The symbiotic experience: Rethinking architecture's relationship with the natural environment (Nova Scotia)

Thesis question: How can architecture, as a tool for learning, make an integrated connection with the natural environment?; As the relationship between man and nature redefines it self, so should man's place of habitation. North American society, as a whole, tends to look at the environment as a commodity or resource. As such, society has developed a distant and consumptive relationship with the land. As the world resources are slowly depleted society has begun to redefine its relationship with the land. Instead of perceiving the earth as a separate entity from the human world, facets of Western society have begun to look at the earth as a complex web of interdependent relationships in which human beings play a small part. Green architecture is currently thought of as a solution to man's redefining relationship with the land. Although green architecture goes far to promote a less consumptive attitude towards built form, it proliferates the belief that the land is a resource to be managed. This thesis argues that architecture should develop a symbiotic relationship with the land.; This thesis explores architecture's relationship with the natural environment on Mink Cove, Digby Neck, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Earth Education Centre provides a week long residential program for school age children. This is explored in such a way as to allow the product, or buildings, to act as a tool for understanding and for furthering human interaction with the natural environment. The building will thus create intelligent relationships between the land and its users through the integration of technical systems and artistic architectural expression.