Over thousands of years of urbanization and industrialization, we have slowly but surely separated ourselves from nature. The human race has effectively left the nest and attempted to make itself more comfortable and successful via man-made buildings, tools and technologies. Yet despite our best efforts, we cannot escape the fact that our origins are in nature. We are part of it.
The essay imagines a face staring back from a doorway. This one actually does.
Throughout human history, we have evolved to survive and thrive in the natural realm and are consequently dependent on its elements. These deeply embedded preferences have not progressed as quickly as urban technology, creating disharmony between us and our new built environment. After all, we have inhabited nature far longer than we have man-made structures. Sunlight, water, air and plants still give us life. Regardless of progress, our physiology chooses natural over artificial. We instinctively enjoy the feel of wood more than plastic and find views of the sky or a lake more pleasing than skyscrapers. We need sunlight to give way to darkness so we can sleep, wake and eat, whereas artificial light unbalances our system. Deep down, we know these natural elements are nourishing and they, therefore, evoke safety and well-being.
Nature is so embedded in our psyche that we have also evolved a habit of projecting human, animal and plant forms onto the environment. By overlaying our modern world with natural animations, we can read and relate to it as we did eons ago in the wilderness. Rather than suppressing these primordial instincts, we at The Soft Minimal have delved into behaviors learned over millennia and harnessed evolutionary psychology to create artworks with good design. We can find solutions to form, scale and material that breathe life back into urbanity, re-wilding our man-made habitats.
The rhythm of the natural world is defined by birth, growth, decay, death and rebirth. Nature is in a constant state of flux between order and chaos. Fear is the typical human response to such uncertainty and to mitigate it, a lot of technology and design attempt to freeze time, control outcomes and attain immortality. Movements from Rationalism to Modernism, while cultivating many valuable ideas, protest the cycle of life, insisting on uniformity, order and progress over diversity, spontaneity and patina. Upon close inspection, the human being senses something is awry. The absence of natural cycles creates distrust in the form and a feeling of alienation. Ageless planes of engineered glass fixed into steel grids possess none of the characteristics of nature. Instead, through human-centric design, we attempt to accept the facts of life and use them to inspire beauty rooted in truth. We listen to nature's story of artistry, optimism, imperfection and impermanence, and bring these poignant qualities into the work. We can create spaces and objects with natural materials and organic forms that feel of this world, that help us transition through the stages of life and connect us with the continuum of time. Such profound understandings are suggested by a humble stone plinth, unearthed from the deep, speckled by ancient sediments and fossils which grow faint after years of use. We sense the age of the earth and watch as the materials slowly return to dust. We can relate and we can take comfort knowing we are part of something greater than ourselves. In this way, bringing natural elements and the inevitable patina of The Soft Minimal artworks into the modern life of every home can remind us of our place in nature.
Stress is another malady exacerbated by urbanization and, once again, nature can help us heal. Serenity of mind occurs when we immerse our senses in green plants and salty oceans, wild landscapes and starry skies. Science agrees with our instincts: natural stimuli such as these slow the heart rate and blood pressure and balance our breathing to reduce anxiety, and such places make us feel peaceful, content and focused. Our bodies are at home in nature, and we reach a blissful homeostasis in the presence of natural elements. While we might not realistically exchange the metropolis for the forest, the way The Soft Minimal brings nature into its artworks through natural materials and biophilic and biomorphic design has a similar, calming effect. We can open living spaces to gardens or listen to the gentle trickle of water sculptures out the window. Amplifying natural light and the transitions of the day is a subtle yet profound way to live with nature. Our instinctual preference for organic shapes can also inspire a softening of the artworks. A well-placed curvilinear line may seemingly embrace the body while an overt use of rectilinear lines feels unnaturally rigid.
It does not replace daylight. It amplifies the hour you are already in.
The palette we choose to live with immensely affects our mood and researchers across disciplines agree that natural materials offer the most meaningful physiological encounters. The powers of association honed over eons have made us attracted to surfaces resembling life-giving elements. A shiny piece of marble is beautiful because it expresses moisture. Deep brown tones appeal because they suggest fertile soil. Beyond appearances, we also remember the tactility of nature and are drawn to it. Running our hand across stone, brick or wood ignites familiar sensations of the outdoors and floods our minds with pleasing emotions. Their touch also grounds us back to earth. Such natural materials have withstood thousands of years of aesthetic trends for good reason. Despite the invention of practical, affordable and everlasting imitation stone, we return to natural materials for their evocative power. This endurance alone gives human-centric designers justification to heed nature's wisdom in the pursuit of beautiful built forms. After all, nature has supported us for an eternity, long before we gave it a name.
Our bodies are at home in nature, and we reach a blissful homeostasis in the presence of natural elements. While we might not realistically exchange the metropolis for the forest, bringing nature into the built environment through artworks with biophilic and biomorphic design has a similar effect, one that brings peace.
We are so familiar with the traits of nature that we have evolved the curious habit of anthropomorphism. Through this phenomenon of the human psyche, we perceive natural forms where there are not any: a face stares back at us from a doorway with two windows. A stone artwork could almost grow moss. A row of muscular columns supports a stone slab in an assertion of human strength. It is thought that these animations appear as a result of our hypersensitive pattern recognition that searches for associations everywhere, as well as our egocentrism. We cannot resist projecting our image onto the world. At The Soft Minimal, this unique perspective can foster spaces and objects that are familiar to the body, that help it read the world, find it relatable and livable. Powerful connections emerge from the seemingly opposite realms of natural and man-made. Perhaps, when we look at "home," we form a comforting image of a wooden house with roots firmly penetrating the earth like an ancient tree. Through the open door its lungs deeply inhale air, enlivening the internal organs of the living room, kitchen and bedrooms, before finally exhaling through the attic window, blowing leaves and cobwebs into the blue sky.
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