Connection


Book Description

Connection is a monograph of ten residences that articulate the office's design process and exploration of creating architectural solutions rooted in natural place. Connection provides insight into how Colorado-based CCY Architects investigates and formulates the connection between people and place. By way of ten recently completed residential projects located throughout the Rocky Mountain region, CCY Architects shares its process and the specific ideas, discoveries, and challenges that emerge with each project. The featured award-winning projects are diverse in scale, location, and intention, including residences in pristine nature, in dense neighborhoods, in an avalanche path, and a house wrapped in music. The interaction among design and place begins with questions. How to conduct an "interview" with the land to discover qualities which contribute to more powerful design solutions? What should a changing habitat live like, feel like, look like? As CCY uncovers the potential elements of each project, they reflect on and respond to the genuine qualities of the land, light, and seasons to devise the building blocks of a meaningful environment. Common to all is a respect for the land and an intention to forge connections.




How to Read Nature


Book Description

“Equal parts alfresco inspiration, interesting factoids, how-to instructions and self-help advice.”—The Wall Street Journal When most of us go for a walk, a single sense—sight—tends to dominate our experience. But when New York Times–bestselling author and expert navigator Tristan Gooley goes for a walk, he uses all five senses to “read” everything nature has to offer. A single lowly weed can serve as his compass, calendar, clock, and even pharmacist. In How to Read Nature, Gooley introduces readers to his world—where the sky, sea, and land teem with marvels. Plus, he shares 15 exercises to sharpen all of your senses. Soon you’ll be making your own discoveries, every time you step outside!




Connecting People and Nature


Book Description

Teacher's guide to hands-on environmental education activities for 5th and 6th grade students, written for use at Great Smoky Mountains Institute, but adaptable for use elsewhere. With the objective of connecting people and nature, lessons cover geology, orienteering, stream ecology, etc., plus lessons designed so students work cooperatively to solve physical problems.




Field Notes from a Hidden City


Book Description

Field Notes From a Hidden City is set against the background of the austere, grey and beautiful northeast Scottish city of Aberdeen. In it, Esther Woolfson examines the elements—geographic, atmospheric and environmental—which bring diverse life forms to live in close proximity in cities. Using the circumstances of her own life, house, garden and city, she writes of the animals who live among us: the birds—gulls, starlings, pigeons, sparrows and others—the rats and squirrels, the cetaceans, the spiders and the insects. In beautiful, absorbing prose, Woolfson describes the seasons, the streets and the quiet places of her city over the course of a year, which begins with the exceptional cold and snow of 2010. Influenced by her own long experience of corvids, she considers prevailing attitudes towards the natural world, urban and non–urban wildlife, the values we place on the lives of individual species and the ways in which man and creature live together in cities.




Connecting with Nature


Book Description

This is the story of how one child fell in love with nature and your students can, too. Taking what he calls 'a nature-centered worldview', author Robert Stebbins blends activities, examples, and stories with his perspectives on the importance of dealing objectively yet compassionately with social and environmental problems.




Connecting Territories


Book Description

"The book analyses from a comparative perspective the exploration of territories, the histories of their inhabitants, and local natural environments during the long eighteenth century. The eleven chapters look at European science at home and abroad as well as at global scientific practices and the involvement of a great variety of local actors in the processes of mapping and recording. Dealing with landlocked territories with no colonies (like Switzerland) and places embedded in colonial networks, the book reveals multifarious entanglements connecting these territories"--




The Social Value of Zoos


Book Description

This book situates zoos as trusted cultural institutions with valuable affordances for engaging people in natural resource conservation.




Birthright


Book Description

Human health and well-being are inextricably linked to nature; our connection to the natural world is part of our biological inheritance. In this engaging book, a pioneer in the field of biophilia—the study of human beings' inherent affinity for nature—sets forth the first full account of nature's powerful influence on the quality of our lives. Stephen Kellert asserts that our capacities to think, feel, communicate, create, and find meaning in life all depend upon our relationship to nature. And yet our increasing disconnection and alienation from the natural world reflect how seriously we have undervalued its important role in our lives. Weaving scientific findings together with personal experiences and perspectives, Kellert explores specific human tendencies—including affection, aversion, intellect, control, aesthetics, exploitation, spirituality, and communication—to discover how they are influenced by our relationship with nature. He observes that a beneficial relationship with the natural world is an instinctual inclination, but must be earned. He discusses how we can restore the balance in our relationship by means of changes in childhood development, education, conservation, building design, ethics, and everyday life. Kellert's moving book provides exactly what is needed now: a fresh understanding of how much our essential humanity relies on being a part of the natural world.







Connecting to the Power of Nature


Book Description

In this hectic world of appointments and to-do lists, we need a reminder that peace is all around us-in the sky, in a garden, and in our own backyard. Connecting to the Power of Nature offers a wonderful plan to help you explore and reconnect with nature for a richer, more empowered life. From sifting sand through your fingers to gazing at the stars to meditating with animals, Joe Slate offers many enjoyable and inspiring step-by-step activities and meditations. You'll learn natural and effective ways to cope with grief, reduce stress, get insight into problems, tap into inner strength, and accomplish your highest goals, all through slowing down and mindfully connecting with nature. Create a profound link to nature's amazing power-and discover within yourself a boundless capacity for spiritual growth, better health and rejuvenation, and enlightenment.