Abstract

Anthropology has described Naturalism as a dualistic perception of the world based on the idea of a cultural world produced entirely by human beings and a preexistent natural world inhabited mainly by non-human beings. By the 18th century, this western cosmovision, based on the idea of culture and nature as mutually exclusive, arrived in most territories around the globe, including Antarctica. By the 20th century, this perspective was extended and universally accepted. Modern architecture permeated by this dualistic perspective worked as a dissemination device of Naturalism globally. The arrival of Modern architecture in Antarctica meant the rise of a specific relationship between humans and nature. Architectural designs, techniques, and materialities suggest how the environment is perceived, ranging from shelter architecture based on the idea of nature as a wild and unpredictable phenomenon to contemporary sustainable architecture built on the notion of nature as a fragile and perishable element. This lecture will explore the spectrum of nature-culture relationships through the analysis of antarctic architecture.