What is nature?

Conceptions of Nature:

(Definitions across science, biology, and the humanities)

(Nature as non-human world)

Everything that exists independently of human activity (ecosystems,

landscapes, non-human organisms, physical processes like weather and

geology).

(Nature as biophysical system)

Nature as a set of interacting biophysical processes (energy flows,

nutrient cycles, climate systems, ecological networks). Humans are

treated as external stressors or drivers.

(Nature as a human-nature hybrid)

Inseparable from human systems, forming: social-ecological systems,

human-environment systems, socio-natural assemblages. Nature is

produced, managed, modified, and lived with.

(Nature as a cultural and symbolic construct)

Nature as cultural idea shaped by language, aesthetics, ideology and

historical narratives.

(Nature as process and becoming)

Nature is an ongoing process of becoming involving humans, non-

humans, technologies and infrastructures.

Personal Definition

- Nature is physical and material

- Nature is processional and non-static

- Nature involves autonomous biological or physical dynamics

Humans may set conditions or frameworks, but humans do not directly

produce or fully determine the resulting form or behaviour.

Nature consists of physical entities and processes that exist in

continuous material change, whose forms and behaviours emerge

through autonomous physical or biological dynamics, even when

humans influence the conditions under which they occur.

Can an architectural interior be designed so that its spatial and

atmospheric conditions can be understood as nature?