
INHABITING NATURE
"The idea of using development as an engine to protect open space, strengthen communities, reduce auto-mobile use and even restore damaged ecosystems is an exciting one.... It will require a paradigm shift to move society 'from thinking the best it can do is to minimize negative impact, toward a view in which development is seen as both contributing to the growth of healthy human communities while simultaneously restoring (not merely sustaining) the natural environment. '"
- Alex Wilson, Green Development, 1998
The Competition invites the architectural fraternity of students and academics to Design an ‘Everyday Institution’ – ranging from built form and landscape to urban renewal and systems - that responds to the city, town or country it belongs to, where communities led by dreamers, rebels, wanderers and mad scientists within us, come together to rethink, innovate and implement new ways of creating spaces and demonstrate a ground for experimentation for the future of communities that inhabit nature harmoniously. We wish to investigate various forms in which this co-existence manifests itself. Must we strive towards creating a symbiotic relationship with our environment? Should we mimic the systems available in nature to generate adaptable outcomes? Or is there a possibility to invent a completely new approach altogether to inhabit nature?
