Creating an Artificial Nature

Abstract:
　　First of all, this paper will give some examples of historic gardens as typical artificial nature to analyses how ancient people see and response to nature. It will compare the gardens according to different culture background and show how nature can be manipulated and transformed in different area and times.
　　Likewise, the paper will then give examples of modern gardens and landscapes. With the development of technology and modern philosophy, human's attitude to nature has changed a lot. Besides culture influence, it mainly searches for the technical reason behind the new gardens.
　　The third part of this paper, which is the most important one, describes how I create an artificial nature. In this project “Cloud of Desert”, I try to find and create a new balance between man and nature by the means of architecture. How “pastoral perspective” and modern technical orientation interact with each other? How natural the artificiality could be and how artificial the nature could be? How to place the machine in the garden or the garden around the machine?

Keywords: artificial; nature; culture; garden; technology; architecture; landscape
　
Introduction:
　　Ever since human beings appeared on the earth, nature has been inevitably influenced by man. The relationship between man and nature is ambiguous because mankind has to make a life by acquiring natural resources yet, on the other hand, by escaping from natural calamities. Artificial nature thus came into being. It let human enjoy the advantages of nature without being threatened by the harms. It is actually a method to balance the relationship between man and nature.
　　Historically, gardens are considered to be typical artificial nature. They are an essential part of human experience. They function as a mirror which reflects the nature we see; and as a lens through which we see ourselves as we understand the nature. Since different places have different culture, gardens are used for different aims such as: recreation, contemplation, idolatry or as a refuge from the outside world.
　　Although gardens have various styles, all of them have a strong connection to the natural environment. In the garden, people cultivate flowers, trees, herbs and ornamental shrubs; they make mountains and hills, rivers and lakes and so on to imitate the nature or as symbols of the nature. In a certain sense, garden, as an artificial nature, blurs the boundaries between what is “natural” and what is “artificial”. Nature is no longer something given; rather it is something that is made.
　　In recent two hundred years or so, with the development of industry and technology, the balance between nature and man was broken and serious conflict occurred. Landscape designers and architects tried hard to call nature back to modern cities. Numerous public gardens and parks were built to compensate the city people. However, the “Land Art” works in the sixties appears to be more unique and appreciated among other artificial nature works. They are not fear of nature, nor do they want to control over nature. Nature is considered to be an equal part with human and can be made friend of. The optimistic view of nature influences the following artificial nature project-- “Cloud of Desert”.
　　Nature has been reproduced by man for several thousand years. Nowadays, not only nature, but also cities have been replicated here and there. Las Vegas is just a city famous for its collection of other cities and places of interests. Context and authenticity are no longer key words in this city. They are replaced by other terms such as “Hybridization” and “Intensification”.
　　In this background, the “Cloud of Desert” project is placed near Las Vegas, inside a center pivot irrigation farmland, as a leisure industry continues from the casinos in Las Vegas. The basic idea of this project is to reproduce a humid and rainy weather into the desert, attracting people to enjoy all kinds of rain and other water based sports. The intention of the “Cloud of Desert” project is to introduce the quality characteristic of landscape, a consecutive but heterogeneous space in architecture. By bending, folding and distorting the surface, a continuous space with locally differing qualities comes into being – as it does in a natural landscape with its hills and valleys, cliffs and plains, which forms a continuous, but locally different space.
　　Further more, this project tries to integrate architecture into nature and form a mini-ecosystem. Architecture is no longer a lifeless artificial product. It grows and changes everyday like a flower or a tree. It is controlled partly by nature, partly by technology. It enables nature to be included and developed. Yet at the same time, these processes are controlled by the designer who determines the final result of the architecture.

May，2003