Architecture and plant life: towards a 'permanent temporality

Abstract

The text pretends to explore the theme of the relationship between architecture and plant life from a contemporary point of view. After reflecting on the historical-cultural reasons for the separation between the wild and the domesticated, between nature and culture and, hence, between the outside and the inside of architecture, the existence of a dialectical relationship of interdependence between these binomials of apparently opposite terms is pointed out. The very concept of nature that we handle is itself a cultural construct, the result of a process of objectification of plants within the framework of which they are treated as if they were additional 'material'. Admitting that plants are 'life' implies a true ecological and sustainable enhancement, since they would be considered as collaborative factors and agents that should be at the forefront of our work as architects. Without giving up its 'intentionality', the architectural project must open up to new strategies and operational categories, such as 'adaptive management', in order to achieve a 'permanent temporality that allows a certain degree of uncertainty to be incorporated into the project. This incorporation raises a series of questions about the role played by architects and urbanists, about the circularity of the design process, about an ecologically enriched public realm, which are still to be explored.