Umeå University's logo

We all take the natural environment we encounter during childhood as the norm against which we measure environmental degradation later in our lives. With each ensuing generation, the amount of environmental degradation increases, but each generation in its youth takes that degraded condition as the non degraded condition - as the normal experience. This psychological phenomenon is called environmental generational amnesia, and has just recently been stated as one of the most pressing psychological problems of our lifetime.

More meaningful and frequent interactions with the natural environment can clarify the confusion about what Nature really is and strengthen our relationship to it, which in turn could encourage us to preserve natural environments for the coming generations. In this way, being in Nature and appreciating it could prevent environmental generational amnesia. The BA-project Towards Recollection aims to raise the question about environmental degradation as a result of environmental generational amnesia and explore how Nature in an urbanscape could be highlighted through a group of architectural interventions and the sensory experiences of Nature, to work as a tool on our journey towards recollection and in the prevention of one of the most pressing psychological problems of our lifetime.