Unnatural Nature

Definition

Unnatural nature is Peter Eisenman's term for a landscape produced through computation that "seems like nature, but under closer inspection" is revealed as not nature — compressing "something that would take 10 million years" into 10 years. It names a third category between the man-made and the natural: neither representation of nature nor opposition to it. "There is man-made, there is natural. I want unnatural." Eisenman's architecture "never represents anything" — it is an unnatural nature, as seen in the City of Culture of Galicia, whose buildings appear to emerge from the hilltop "like giant mountains" using local stone, while a glass floor reflects the real ground now suspended above the viewer's head. The concept is related to his trace-based design method (superimposing local traces from the historical grid, topography, Cartesian grid, and the scallop-shell symbol to generate form), and expresses a Derridean refusal of the metaphysical site — "there is no value of origin."

Key Thinkers

• Peter Eisenman — developed the concept through the City of Culture of Galicia; architecture as neither natural nor against nature.
• (Related: Jacques Derrida — the trace and the deconstruction of origin underpinning Eisenman's method.)

Related Concepts

• Trace — the Derridean concept and Eisenman's design method that generates unnatural nature through superimposed site traces.
• Architectural Object — Eisenman's work as paradigmatic architectural object production (the City of Culture was halted unfinished in 2013, over four times budget).
• Star Architecture — the commissioning context; Eisenman as star architect.
• Iconic Architecture — the spectacular register of unnatural nature's built form.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Changes are Coming: Interview with Peter Eisenman
• Sensorial interior landscapes (Garófalo-Khan 2018) — the concept's biophilic counterpart and implicit answer: where Eisenman's unnatural nature compresses natural time ("something that would take 10 million years" into ten) while refusing representation, Garófalo-Khan's grotto-esque projects take the same middle position by the opposite route — "These contemporary grotto-esque structures dismiss the dichotomy of art and nature. They are both art and nature, both utterly artificial and full of life," and their ingredients "may be appropriated from nature, however the result is far removed" (Miller, p. 12, via the chapter's note 21). Eisenman's third category is computational and anti-representational; the grotto's is biophilic-ornamental — artifice that performs life. The two together suggest the wiki's terrain between "man-made" and "natural" has (at least) two occupants. See biophilia, artificial-grotto.
• source-notes/baudrillard-1975-the-mirror-of-production
• source-notes/brownell-2018-living-rooms-hypernaturalization

Open Questions

• Does "unnatural nature" genuinely escape representation (as Eisenman claims), or is it precisely a representation of nature — a computationally simulated naturalness that performs rather than escapes mimesis?
• How does Eisenman's claim that his architecture "never represents anything" square with the concept of the architectural object as a "branding" device — does the refusal of representation itself become a brand?- "Living" rooms (Brownell 2018) — the biological sibling of the third category: Brownell's hypernatural condition — "the aspiration to extend, amplify, or transcend natural capacities by partnering with nature in a focused and intensified manner" — is the nature-partnering counterpart to Eisenman's nature-refusing computational third term. Both produce nature that is neither natural nor man-made; the difference is direction: Eisenman compresses natural time "into 10 years" by computation while refusing representation, Brownell amplifies living capacity by partnership (silkworms, crystals, living walls) while embracing process. The pairing gives the wiki's terrain between "man-made" and "natural" its two occupants, computational and biological. See hypernaturalization, biophilia.