Frances to Luis... Thanks for that careful insight. It is my further guess in light of your note that architecture is reserved for the making of adequate or appropriate buildings that are made by humans only, and then as habitats for living in. The nonhabitats of human builders and the habitats of nonhuman builders would seemingly be excluded as architecture. The issue of whether architecture is also some kind of art would be another point to ponder. My tentative stance is to resist the human limitation for architecture, but then it does make some sense. If we were debating say graphic pictures or plastic sculptures, rather than say tectonic architectures, then the human limitation would be accepted; as likely would their status as some kind of visual art.
Frances wrote to Luis Fontanills architect... Permit me to start a new topic on the subject of delimited spaces that are "commandeered" or "constructed" and which may be found or made by nonhuman organisms to rest in or live in, such as hollows and caves or hives and nests and dens. It is my ongoing curiosity as to whether your field of study permits such habitants and habitats into its arena of its theoretical interest. This admission may also include the use of say caves by humans as permanent living quarters, and whether such "natural" areas are held to be architectural in some way. This curiosity assumes that architecture as a general kind of object or typical class need not necessarily admit token edifices that are aesthetic or artistic; but that might be another issue to wrestle with. Luis wrote... I am aware of many architects that are influenced and incorporate concepts/patterns/structural components of nonhuman organisms. I recall a class around 1979 at Pratt Institute while studying architecture that was called "Morphology". It studied/compared the animal/plant world and its structures, both their bodies, and where applicable, their constructed habitations. I would venture to say that all the structures of the world, even the universe, are of interest to architects and become incorporated in their thinking and work.
