Climate Change and Uncomfortable Architecture

Because the perception of Nature has shifted over the course of human civilization - from a living ?Thou? to an externalized ?It? - this project seeks to reinvigorate a more essential interaction with the natural environment. This simple shift from a living, shared world to a dead, usable one has taken us from a rapport with a living nature to a modern environment that is dominated by instruments. Indeed, we have successfully transformed ?the stuff of nature? into capital to the point where there may be no more stuff of nature to be transformed. Can this situation be addressed by current discussion of sustainability understood as conceptual information? Or, do we need to reengage with nature in a way that is tangibly felt - in a place that reawaken an experience about our connection to Nature and the world. This thesis examines why we, as modern humans, must reinvigorate a conversation about nature through the design of a museum and research facility that draws awareness to the role we may have on mitigating climate change. Making information more palpable, my architecture transforms observable facts into a foliate, earthy expression of our connection and dependency on the natural world. Because climate change is very much a topic of political discussion, the project is placed in Washington D.C., bringing the conversation right into the ground of the United States Capital