Man Made VS. Natural

Amy Taylor

When examining the relationship between the man-made and natural environment there is clearly a similarity between the both. This can be seen through a single seedlings growth as the environmental progression throughout its stages. It was placed, it was unplaced, it was force placed, it evolved, it transformed and it grew like that of nature’s own development through human influence as seen in diagram one. Landscapes and urban spaces have been formed and regenerated under the influence of human civilization for our own picturesque idyllic structure. D.I.R.T Studio have developed a signature style of urban regeneration for our already formed landscapes, therefore the brief will further explore the forced combination between the man-made and natural environment.

The project ‘Reclaiming the Highline, New York’ is a semi-natural landscape which revolves around regeneration and cultural production of a renewed landscape like that of D.I.R.T studios objectives. Again the seedling is a regenerative aspect of nature in its own form of growth and adaption to the various transitions of a forever changing system. ‘We attempt to step outside of what has gone before and make space for the thing to be articulated in its own way’ Brook; 1998 p.56.

It would be impossible to renew the already formed landscape we have helped sculpt into place. However through re-working the current physical environment we can try to produce the old to the new. ‘Nature is not nearly as natural as it seems, instead it is profoundly human construction’ Cronon; 1995, p.25. Again the seedling is the heart of nature it’s a reproductive organism that forms it own structure, its value cannot be measured as cost or worth instead it’s about the renewed relationships we can modify from the previous human influence. Therefore the seedlings will always grow and die however the cycle still continues.