The positive effects of fire include stimulating growth and
maintaining various ecological systems.
 TEMPERATURE
 Temperature is a physical quantity expressing the subjective
perceptions of hot and cold. Temperature is measured with A
thermometer, historically calibrated in various temperature
scales and units of measurement. The most commonly used scales
are the Celsius scale, denoted in °C (informally, degrees
centigrade), the Fahrenheit scale (°F), and the Kelvin scale. The
kelvin (K) is the unit of temperature in the International System
of Units (SI), in which temperature is one of the seven
fundamental base units.
 The lowest theoretical temperature is absolute zero, at which the
thermal motion of all fundamental particles in matter reaches a
minimum. Although classically described as motionless, particles
still possess a finite zero-point energy in the quantum mechanical
description. Absolute zero is denoted as 0 K on the Kelvin scale,
−273.15 °C on the Celsius scale, and −459.67 °F on the
Fahrenheit scale.
 Based on the historical development of the kinetic theory of gases,
temperature is proportional to the average kinetic energy of the
random motions of the constituent microscopic particles, such as
electrons, atoms, and molecules, but rigorous descriptions must
include all quantum states of matter.
 Temperature is important in all fields of natural science,
including physics, chemistry, Earth science, medicine, and
biology, as well as most aspects of daily life.
 RADIATION
In physics, radiation is the emission ortransmission of
energy in the form of waves or particles through space or
through a material medium. This includes:

 electromagnetic radiation, such as radio waves, microwaves,

visible light, x-rays, and gamma radiation (γ)

 particle radiation, such as alpha radiation (α), beta radiation

(β), and neutron radiation (particles of nonzero rest energy)

 acoustic radiation, such as ultrasound, sound, and seismic

waves (dependent on a physical transmission medium)

 Gravitational radiation, radiation that takes the form of

gravitational waves, or ripples in the curvature of space time.
 WIND
 Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On the surface of the
Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space,
solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the
Sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of
light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space.
Winds are commonly classified by their spatial scale, their speed,
the types of forces that cause them, the regions in which they
occur, and their effect.
 The strongest observed winds on a planet in the Solar System
occur on Neptune and Saturn. Winds have various aspects, an
important one being its velocity (wind speed); another the density
of the gas involved; another its energy content or wind energy.
 In human civilization, wind has inspired mythology, influenced
the events of history, expanded the range of transport and
warfare, and provided a power source for mechanical work,
electricity and recreation. Wind powers the voyages of sailing
ships across Earth's oceans.
 Hot air balloons use the wind to take short trips, and powered
flight uses it to increase lift and reduce fuel consumption. Areas of
wind shear caused by various weather phenomena can lead to
dangerous situations for aircraft. When winds become strong,
trees and manmade structures are damaged or destroyed.
 VENTILATION
 Ventilation is the intentional introduction of ambient air into a
space and is mainly used to control indoor air quality by diluting
and displacing indoor pollutants; it can also be used for purposes
of thermal comfort or dehumidification. The correct introduction
of ambient air will help to achieve desired indoor comfort levels
although the measure of which varies from individual to
individual.
 The intentional introduction of subaerial air can be categorized as
either mechanical ventilation, or natural ventilation. Mechanical
ventilation uses fans to drive the flow of subaerial air into a
building. This may be accomplished by pressurization (in the case
of positively pressurized buildings), or by depressurization (in the
case of exhaust ventilation systems). Many mechanically
ventilated buildings use a combination of both, with the
ventilation being integrated into the HVAC system. Natural
ventilation is the intentional passive flow of subaerial air into a
building through planned openings (such as louvers, doors, and
windows).
 Natural ventilation does not require mechanical systems to move
subaerial air, it relies entirely on passive physical phenomena,
such as diffusion, wind pressure, or the stack effect.
 Mixed mode ventilation systems use both mechanical and natural
processes. The mechanical and natural components may be used
in conjunction with each other or separately at different times of
day or season of the year. Since the natural component can be
affected by unpredictable environmental conditions it may not
always provide an appropriate amount of ventilation. In this case,
mechanical systems may be used to supplement or to regulate the
naturally driven flow.
 SKY
 The sky (or celestial dome) is everything that lies above the
surface of the Earth, including the atmosphere and outer space.
In the field of astronomy, the sky is also called the celestial
sphere. This is viewed from Earth's surface as an abstract dome
on which the Sun, stars, planets, and Moon appear to be
traveling. The celestial sphere is conventionally divided into
designated areas called constellations. Usually, the term sky is
used informally as the point of view from the Earth's surface;
however, the meaning and usage can vary. In some cases, such as
in discussing the weather, the sky refers to only the lower, more
dense portions of the atmosphere.
 During daylight, the sky appears to be blue because air scatters
more blue sunlight than red. At night, the sky appears to be a
mostly dark surface or region spangled with stars.
 During the day, the Sun can be seen in the sky unless obscured by
clouds. In the night sky (and to some extent during the day) the
Moon, planets and stars are visible in the sky. Some of the
natural phenomena seen in the sky are clouds, rainbows, and
aurorae. Lightning and precipitation can also be seen in the sky
during storms. Birds, insects, aircraft, and kites are often
considered to fly in the sky. Due to human activities, smog during
the day and light pollution during the night are often seen above
large cities.
 SPACE
 Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects
and events have relative position and direction. Physical space is
often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern
physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless
four-dimensional continuum known as space time. The concept of
space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an
understanding of the physical universe.
 However, disagreement continues between philosophers over
whether it is itself an entity, a relationship between entities, or
part of a conceptual framework.
 In the 19th and 20th centuries mathematicians began to examine
geometries that are non-Euclidean, in which space is conceived as
curved, rather than flat. According to Albert Einstein's theory of
general relativity, space around gravitational fields deviates from
Euclidean space. Experimental tests of general relativity have
confirmed that non- Euclidean geometries provide a better model
for the shape of space.
 “Space is one of the elements of design of architecture, as
space is continuously studied for its usage. Architectural
designs are created by carving space out of space, creating
space out of space, and designing spaces by dividing this
space using various tools, such as geometry, colours, and
shapes. It is an undefined expanse of land given to an
architect to define.”
THE DYNAMIC INTERACTIONS BETWEEN
ELEMENTS OF NATURE AND ELEMENTS OF
ARCHITECTURE

Nature
We can focus on nature from two different aspects: Art and tech.
Based on today’s view, nature is just separated from its deep
meaning; one is considered a completely materialistic and the
other as God- given. . In Art’s point of view from nature which is a
God – given one all world whether nature, it deep meaning or
invisible world and martyrdom world.
 It is a reflection of God – given view. This aspect itself which once
was a defeated aspect in the world gave, gradually, its place to
another aspect in which nature was not only associated with
higher and higher creation, but also it was under man’s control.
In modern aye, human is being considered as the basis for
everything and nature itself was looked open as man’s toll. This is
an aspect in which the world is being supposed to be a factor of
defeat and optimization.
 Architecture as an important design and the creator of our life
environment including housing spaces, working and office works,
entertainment sites, open spaces and also campuses should
identify Man’s needs and should pave the way to prevent and
answer to them. Man’s needs are all divided into several parts:
 Needs associated with environmental situates to bring about
peace and tranquility such as temperature, ray and humidity.
 Spiritual and psychological, peace and comfort, and beautician.
 Social and economical needs. It’s been tried, in sustainable
architecture, to use natural facilities for users’ tranquility at a
maximum rate. This includes some aspects as follows:
 To provide comfort condition using climatic factors at a maximum
rate.
 Sustainable architecture will try to bring about man’s needs by
using non – recycled energy, strong facilities and recycled. It also
tries to pay attention to provide a security for man and based on
person’s identity in bringing psychological and mental safety. It,
as an important and sustainable architecture has a great heed to
psychological and spiritual needs as space users.
 Materialistic facilities together with a waste of energy will spoil
the nature and awing to the fact that there no energy cut off,
there would be problems. Some conjecture that those provided
facilities by tech will case a problem like this while the purpose of
tech is to prepare pace and comfort. Such a drawback is not just
put away or by increasing facilities function and a renew
consideration on non – recycled energies, to some extent, with the
help of tech.

 Sustainable architecture in increasing its aims by spending too

much money in a suitable site will help the improvement of
economy – All factors about sustainable architecture will help to
cut off user’s expenses and it also will meet social needs by
bringing about fascinating and various spaces.
HUMAN BEING – THE FIVE BASIC SENSES -
THEIR ROLE IN PERCEPTION OF BUILT
ENVIRONMENT

 Modern humans (Homo sapiens, primarily ssp. Homo sapiens

sapiens) are the only extant members of the sub tribe Hominina,
a branch of the tribe Hominini belonging to the family of great
apes. They are characterized by erect posture and bipedal
locomotion; high manual dexterity and heavy tool use compared to
other animals; and a general trend toward larger, more complex
brains and societies.
 Early hominins—particularly the australopithecines, whose
brains and anatomy are in many ways more similar to ancestral
non-human apes— are less often referred to as "human" than
hominins of the genus Homo. Several of these hominins used fire,
occupied much of Eurasia, and gave rise to anatomically modern
Homo sapiens in Africa about 200,000 years ago. They began to
exhibit evidence of behavioural modernity around 50,000 years
ago. In several waves of migration, anatomically modern humans
ventured out of Africa and populated most of the world.
 The spread of humans and their large and increasing population has had
a profound impact on large areas of the environment and millions of
native species worldwide.
 Advantages that explain this evolutionary success include a
relatively larger brain with a particularly well developed
neocortex, prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes, which enable
high levels of abstract reasoning, language, problem solving,
sociality, and culture through social learning. Humans use tools
to a much higher degree than any other animal, are the only
extant species known to build fires and cook their food, and are
the only extant species to clothe themselves and create and use
numerous other technologies and arts.
 Humans create complex social structures composed of many
cooperating and competing groups, from families and kinship
networks to political states. Social interactions between humans
have established an extremely wide variety of values, social
norms, and rituals, which together form the basis of human
society. Curiosity and the human desire to understand and
influence the environment and to explain and manipulate
phenomena (or events) has provided the foundation for developing
science, philosophy, mythology, religion, anthropology, and
numerous other fields of knowledge.
 SENSE

 A sense is a physiological capacity of organisms that provides

data for perception. The senses and their operation, classification,
and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields,
most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology (or cognitive
science), and philosophy of perception. The nervous system has a
specific sensory nervous system, and a sense organ, or sensor,
dedicated to each sense.
 Humans have a multitude of sensors. Sight (vision),
hearing (audition), taste (gustation), smell (olfaction), and
touch (somatosensation) are the five traditionally
recognized senses.
 The ability to detect other stimuli beyond those governed by these
most broadly recognized senses also exists, and these sensory
modalities include temperature (thermoception), kinesthetic sense
(proprioception), pain (nociception), balance (equilibrioception),
vibration (mechanoreception), and various internal stimuli (e.g.
the different chemoreceptors for detecting salt and carbon dioxide
concentrations in the blood, or sense of hunger and sense of
thirst). However, what constitutes a sense is a matter of some
debate, leading to difficulties in defining what exactly a distinct
sense is, and where the borders between responses to related
stimuli lie.
 Other animals also have receptors to sense the world around
them, with degrees of capability varying greatly between species.
 Humans have a comparatively weak sense of smell and a
stronger sense of sight relative to many other mammals while
some animals may lack one or more of the traditional five senses.
Some animals may also intake and interpret sensory stimuli in
very different ways. Some species of animals are able to sense the
world in a way that humans cannot, with some species able to
sense electrical and magnetic fields, and detect water pressure
and currents.
VISION (LIGHT, COLOR, VIEWS ETC),
HEARING (SOUND, NOISE, SILENCE),
TACTILITY (TEXTURE, THERMAL AND
PHYSICAL FEELING), SMELL, SPIRITUAL.

 Vision
 The human eye is an organ which reacts to light and pressure. As
a sense organ, the mammalian eye allows vision. Human eyes
help provide a three dimensional, moving image, normally
coloured in daylight. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow
conscious light perception and vision including colour
differentiation and the perception of depth. The human eye can
differentiate between about 10 million colours and is possibly
capable of detecting a single photon.
 Similar to the eyes of other mammals, the human eye's non-image
forming photosensitive ganglion cells in the retina receive light
signals which affect adjustment of the size of the pupil, regulation
and suppression of the hormone melatonin and entrainment of
the body clock.
 Light energy enters the eye through the cornea, through the pupil
and then through the lens. The lens shape is changed for near
focus (accommodation) and is controlled by the ciliary muscle.
Photons of light falling on the light-sensitive cells of the retina
(photoreceptor cones and rods) are converted into electrical
signals that are transmitted to the brain by the optic nerve and
interpreted as sight and vision.
 HEARING
 Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sound by
detecting vibrations, changes in the pressure of the surrounding
medium through time, through an organ such as the ear.
 Sound may be heard through solid, liquid, or gaseous matter. It
is one of the traditional five senses; partial or total inability to
hear is called hearing loss. In humans and other vertebrates,
hearing is performed primarily by the auditory system:
mechanical waves, known as vibrations are detected by the ear
and transduced into nerve impulses that are perceived by the
brain (primarily in the temporal lobe). Like touch, audition
requires sensitivity to the movement of molecules in the world
outside the organism. Both hearing and touch are types of
mechanosensation.
 SOUND
 In physics, sound is a vibration that typically propagates as an
audible wave of pressure, through a transmission medium such as
a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound
is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain.
Humans can hear sound waves with frequencies between about
20 Hz and 20 kHz. Sound above 20 kHz is ultrasound and below
20 Hz is infrasound. Other animals have different hearing ranges.
Sound is defined as
 "(a) Oscillation in pressure, stress, particle displacement, particle
velocity, etc., propagated in a medium with internal forces (e.g.,
elastic or viscous), or the superposition of such propagated
oscillation.
 (b) Auditory sensation evoked by the oscillation described in (a). "
 Sound can be viewed as a wave motion in air or other elastic
media. In this case, sound is a stimulus. Sound can also be viewed
as an excitation of the hearing mechanism that results in the
perception of sound. In this case, sound is a sensation.
 NOISE
 Noise is unwanted sound judged to be unpleasant, loud or
disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, noise is
indistinguishable from sound, as both are vibrations through a
medium, such as air or water. The difference arises when the
brain receives and perceives a sound. In experimental sciences,
noise can refer to any random fluctuations of data that hinders
perception of an expected signal. Acoustic noise is any sound in
the acoustic domain, either deliberate (e.g., music or speech) or
unintended. In contrast, noise in electronics may not be audible to
the human ear and may require instruments for detection.
 Environmental noise is the accumulation of all noise present in a
specified environment. The principal sources of environmental
noise are surface motor vehicles, aircraft, trains and industrial
sources. These noise sources expose millions of people to noise
pollution that creates not only annoyance, but also significant
health consequences such as elevated incidence of hearing loss
and cardiovascular disease. There are a variety of mitigation
strategies and controls available to reduce sound levels including
source intensity reduction, land use planning strategies, noise
barriers and sound baffles, time of day use regimens, vehicle
operational controls and architectural acoustics design measures.
 TACTILE
Adjective

1. of, relating to, affecting, or having a sense of touch: a tactile

organ, tactile stimuli
2. (rare) capable of being touched; tangible
Tactile sound
Tactile sound is the sensation of sound transmitted directly to the
human body by contact, rather than by sound waves through the
ears.
 For example, when you stand on a train platform you can feel the
train approaching as well as hearing it. Explosions, crashes, sonic
booms, and thunder are all normally felt in addition to being
heard.
 Tactile sound is also present in the vibratory signature of musical
instruments, your automobile, in aircraft, someone walking across
the floor or slamming a door, even the vibration from the
compressor in your refrigerator. When we talk we experience our
voice in a tactile format, if we are in intimate contact with a
talking individual, we can feel their voice. Besides air pressure,
tactile sound can be conducted through ground motion. Tactile
sound can also be transmitted through water, for example in a
swimming pool or hot tub.
 In addition to being produced naturally, tactile sound can be
produced by a transducer in the same way that sound can be
produced through a loudspeaker. Tactile sound has been used by
the military for flight and tank simulators, for rides in
amusement parks, medical research, musical tactile massage,
home cinema, computer games, car audio, dance floors, water
beds, patio decks and for musical performance as tactile feedback
for drummers and other musicians. It has even been used recently
to promote weight loss, improve muscle tone and improve blood
circulation by a resistance training company.
 SMELL
Smell may refer to;
 Odour, scent; that which is perceived by the sense of smell
 Olfaction, the act of smelling an odour
ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION

 Humans receive information by their five senses and they analyse

such information in their mind through connecting and linking
different pieces of information obtained from the outside world. In
such cases, human are deemed as the receiver and the
environment as the sender of different information which is
needed to be organized in order to be understood and to be made
sense of place. Ignoring such inputs leads to unwanted
psychological behaviours such as fear from lack of place feeling
and even distress.
Study all case examples for :
“NATURE & ARCHITECTURE”
from your presentation submissions