This is directly examining the highly visceral emotive response that nature invokes out of humans. I personally think this specific topic is extremely intriguing due to how it can be viewed on a macro and micro scale as well as looked through the lens of “natural” vs “designed” experiences. How a “natural” landscape invokes common feelings of purity, ethereality, picturesque, and leans into an idea of desired paradise, where a “designed” landscape more often distinguishes emotions of framed experiences such as feelings of ephemeral peace, comfort, and easy joy. I think they can both create this idea of paradise, but the difference being, the “designed” landscape is much more approachable, understood, and tangible for humans to achieve; whereas, the “natural” landscape is an ethereal idea, but has a underlying sense of unknown due to its wild attributes that are less palpable. ¬¬Thomas Rainer understands this idea of the tangible and spiritual connection that humans yearn for when he states “It is only in the last hundred years or so of our species that we have become removed from our outdoor environments. It is not that we have lost the capacity to read and see landscapes, but we are out of practice and we are desperate for it. At a deep level, when we see plants that perfectly fit their environment, it reminds us of an ancient fellowship we had...The natural landscapes we seek seem to have an emotional pull on us. They make us breathe deeper and balance our spirits” (Rainer & West 2016). Rainer is distinguishing that nature is quite literally “good for the soul.” This desire and induced emotive response that both Humboldt and Rainer refer to is, I think, the core director in how landscape architects design/should design. Feelings at this depth are a connection that most humans can relate to, and if we can create and manipulate an environment to subsist these connections we will successfully and progressively link humans to the desired experience we want to facilitate.

Nature as it was, nature as it could be [Introduction]. (2016). In 956545814 744955501 T. Rainer & 956545815 744955501 C. West (Authors), Planting in a post-wild world: Designing plant communities that evoke nature (p. 24). United States: Timber Press.