Living in harmony with nature may heal humans, but it often harms nature. Throughout history, humans have exploited nature to build their habitat, relying on fossil fuels. Now, they are attempting to reverse this by moving away from toxic resources and turning to natural alternatives. Would humans be able to successfully balance their desire to exploit nature for their own good with their will to be better and finally pursue sustainable living? A provocative question echoes through the giant experimental lab of the Berlinische Galerie: Who would win the eternal struggle between architecture and nature? Closer to Nature isn’t just an exhibition; it’s a symposium of materials and ideologies.

The experience in Closer to Nature is like sneaking into someone’s lab and looking through their articulated research. The exhibition welcomes you with the initial hypothesis by presenting the sculpture by Thomas Eller, THE Self with Large Piece of Turf. Gigantic flowers and greens with vibrant hues contain lively energy. This gives the impression of how beautiful nature is. Along with the black and white photos of crude buildings Lindenthaler Allee, Berlin-Zehlendorf, from the book Die Gemordete Stadt by Elisabeth Niggermeyer, the contrast of visual aspects emits the idea of how man-made architecture and nature seem like it is hard to get along with. However, that is not true. Just like Bosco V erticale by Boeri Studio, they harmonise in an oddly pleasant way.

The next research leads to fungus. Mushrooms, the most representative form of fungus, have been used for both toxin and medicine. Then MY-CO-Space, created by MY -CO-X, the Berlin collective founded by a biotechnologist and an architect, perceives fungus as an architectural material that can weave the structure organically and hopes for its habitability. While MY -CO-X was experimenting with the idea, they created a block of fungus that would function as a brick. However, the smell itself has an herbal and wooden texture.

They are neatly presented on a fluorescence acrylic plate that intentionally emphasises the visual aspect. Viewers can step inside and experience the warmth of natural architecture. Even though it is still a man-made habitat, the scent of nature is concentrated inside with cosy luminescent light, suggesting the idea of how humans and nature can coexist in such a way.

In the corner of the exhibition, there are intimate observations of natural architecture by Ferdinand Ludwig, presented with the wooden sculpture, Double inosculation of two plane trees. There are branches of dry wood, showing inosculation that barks of trees join and tangle together to have a DNA-looking structure. As it is shown in the sculpture, nature lives inside humans, and humans also live inside nature. This implies that as well as humans can affect nature, nature can affect humans too, and even harm them, for instance by natural disasters or simply covering buildings with ivy vines. Thus, asking who would win—nature or architecture—is not the point. The true aim is achieving a balance between the two.