Architecture Follows Nature-Biomimetic Principles for Innovative Design
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Features
- Introduces a new methodology to the practice of architecture, integrating and harmonizing buildings with their environment
- Explains fundamental biological concepts that can be applied to architecture
- Takes biomimicry beyond imitating morphological aspects of biology to incorporating functional aspects into architectural design
- Investigates four functions of skin—communication, thermoregulation, water balance, and protection— and how they can translate into design concepts
- Presents biomimetic applications within conceptual-stage case studies to inspire design and experimentation
- Includes more than 500 full-color illustrations and photographs
Summary
Applying Properties of Animals Skins to Inspire Architectural Envelopes
Biology influences design projects in many ways; the related discipline is known as biomimetics or biomimicry. Using the animal kingdom as a source of inspiration, Ilaria Mazzoleni seeks to instill a shift in thinking about the application of biological principles to design and architecture. She focuses on the analysis of how organisms have adapted to different environments and translates the learned principles into the built environment. To illustrate the methodology, Mazzoleni draws inspiration from the diversity of animal coverings, referred to broadly as skin, and applies them to the design of building envelopes through a series of twelve case studies.
Skin is a complex organ that performs a multitude of functions; namely, it serves as a link between the body and the environment. Similarly, building envelopes act as interfaces between their inhabitants and external elements. The resulting architectural designs illustrate an integrative methodology that allows architecture to follow nature.
"Ilaria Mazzoleni, in collaboration with biologist Shauna Price, has developed a profound methodology for architectural and design incentives that anticipates and proposes novel ways to explore undiscovered biological inspirations for various audiences."
—Yoseph Bar-Cohen
Table of Contents
PART I
Theoretical Framework
Introduction
How Nature Inspires Architecture
How Biology Informs Architecture
Lessons Learned: Biology to the Built Environment
PART II
Applications
Overview
Methodology
Communication
Urania moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus)
Violet-tailed sylph (Aglaiocerus coelestis)
Lettuce sea slug (Elysia crispata)
Thermal Regulation
Side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana)
Snow leopard (Panthera uncia)
Polar bear (Ursus maritimus)
Water Balance
Banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus)
Dyeing dart frog (Dendrobates tinctorius)
Ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus)
Namib Desert beetles (Onymacris unguicularis, Physasterna cribripes)
Protection
Tree pangolin (Manis tricuspis)
Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)
Endnotes
Bibliography
Author Biographies
Index
Author Bio(s)
Ilaria Mazzoleni is an architect and the founder of IM Studio Milano/Los Angeles. Her conceptual work has been published globally, and her built work can be found in Italy, California, and Ghana. Ilaria has gained attention in the fields of sustainable architecture and biomimicry. This has led to her being invited to participate in multiple international conferences and workshops and her written contributions are published in several international architectural magazines. Since 2005 she has been a full-time faculty member at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles. Her professional and academic investigation relates to sustainable architecture on all scales of design with a research focus on biomimicry, where innovation in architecture and design is inspired by the processes and functions of nature.
Collaborating with biologists and other scientists from top research institutions, her projects explore the connections between biotic and abiotic elements within eco-systems in order to develop sustainable urban planning strategies and address solutions to global climate change. An ongoing research program has centered on understanding how organisms have evolved and adapted to their environment, and applying that knowledge to design building façades. The conceptual implications arising from biomimetics and design have led to a body of work that investigates innovative material processes, forms, geometries and structural patterns.
Shauna Price is an evolutionary biologist focusing on speciation in neotropical insects. Her research examines the historical and ecological factors contributing to the high species diversity found in ants with the use of genetic tools, geological data, and morphological analyses. In addition to conducting research, Shauna has collaborated with Ilaria Mazzoleni and IM Studio MI/LA on multiple bio-inspired design projects. She contributes a strong background in ecology and evolution to these studies, with the perspective that inspiration in architecture and design can stem from organisms as small as microbes to broad ecosystem scales. In particular, symbiotic relationships—close, ongoing associations that have co-evolved between different species—inform her perspective in merging biology with design.
Editorial Reviews
"The main strength of this book is its selection of a relatively narrow range of biological function—the outer covering—which allows a relatively detailed account of the important factors in both biology and architecture. This allows the author to reject, with good arguments, the myths which litter biomimicry. This gives the book high credibility, which is unusual in this topic area. ... This book is an interesting combination of textbook and inspiration and can be read as either. The introduction is very wide ranging, establishing the need for sympathetic architecture with the argument that biomimicry provides a good chance to achieve such a goal. But how can the application of biological paradigms help us to repair our planet? Mazzoleni's answer is skin - the interfacial layer between structures and the world. It's across this membrane, hard or soft in different animals, that we and our buildings have the chance to control and, we hope, ameliorate our influence."
—Julian Vincent, Swedish Biomimetics 3000, UK
"A positive addition to the literature relating biology’s influence on architectural design. It provides a bridge between the worlds of science and design, perhaps providing groundwork for a more holistic way to move forward."
—Susannah Dickinson, Assistant Professor, University of Arizona, USA
"The book is certainly a valuable introduction to the application of biomimetic principles in building design."
—Thomas Auer, Transsolar, Germany
