BIOMIMETIC ARCHITECTURE

INNOVATIVE CONSTRUCTION
S.ROHITH REDDY
(1602-13-732-029)
 CONTENTS

• History
• Characteristics
• Three Levels of Mimicry
• Examples of Biomimicry in Architecture
• Organism Level
• Behavior Level
• Ecosystem Level
• Conclusion
BIOMIMETIC ARCHITECTURE
• Biomimetic architecture is a contemporary philosophy of architecture that
seeks solutions for sustainability in nature,
• It is construction not by replicating the natural forms, but by understanding
the rules governing those forms.
• It is a multi-disciplinary approach to sustainable design
• 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
• Biomorphism is the incorporation of natural existing elements
as inspiration in design
• 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)
CHARACTERISTICS

• It uses nature as a measure meaning biomimicry uses an

ecological standard to judge the efficiency of human
innovations.
• 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
CHARACTERISTICS

• 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.
Bionic car Box Fish on Cobblers Reef
CHARACTERISTICS

• 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.
LEVELS OF MIMICRY

• 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
Levels of mimicry
• 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
EXAMPLES OF BIOMIMICRY IN ARCHITECTURE

Organism Level:
• Norman Foster’s Gherkin Tower (2003) has a hexagonal skin
inspired by the Venus Flower Basket Sponge.
• This sponge sits in an underwater environment with strong
water currents and its lattice-like exoskeleton and round
shape help disperse those stresses on the organism.
 Venus Flower Basket
Gherkin (sponge-labelled)
Behavior Level:

• The Eastgate Centre is a large office and shopping complex in

Harare, Zimbabwe
• To minimize potential costs of regulating the building’s inner
temperature the self-cooling mounds of African termites was looked
at.
• The building has no air-conditioning or heating but regulates its
temperature with a passive cooling system inspired by the self-
cooling mounds of African termites.
 Eastgate Centre, Harare,
Termite mounds Namibia Zimbabwe
ECOSYSTEM LEVEL​:
• Lavasa, India is a proposed 8000-acre city by HOK (Hellmuth,
Obata, and Kassabaum) planned for a region of India subject
to monsoon flooding.
• The HOK team determined that the site’s original ecosystem
was a moist deciduous forest before it had become an arid
landscape.
• In response to the season flooding, they designed the building
foundations to store water like the former trees did. City
rooftops mimic native the banyan fig leaf looking to its drip-tip
system that allows water to run off while simultaneously
cleaning its surface.
• The strategy to move excess water through channels is
borrowed from local harvester ants, which use multi-path
channels to divert water away from their nests.
CONCLUSION

Challenges in construction:
• Being creative in architecture
• Sustainability of the structure
• Conserving natural resources
• To Achieve economy

• Biomimetic architecture aims at providing solutions

to all the above challenges
THANK YOU