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Poiana: A Biophilic Balance (A proposal for biophilic consideration during design & development in the rural countryside of Romania)

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2018, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
Sustainable/green architecture often focuses on renewables, waste reduction, and efficiencies. These solutions help to improve the technical relationship between architecture and the natural environment. However the human relationship to the environment and surrounding ecology is often neglected. Biophilia refers to an innate desire humans exhibit toward creating connections to other living things, whether it be other humans or the surrounding environment. I suspect this stems from our evolution from hunter-gatherers into an agrarian civilization. The nineteenth century and industrial revolution marked a turning point in human evolution with regard to our environmental relationship. The rise of technology and evolution of the city effectively transformed an agrarian society into a capitalist one. Humans have been gradually distancing themselves from nature spending more time inside buildings, cars, and even virtual realities. Now that mass production has been realized, cities have grown into flourishing metropolises often short on green space. A society that was once governed by climatic cycles is now dependent on wifi and time sheets. Cities often have better wages, more jobs, and readily available housing; But at what cost? As cities increase in size so do their impact, not just on the environment, but also on the human psyche. The evolution of the built condition has subsequently transformed the natural environment and therefore, the ways in which we interact and relate to nature on a daily basis. This has in turn affected the ways in which we manage stress, mental acuity, and general efficiency. Our connection to nature is paramount to mental restoration and stress relief as it offers humans a refuge from the built condition. Biophilia offers a way to examine the base connection and concern humans exhibit for ecology and potentially formulate an architectural strategy to promote a more significant and holistic relationship to the environment. Architecture is unique in scale and possesses the potential to impact the site (community), environment (region), and climate (global). Construction and development industries worldwide have grown significantly in addition to inflation associated with construction costs. Construction can be broken down into materials, methods, land, and labor. Equal value and consideration must be attributed to all four components of construction and development. By encouraging the use sustainable design practices associated with biophilia it might be possible to mend the vanishing and often fatal relationship humans have with nature.
Michael McInturf, M.Arch. (Committee Chair)
Aarati Kanekar, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
30 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Nichols, B. (2018). Poiana: A Biophilic Balance (A proposal for biophilic consideration during design & development in the rural countryside of Romania) [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1522340165314535

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Nichols, Brent. Poiana: A Biophilic Balance (A proposal for biophilic consideration during design & development in the rural countryside of Romania). 2018. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1522340165314535.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Nichols, Brent. "Poiana: A Biophilic Balance (A proposal for biophilic consideration during design & development in the rural countryside of Romania)." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1522340165314535

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)