This book analyzes themes and concepts of environmental design from a composition stand point. A selection of case studies from a larger regional scale to the small and local scale demonstrates how architectural and urban design works with different combinations of environmental elements, by particular emphasis or relationship, to enrich the experience of inhabitation and obtain the maximum comfort. Retracing the historical basis of the relation between ecology and urban design, it investigates in depth the dichotomic complexity of nature/technology, built/ unbuilt, natural/artificial. The use of ecological terminology is also discussed, in consideration of discipline variants like Landscape Urbanism which recently enriched architecture theory. The dialogue between environment and architecture is therefore a matter of inspiration, influence, interaction, perceived quality and sensible peculiarity. Architecture opens itself to the discovery of the surrounding environment, making the multidimensional experience complete, selecting data and structuring a hierarchical reading of the environment itself