American architect Jeanne Gang (head of Studio Gang Architects), took part in a Ted Talk back in January of this year titled 'Buildings That Blend Nature And City'. In this talk Gang addresses the idea of designing future public buildings and spaces to 're-imagine social connections' and 'reduce stress and polarization in our urban habitats'.
Gang argues that well designed city landscapes can promote community and inclusivity. This can be achieved by designing more social meeting points and less austere and unwelcoming environments. To create this sense of togetherness in cities, Gang disputes that urban architecture should not be designed 'from the top down'. In other words, brutalist and unsympathetic buildings send out the message of hierarchy, power and exclusivity which in turn results in the general public not making use of these buildings as they appear unapproachable. Consequently, what we end up with are city landscapes that are only fifty percent accessible to the public, and arguably cities of these kinds are not fulfilling their potential to encourage social cohesion.
Jeanne Gang is as concerned with nature as she is with people. She sees her work as 'less about an individual’s experience of the natural world and more about our collective engagement with the environment'. Although this collective engagement is arguably easier to visualise for an architect,
as they generally think about how perceptions are challenged and changed on a large scale (through large scale projects), I would argue that our engagement with nature is just as important on an individual scale as it is on a broad one. Personally I think the individuals experience and the collective one must be considered equally in architecture to generate the maximum impact possible, whether that's a social, environmental or economical impact.
Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jeanne_gang_buildings_that_blend_nature_and_city
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