Strategies of effect and mimesis: Naturalized architectures and architecturalized natures

The architect has taken nature as a model for centuries, tracing two general lines of approach to architectural design: one that reinterprets natural structures in a direct way, and one that explores the potential of natural materials as a means to propose new structures and spaces. While the former represents a recurring architectural presence, as their production is visually and conceptually understandable by a larger public, the latter may be less common, making up a range of unexpected solutions since their application is limited mainly to purely natural resources or environments producing exercises of architectural nature.