Concrete: Hill Country home

Nature has thousands of elements that are essential in the success of its biological phenomenon, and human life plays just a small role. Each biological niche has many elements that work together, and each element has its own order of elements. Living off the sun's light and energy; breathing the earth's air; consuming natural resources of animal, vegetable, and mineral, is a biological phenomenon and provides a structure of our place in the phenomenon. All of the elements of architecture must work, as nature does, in a smooth flowing manner to create a workable used architecture that is an excellent example of design. Just as most buildings reflect nature, they must also respond to our phenomenon of human life and user needs. Architecture needs to be environmentally responsive to its local site, climate, and economy, and this responds through a reflection of nature. Natural lighting in a majority of interior spaces becomes important in design as a psychologically comforting element. Outdoor spaces should be an integral part of overall design and help bring together a design by making the outside bring about an intrigue to the interior. An observation of nature shows that the basis of life in each organism is its structuring elements, and thus, structure becomes a basis of design.

Architecture is a participant in the human environment. When architecture is natural in its origin, it is environmentally responsive, for without a concern for the environment, the design's natural forms become hypocritical. Natural lighting, fresh air circulation, and natural materials are also of importance. Nature, in design, ties together the parts in a whole.