What is Biomimicry?

Biomimetic Architecture is now on the rise. Therefore, discovering its potentials is vital.
Now, There are Biomimetic wind turbine trees & furniture that uses the principles of
Biomimicry. Read on to find out How Biomimicry Enhances Creativity in Architecture.
The term ‘biomimicry’ originates from the Greek words bios, meaning life and mimesis,
meaning imitate. It refers to imitating natural strategies (not forms) to devise new
sustainable solutions. Although buildings guard us against natural extremes, they have a lot
to learn from the natural world. Oh, the irony!

Nature and natural processes are the guiding principles or the main
metaphors of the design approach. – Frank Lloyd Wright
The most important convergence of design and biological sciences today relies on
“innovation” that’s millions, if not billions, of years old. Biomimicry is the imitation of the
models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human
problems; biomimicry in architecture and manufacturing is the practice of designing
buildings and products that simulate or co-opt processes that occur in nature. There are
ultrastrong synthetic spider silks, adhesives modeled after gecko feet, and wind-turbine
blades that mimic whale fins.
The way biological systems solve problems is pretty different from the way engineered
systems solve problems . Human-designed solutions , are crude and additive. They rely on
using more materials or energy to accelerate reactions—both costly expenditures. Natural
processes rely on unique geometry and material properties.
The adhesive abilities of the gecko feet Niewiarowski studies are an example. To simulate
the wall-scaling abilities of a gecko, you might strap a battery to your back and run electricity
through electromagnets that only adhere to metal. But in fact, geckos’ feet are dense with
tiny hairs that each exert a minuscule molecular attraction, allowing the gecko to
stick. Nature is “lazy and intelligent,” says Sigrid Adriaenssens, an engineering professor at
Princeton who researches biomimicry. Nature is exceptional at turning waste into food—a
fundamental tool for balancing ecosystems that architecture has ignored for the vast
majority of its history. But for designers, biology offers lessons in hyperefficient resource
stewardship and circular economies. Nature also practices a kind of “critical regionalism,”
the belief that architecture should reflect the geography and culture of its setting. For
example, there are parasites so specifically evolved they can live with only one type of host.
It may seem strange that copying the way the natural world works is just now coming to the
fore, but worldwide emphasis on sustainability is forcing people to look at efficient systems
of all types. And until recently, engineers didn’t have tools to simulate natural processes.
So what can architecture and engineering learn and emulate from nature? The answer is
much more, as long as there’s a rise in multidisciplinary collaboration. The more biologists,
architects, mechanical engineers, and materials scientists collaborate, the more likely it is
that hybrid fields like biomimicry in architecture can take root.
“If you trap biomimicry in design or engineering as though any one field owns it,” says
Niewiarowski, “you poison its potential.”
 In the late 19th Century, Antoni Gaudi was deeply influenced by the atmosphere of
forests for the interior of his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, Spain.
A century or so later, cutting edge “biomimetic” (drawing on nature in design) architecture is
even incorporating living matter into its structures. The Netherland’s Sportplaza Mercator for
example, is host to lush vegetation and the species utilising this on its eye-popping façade.
And in Germany, the extraordinary “algae house” harnesses microalgae as a renewable
energy source by growing it in transparent surfaces.
Over the decades, the field of biomimetics has shifted from looking towards nature for
overall shape. Sea creatures, crab shells and spider webs are among the species and natural
artefacts architects have looked to for such inspiration, says Dr Marcos Cruz, an architect
and reader at University College London’s (UCL) Bartlett School of Architecture, UK. Now, he
explains, the industry is moving towards a more “environmentally nature inspired
understanding” of how nature responds to its environment and how humans can do the
same.
A major driver for architects looking ever-more closely to the natural world for construction
lessons is the pressing need to build with limited resources in the face of shrinking material
and energy supplies.
“We have to make buildings that do more, using less… The example of where that works the
best is nature itself,” says Dr Rupert Soar, a lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, UK and
engineer at company 3D Blume. “Nature is always fighting to use limited resource most
effectively to exist with, and we are entering that era ourselves.” Soar himself studies
termite mounds to see how we too can create cleverly designed ventilated buildings that
use minimal energy, much like these extraordinary little insects have already perfected.

Tunnelling termites are masters at creating air exchange systems to ventilate their mounds (Credit: Bill Bachman / Alamy Stock Photo)

“We’re dedicated to trying to understanding how termites build because we believe that we
can make buildings as good, as clever as termite mounds for our own buildings,” he tells
BBC Earth. For Cruz, we still have much to learn from nature: “In a way current buildings
are still very crude when compared with what nature does.” And he adds: “Nature is by
far the richest source of inspiration and knowledge that we have.” In recognition of that
notion, here are nine of the most incredible and unusual nature-inspired buildings ever
designed.
• Biomimetic architecture is a contemporary philosophy of architecture that seeks solutions for
sustainability in nature, not by replicating the natural forms, but by understanding the rules governing
those forms. It is a multi-disciplinary approach to sustainable design that follows a set of principles rather
than stylistic codes. It is part of a larger movement known as biomimicry, which is the examination of
nature, its models, systems, and processes for the purpose of gaining inspiration in order to solve man-
made problems.

History

• Architecture has long drawn from nature as a source of inspiration. Biomorphism, or the
incorporation of natural existing elements as inspiration in design, originated possibly
with the beginning of man-made environments and remains present today. The ancient
Greeks and Romans incorporated natural motifs into design such as the tree-inspired
columns. Late Antique and Byzantine arabesque tendrils are stylized versions of the
acanthus plant. Varro's Aviary at Casinum from 64 BC reconstructed a world in miniature.
A pond surrounded a domed structure at one end that held a variety of birds. A stone
colonnaded portico had intermediate columns of living trees.
• The Sagrada Família church by Antoni Gaudi begun in 1882 is a well-known example of
using nature's functional forms to answer a structural problem. He used columns that
modeled the branching canopies of trees to solve statics problems in supporting the
vault.
• Organic architecture uses nature-inspired geometrical forms in design and seeks to
reconnect the human with his or her surroundings. Kendrick Bangs Kellogg, a practicing
organic architect, believes that “above all, organic architecture should constantly remind
us not to take Mother Nature for granted – work with her and allow her to guide your
life. Inhibit her, and humanity will be the loser.” This falls in line with another guiding
principle, which is that form should follow flow and not work against the dynamic forces
of nature. Architect Daniel Liebermann's commentary on organic architecture as a
movement highlights the role of nature in building: “…a truer understanding of how we
see, with our mind and eye, is the foundation of everything organic. Man’s eye and brain
evolved over a eons of time, most of which were within the vast untrammeled and
unpaved landscape of our Edenic biosphere! We must go to Nature for our models now,
that is clear!” Organic architects use man-made solutions with nature-inspired aesthetics
to bring about an awareness of the natural environment rather than relying on nature's
solutions to answer man's problems.
• Metabolist architecture, a movement present in Japan post-WWII, stressed the idea of
endless change in the biological world. Metabolists promoted flexible architecture and
dynamic cities that could meet the needs of a changing urban environment. The city is
likened to a human body in that its individual components are created and become
obsolete, but the entity as a whole continues to develop. Like the individual cells of a
human body that grow and die although human body continues to live, the city, too, is in
a continuous cycle of growth and change. The methodology of Metabolists views nature
as a metaphor for the man-made. Kisho Kurokawa's Helix City is modeled after DNA, but
uses it as a structural metaphor rather than for its underlying qualities of its purpose of
genetic coding.
• Biomimetic architecture goes beyond using nature as inspiration for the aesthetic
components of built form, but instead seeks to use nature to solve problems of the
building's functioning. Biomimicry means to imitate life and originates from the Greek
words bios (life) and mimesis (imitate). The movement is a branch off of the new science
defined and popularized by Janine Benyus in her 1997 book Biomimicry: Innovation
Inspired by Nature as one which studies nature and then imitates or takes inspiration
from its designs and processes to solve human problems. Rather than thinking of the
building as a machine for living in, biomimicry asks architects to think of a building as a
living thing for a living being.
• While humans have only studied biomimicry for the past half century, the earth has been developing
efficient methods of life for 3.8 billion years. Our planet is the oldest and wisest teacher we could ask for.
However throughout our extremely short history we have not exactly seen eye to eye with the earth. It is
because of this that we are experiencing changes in the climate that will prove detrimental to our future.
This project is designed to open the minds of the reader to a new form of innovation. Biomimicry,
innovation inspired by the natural processes of earth. This timeline highlights examples of biomimicry that
hopefully enlighten you and inspire a new way to create.

Pre Industrial Revolution

1. Caves have been used as shelter since the monolithic era 6000 BCE, so it makes perfect sense that
in India Buddhist temples and shrines were actually carved into caves and mountain sides. These
temples eventually doubled as trade posts on the Silk Road.add text
2. Silk is one of the first examples of biomimicry that we see in human history. Use of the material is
dated back to 4000 BC, making it one of the first fabrics invented by humans. It is common knowledge
that silk comes from silkworms, and the Chinese were the first civilization to learn from the brilliant
worm. This invention was the reason that the Silk Road got its name. Silk could be traded for its
weight in gold during the times
where only the Chinese had the weaving strategy mastered. 6,000 years later we are still using silk all
around the world.
3. While there are hundreds of theories about who or what actually constructed the
Egyptian pyramids, until an extraterrestrial force is proven to have played a part, one would
assume they were man made. And one theory that makes sense is that they were designed
after mountains.
4. The first Chinese umbrellas were invented 1700 years ago by a man named Lu Ban, who is now
revered in Chinese history. The idea for the umbrella sprouted when Lu Ban saw children using lotus
leaves to shield themselves from the rain. He decided to mimic the flexibility and effectiveness of the
leaf and create a product of his own. The first umbrellas were, in fact, made of silk.

Myths and Legends:

The wonders of the earth have always captured our imagination. This is why we constantly see them
represented in folk tales, legends, and artwork throughout all eras and civilizations. One myth that
captures our wonder of the earth is the story of Daedalus and Icarus, father and son respectively.
Imprisoned on the island of Crete for a crime against his nephew, Thalus, Daedalus was instructed by
King Minos to build a labyrinth to contain the Minotaur. This story ends with Daedalus inventing bird
wings made of feather and wax to fly out of the labyrinth and out of Crete. However Icarus, his son,
flies against his father’s advice, too close to the sun and his wings melt and he falls to his death.
Daedalus was regarded as a great inventor and, seeing as though he copies the birds' way of flight, it
lets us know that nature has always been in our minds. A less obvious example from this myth is that
the very crime Daedalus committed against his nephew was out of jealousy because Thalus had
invented the saw after “seeing how a snake’s jaw works.”

Leonardo Da Vinci: 1452-1519 - Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the easiest students of biomimicry to
find. He is one of the most revered and studied figures from the Italian Renaissance. Regarded as an
expert scientist, inventor, artist, architect, mathematician, and many more, Leonardo was simply a
man ahead of his time. Thousands of sketches from his notebooks are still sought after and studied
today. A lot of his inventions, like his parachute, would have actually worked if they had been
constructed under his instruction. The part of his work that relates to biomimicry is his study of birds,
he was fascinated by flight and drew out schematics for many flying machines that mimicked the
bone structure of birds and bats.
Post Industrial Revolution
Importa nt People of the 1900s :
• 1912: Ita lian photochemist and Senator Giacomo Ci amician, wrote a paper describing a world without s mokestacks
where humankind has found the secret of photosynthesis and can run the world without coal.

• 1950s : The term “biomimetics” was coined by American biophysicist and i nventor Otto Schmitt.

• 1997: Wi th her groundbreaking book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Jeni ne Benyus coined the term
bi omimicry a nd sparked the i nterest of the subject into engineers a nd designers all over the world. She also started
her own world l eading consulting organization, Biomimicry 3.8. Their mission i s to teach the world to i nnovate, learn,
a nd be i nspired by na ture. She continues to strive toward a future that listens to the earth rather than exploits i t.

Velcro: 1955
• Whi l e hunting i n the Swiss Alps with his dog, George de Mestral noticed that burs i n the woods stuck onto his cl othes
a nd his dog’s fur. While it was an i nconvenience, he saw i t as an opportunity. After further examining the burs, he
noti ced that i ts surface was made up of many ti ny hooks. They s tick to things by i ntertwining these hooks into the
l oose makeup of surfaces like fabric and animal fur. He invented Velcro by mi micking this s urface covered in ti ny
hooks and partnering i t with a s urface covered in ti ny l oops, resulting i n the useful product we know today.

Bullet Train: 1990s

• In the late 1990s Japan i mplemented biomimicry i n the form of trains. The bullet trains they had been using were
ca using problems for all nearby i nhabitants. When the trains zoomed through a tunnel, air would compress a round
the front of the train before releasing a tremendous booming noise once the train exited the tunnel. The chief
engi neer was able to s olve this problem by l ooking to one of his hobbies: birdwatching. The kingfisher i s a small bird
wi th a long beak that dives into the water for i ts prey. The engineer redesigned the front of the train to be shaped like
the ki ngfisher’s head, resulting i n the train slicing the wind ra ther than tra pping i t inside the tunnels, fi xing the
booming s ound.

Eastgate Centre: 1996

• The Ea stgate Centre is located in Harare, Zi mbabwe and fills the role of a shopping mall and office space. However it is
no ordi nary s hopping mall. Designed with the concept of termite hills in mind, the Eastgate Centre does not need to
be conventionally heated or cooled. Termites keep their mounds at a steady temperature by cl osing a nd opening
hol es along the mound’s outer s hell, allowing the a ir to ventilate and balance the temperature within. The Eastgate
centre works i n a s imilar way except with ducts and fans instead of termites. It uses 10% of the energy a conventional
bui lding of the same size.

Circular Economy:
• A concept that has been thought about since 1966, the ci rcular economy i s the idea of planning business models with
no wa ste. In the ci rcle of l ife, there i s no such thing as waste. Everything has i ts own purpose i n the cl ockwork of the
ecos ystem. In our i ndustrial world, there is an abundance of waste. But like the Ca rdboard to Ca viar business model,
compa nies are finding their own ways to eliminate or find separate uses for our economy’s waste output.

Wind turbines: 2010

• One huge flaw in wind turbines i s that when placed too cl ose together, turbulence disrupts and lowers efficiency of
hori zontal a xis wind turbines (the tra ditional ones).When s tudyi ng the way schools of fish swam through water so
cl os e together, it was noted that how the fish s wam complimented each other a nd none of them missed a beat. This
hel ped solve this wind turbine flaw. When they rotated the axis so i t pointed vertical, the turbines could be placed
much cl oser together without disrupting the others. Increasing efficiency by up to 10x the horizontal axis.

Gecko Feet: 2012

• Engi neers and students and Umass studied the foot pads of geckos and found that the reason the reptiles are a ble to
cra wl across vertical and upside down s urfaces is because their feet a re covered in hundreds of s etae, or mi croscopic
ha i rlike fibers. These fibers allow the gecko to s tick to a s urface, but also unstick himself from the s urface easily. The
res ult of this research was a n adhesive substance that is used, as you could guess, to more efficiently s tick objects to
wa l ls a nd s urfaces.

Sharkskin: 2014
• Sha rkskin has been mimicked for i ts rough segmented texture. It turns out that bacteria do not like l anding on the skin
of a s hark. Engineers have designed materials with a comparable microscopic texture that repel bacteria i n a similar
wa y. Thi s material will be especially useful in hospitals where it ca n be used to cover s urfaces a nd door handles to
el i minate the spread of bacteria.
Characteristics
• Biomimetic architecture uses nature as a model, measure and mentor to solve problems in
architecture. It is not the same as biomorphic architecture, which uses natural existing elements
as sources of inspiration for aesthetic components of form. Instead, biomimetic architecture
looks to nature as a model to imitate or take inspiration from natural designs and processes and
applies it to the man-made. It uses nature as a measure meaning biomimicry uses an ecological
standard to judge the efficiency of human innovations. Nature as a mentor means that
biomimicry does not try to exploit nature by extracting material goods from it, but values nature
as something humans can learn from.
• Mimicking nature requires understanding the differences between biological and technical
systems. Their evolution is dissimilar: biological systems have been evolving for millions of years,
whereas the technical systems have been developing for only a few hundred years. Biological
systems evolved based on their genetic codes governed by natural selection, while technical
systems developed based on human design for performing functions. In general, functions in
technical systems aim to develop a system as a result of design, while in biological systems,
functions can occasionally be an unsystematic genetic evolutionary change that leads to a
particular function that is not prearranged. Their differences are wide: technical systems function
within extensive environments, while biological systems work within restricted living constraints.
• Architectural innovations that are responsive to architecture do not have to resemble a plant or
an animal. Where form is intrinsic to an organism's function, then a building modeled on a life
form's processes may end up looking like the organism too. Architecture can emulate natural
forms, functions and processes. Though a contemporary concept in a technological age,
biomimicry does not entail the incorporation of complex technology in architecture. In response
to prior architectural movements biomimetic architecture strives to move towards radical
increases in resource efficiency, work in a closed loop model rather than linear (work in a closed
cycle that does not need a constant intake of resources to function), and rely on solar energy
instead of fossil fuels. The design approach can either work from design to nature or from nature
to design. Design to nature means identifying a design problem and finding a parallel problem in
nature for a solution. An example of this is the DaimlerChrysler bionic car that looked to the
boxfish to build an aerodynamic body. The nature to design method is a solution-driven
biologically inspired design. Designers start with a specific biological solution in mind and apply it
to design. An example of this is Sto's Lotusan paint, which is self-cleaning, an idea presented by
the lotus flower, which emerges clean from swampy waters.

• Three Levels of Mimicry

Biomimicry can work on three levels: the organism, its behaviors, and the ecosystem. Buildings on
the organism level mimic a specific organism. Working on this level alone without mimicking how the
organism participates in a larger context may not be sufficient to produce a building that integrates
well with its environment because an organism always functions and responds to a larger context.
On a behavior level, buildings mimic how an organism behaves or relates to its larger context. On the
level of the ecosystem, a building mimics the natural process and cycle of the greater environment.
Ecosystem principles follow that ecosystems (1) are dependent on contemporary sunlight; (2)
optimize the system rather than its components; (3) are attuned to and dependent on local
conditions; (4) are diverse in components, relationships and information; (5) create conditions
favorable to sustained life; and (6) adapt and evolve at different levels and at different rates.
Essentially, this means that a number of components and processes make up an ecosystem and they
must work with each other rather than against in order for the ecosystem to run smoothly. For
architectural design to mimic nature on the ecosystem level it should follow these six principles.
Organism Level
• On the orga nism l evel, the architecture l ooks to the organism itself, a pplying i ts form and/or functions to a building.

• Norma n Foster’s Gherkin Tower (2003) has a hexagonal skin inspired by the Venus Flower Basket Sponge. This sponge
s i ts i n an underwater environment with s trong water currents a nd i ts lattice-like exoskeleton a nd round s hape help
di s perse those stresses on the organism.

• The Eden Project (2001) i n Cornwall, England is a series of artificial biomes with domes modeled after soap bubbles
a nd pollen grains. Grimshaw Architects l ooked to nature to build an effective spherical s hape. The resulting geodesic
hexa gonal bubbles i nflated with air were constructed of Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a material that is both
l i ght and strong. The final s uperstructure weighs less than the air it contains.

Behavior Level
• On the behavi or l evel, the building mimics how the organism i nteracts with its environment to build a structure that
ca n a lso fit i n without resistance i n its surrounding envi ronment.

• The Ea stgate Centre designed by architect Mi ck Pearce in conjunction with engineers at Arup Associates is a large
offi ce a nd s hopping complex in Harare, Zimbabwe. To minimize potential costs of regulating the building's i nner
temperature Pearce looked to the self-cooling mounds of African termites. The building has no air-conditioning or
hea ting but regulates i ts temperature with a passive cooling s ystem i nspired by the self-cooling mounds of African
termi tes. The structure, however, does not have to l ook like a termite mound to function like one and instead
a esthetically draws from indigenous Zimbabwean masonry.

• The Qa tar Ca cti Building designed by Bangkok-based Aesthetics Architects for the Mi nister of Municipal Affairs and
Agri cul ture is a projected building that uses the cactus's relationship to i ts envi ronment as a model for building in the
des ert. The functional processes s ilently at work are i nspired by the way cacti s ustain themselves in a dry, s corching
cl i mate. Sun shades on the windows open a nd cl ose in response to heat, just as the cactus undergoes transpiration at
ni ght ra ther than during the day to retain water.The project reaches out to the ecosystem level in i ts adjoining
bota nical dome whose wastewater management system follows processes that conserve water and has minimum
wa s te outputs. Incorporating l iving organisms into the breakdown stage of the wastewater minimizes the amount of
external energy resources needed to fulfill this task.The dome would create a cl imate and air controlled s pace that
ca n be used for the cultiva tion of a food s ource for employees.

Ecosystem Level
• Bui lding on the ecosystem l evel i nvolves mimicking of how the envi ronments many components work together and
tends to be on the urban scale or a l arger project with multiple elements rather than a s olitary s tructure.

• The Ca rdboard to Ca viar Project founded by Gra ham Wiles in Wakefield, UK i s a cycl ical cl osed-loop system using
wa s te as a nutrient. The project pays restaurants for their cardboard, shreds i t, and sells it to equestrian centers for
hors e bedding. Then the soiled bedding is bought and put i nto a composting system, which produces a lot of worms.
The worms are fed to roe fish, which produce ca viar, which is sold back to the restaurants. This i dea of waste for one
a s a nutrient for another has the potential to be translated to whole cities.

• The Sa hara Forest Project designed by the firm Exploration Architecture is a greenhouse that aims to rely on s olar
energy a lone to operate as a zero waste s ystem.The project is on the ecosystem level because i ts many components
work together i n a cycl ical sys tem. After finding that the deserts used to be covered by forests, Exploration decided to
i ntervene at the forest and desert boundaries to reverse desertification. The project mimics the Namibian desert
beetle to combat climate change i n an arid envi ronment.[15] It dra ws upon the beetle's a bility to s elf-regulate i ts body
temperature by a ccumulating heat by da y and to collect water droplets that form on its wings. The greenhouse
s tructure uses saltwater to provide evaporative cooling and humidification. The evaporated air condenses to fresh
wa ter allowing the greenhouse to remain heated at night. This s ystem produces more water than the i nterior plants
need so the excess i s spewed out for the s urrounding plants to grow. Solar power plants work off of the i dea that
s ymbi otic relationships are i mportant i n nature, collecting sun while provi ding shade for plants to grow. The project i s
currentl y i n i ts pilot phase.

• La va sa, India is a proposed 8000-acre city by HOK (Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum) planned for a region of India
s ubject to monsoon flooding. The HOK team determined that the site's original ecosys tem was a moist deciduous
fores t before it had become a n arid landscape. In response to the s eason flooding, they designed the building
foundations to store water l ike the former trees did. Ci ty rooftops mimic native the banyan fig leaf l ooking to its drip-
ti p s ys tem that allows water to run off while s imultaneously cl eaning i ts surface. The strategy to move excess water
through channels is borrowed from l ocal harvester ants, which use multi-path channels to divert water a way from
thei r nests.
Nine incredible buildings inspired by nature
Sagrada Familia
• Gaudi’s stunning buildings in Barcelona, Spain, remain a legacy to his life-long belief that we need look no
further than nature to see construction at its supreme. The most ambitious of his works is the Sagrada
Familia cathedral. Gaudi took over design in 1883 and the building is due to be finished in 2026, 100 years
after his death (tragically, he was hit by a tram and died days later on 10 June 1926, aged 73).

• The cathedral’s awesome interior is inspired by the idea of a forest that invites prayer.

• Tree-like columns branch off near the roof for support, and in-between skylights contain green and gold
glass to reflect light.

• Enhancing the feeling of standing on a forest floor and Gaudi's plan to create a contemplative atmosphere
are large coloured glass windows letting in dappled sunlight.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• The elegant Milwaukee Art Museum’s most eye-catching feature is its huge sunscreen roof – the Burke
Brise Soleil – which is reminiscent of great white wings thanks to an open and closing mechanism
controlling the 90 tonne screen.

• Architect Santiago Calatrava wanted to incorporate both the urban and natural features of Lake Michigan,
which the building overlooks, and took into account the “culture” of the lake front including boats and
sails.

• Gabriel Tang, an architect and senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, describes why this
US building is among his favourites:“Although expensive and technically complex, this is a delightful way
in which architecture can be inspired by observations and ideas from nature to create pieces which are
interestingly functional, functionally practical, and practically beautiful.”

• He adds: “I love the direct and straight-forward legibility of the building. The opening or closing
mechanism is gracefully poetic, but yet performs a function – that of protection.”
Kunsthaus Graz
• Like some colossal, stranded deep-sea blob, the biomorphic Kunsthaus Graz rises up amid angular, red-
roofed buildings.

• Dr Marcus Cruz, who was involved with planning the Kunsthaus in Austria along with main architects Peter
Cook and Colin Fournier says the building took inspiration from natural forms but didn’t mimic them
exactly.

• Cruz’s own research included looking at microscopic images of sea creatures.

• “We always imagined it as a building that was responsive," he says. "So the nozzles that exist on the roof
that are very distinct – they were supposed to move and interact with the sun. And we always thought
about the skin as being like a creature – creating areas of opacity and transparency and translucency, and
it would vary according to these environmental changes and changes of use.”

• “So the building was really seen as a sort of biotechnological creature, rather than a traditional building, an
inert building.”

The Gherkin
• “This was one of the first environmentally progressive buildings in the UK city of London,” says Tang of 30
St Mary Axe, the UK’s iconic skyscraper more commonly known as “The Gherkin”.

• Completed in 2004, the 180m tower has an air ventilation system similar to sea sponges and anemones,
Tang points out.

• These creatures feed by directing sea water to flow through their bodies.

• And similarly, The Gherkin is supported by an exoskeleton structure, and is designed so ventilation flows
through the entire building.
Eden Project
• The Eden Project, nestled in a clay pit near the hamlet of Bodelva in Cornwall, UK, houses an extraordinary
collection of plant species from tropical rainforest and the Mediterranean.

• But the domed building itself is a large part of the spectacle: its “curvilinear” shape is an example of
“softer edge” geometries which fascinate architects today, says Cruz.

• Architect Nicholas Grimshaw’s huge transparent semi-spherical creations were inspired by the shape of
soap bubbles, and the building’s “Core” education centre mimics the Fibonacci spiral pattern found in
many natural objects such as pinecones, pineapples, sunflowers and snail shells.

The “algae house”

• Germany’s extraordinary “algae house” or BIQ building in Hamburg actually incorporates living matter –
microalgae – into its design.

• One side of the green-hued tower’s largely transparent surface contains tiny, growing algae which can
control light entering the building and provide shade when needed.

• It’s the world's first example of a “bioreactor façade”.

• Algae produced within the transparent shell are continuously supplied with nutrients and carbon dioxide
by a water circuit which runs through the building’s surface.

• The algae creates a sun filter, explains Cruz: “In winter for instance, when there’s hardly any light and
Hamburg is pretty grey for a long period, then the algae will not propagate and the façade screens will be
very transparent, and so light comes through.”

• When enough algae have grown they can be harvested and used to make biogas (a renewable energy
source made from raw materials) to supply the building.

• The ingenious design was completed as a prototype for the International Building Exhibition in Hamburg in
2013.
The Eastgate development
• Architect Mick Pearce’s vision for the Eastgate centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, was sparked while watching
termites construct their nests on the BBC television series Life.

• Inspired by the way the insects use very limited resources to create ventilated mounds, permeating them
with holes over the surface, Pearce set out to construct a building also peppered with holes all over the
building’s “skin”, says Rupert Soar.

• The result stands as a pioneering example of “passive ventilation” – the idea that buildings use renewable
energy from the environment around them in place of normal air conditioning and heating systems. The
Eastgate building uses less energy and is comparatively cheaper to run, according to its makers.

• The tower’s “skin” takes heat from outside air during the day and absorbs it into the structure’s body. The
air is cool when it reaches the middle of the building. And at night the heat that’s been absorbed during
the day warms this cool air, creating comfortable cool or warm conditions for people inside.

• “[Eastgate is] probably the best example of the word 'biomimicry' that’s out there at the moment,” says
Soar.

Downland Gridshell Building

• The light and airy Downland Gridshell Building, part of the Weal & Downloand Open Air Museum in
Singleton, Chichester, UK was completed in 2002 and uses oak laths bent into shape to create the double-
curvature, lightweight shell structure.

• “This is perhaps not a building that was inspired by natural observations but with its timber cladding on
the outside and being located within the woods, this building strikes a very close relationship to its natural
setting and has been described by critics and architects themselves as an armadillo,” says Tang.

• Tang, having worked extensively with gridshell design, explains lightweight shells such as those seen in the
Downland Gridshell Building, are typically made with timber or steel. “Imagine how a bird creates a nest
from separate pieces of straw. These structures usually have light-filled interiors but because of the
number of connections, can be difficult to make weather-tight.”