Biophilic and Biomimicry in Architecture
The history of biophilic and biomimicry dates far back to the Pre-Industrial Age when structures were erected by listening to nature. During the medieval Islamic Golden Era, buildings of the non-medical madrasa and medical bipartisan institutions applied specific techniques and strategies so that our curiosity could flourish through direct and indirect contact with nature.
So how did biophilic and biomimicry come to be?
The biophilic design was coined by social psychologist E.O Wilson in his 1984 book BIOPHILIA. He (Wilson) is regarded as the Father of Biodiversity. Biophilic design is an approach in architecture that seeks to connect building occupants more closely to nature. Buildings that incorporate biophilic design have features like natural lighting and ventilation are created for a more productive and healthier built environment for people.
Biophilic design is said to seek inspiration from the Hanging Garden of Babylon; it’s also a way for humankind to have a biological connection with nature.
Biomimicry, also known as biomimetics, is the examination of nature. It comprises nature’s elements, models, systems and processes to take inspiration from to solve human problems. One of the earliest examples of biomimicry was the study of birds to enable human flight.
Late Otto Schmitt, who was an American academic and inventor coined the term biomimetics to describe the transfer of ideas from biology to technology. Taking a look at the Wright brothers and Leonardo da Vinci, they made inventions by looking to nature (birds) for inspiration.
How do these two phenomena apply in architecture?
Architecture is designed for humans to live and in and they also form our communities, cities and our countries. Biophilic and biomimicry are applied in buildings for them to be more sustainable. When put in place, they affect the cognitive, psychological and physiological areas of our lives. Notice how you walk into a room and you feel at peace or calm; those feelings are made possible by the elements that make up the building.
Elements of Biophilic and Biomimicry
In this section, we look at features that make up biophilic and biomimicry design.
1. Nature in the Space
This feature addresses the direct physical presence of nature. It includes water, breezes, sounds, scents, and animals. When these features or elements are put into effect, we develop meaningful connections with our given environment.
Biophilic and biomimicry aren’t new in the architectural domain, they date as far back as the early human structure. Taking the Porcelain fish bowls, for instance, Chinese families would keep pretty little fish in these bowls when they had special occasions and visitors. This was so because it complemented the finishing of the house, they were hand-painted by artists and served as a form of aesthetics. This serves as a good example of Nature in Space.
Other examples of Nature in the Space include the Acanthus leaves that adorned the early Greek temples. They were the most common plant forms to make up for decoration and ornament purposes. This idea was noticed by the Roman writer Vitruvius who noticed Callimachus, a Greek architect and sculptor got inspired by a basket that had been laid on the grave of a young lass. What took his attention further was the way the content in the lass’ basket was still intact, therefore making an acanthus plant grow over the woven basket. Bonsai in Japanese homes and the leafy filigree of Rococo design are similar instances of Nature in the Space. They were maximised properly by the people who inhabited them and they got to enjoy nature.
2. Function
Biomimetic designs are known to be focused on function. Questions like ‘’what part of this building or institution’’ can play a similar role to this object of inspiration? Leonardo da Vinci was known for apportioning functions to every one of his projects. This element made him approach the world with an artistic view. He made it known when he made us understand the human body and his foresight in the age of flight.
When we look through his archives, it is safe to say, he wanted each of his creations or projects to perform a certain role, duty or function. This takes us to the Buddhist temples. They got their inspiration from caves. The reason being caves have been used for shelter since the monolithic era and it makes perfect sense.
Taking a walk in some of the Buddhist temples makes you appreciate their reason for using the cave for inspiration. Caves vary in size and it’s estimated that they can’t be more than 3000 metres and they were used by Early Men. It served as a form of shelter from the harsh weather conditions and when hunting. With the way they were built, they can withstand chemical processes, atmospheric influences, microorganisms, pressure. And this is why you hardly hear of Buddhist temples collapsing and a good reason why they are carved into shapes and built on mountainous areas.
Architects and building personals and monks did their research and were able to come up with brilliant ideas on how to make their temples more sustainable. They asked themselves, what and what can we do to make our Temples stand the test of time? Can we get materials that our caves are made up of and implement them in our buildings? They were able to come up with significant responses and the Temples have withstood the test of time.
What we can get from this portion is that each part of the Temple has a distinct function and they took inspiration from the caves (just like Leonardo da Vinci looked at birds and other objects of inspiration and implemented them in his projects.
3. Natural Analogies
This feature deals with the creative side of architecture. In this case, objects, materials, colours, shapes and sequences are found in nature and can manifest as ornaments artworks and sometimes, furniture.
It makes materials connect with nature. We look at the Jewish Museum to create a case study; it has become a prominent example of what we call metaphoric design. It was designed by Studio Libeskind to tell the public a story of what took place during World War III.
But it didn’t start that way. Let’s take a detour on how they were able to come about this. In 1987, the Berlin government put together an anonymous competition for the expansion of the original Jewish Museum in Berlin. What the government had in mind was for a Jewish presence back in Berlin after the 3rd World War.
After the competition, Daniel Libeskind emerged as the winner among several renowned architects; the reason being his design cut across what the Berlin government wanted and it implemented a design that represented then Jewish life before, during and after the Holocaust.
The original Jewish Museum was established in 1933 but didn’t stay open for a long time; however, it remained vacant until 1975. That year a Jewish cultural group vowed to reopen the museum in an attempt to bring back the Jewish presence to Berlin.
That attempt was made possible when Daniel Libeskind’s addition to the Jewish Museum was opened which of course, brought the social and cultural presence back to Berlin.
How did Daniel make this possible? He got creative beginning with how the museum would look like. He designed the museum with these three concepts:
i. The impossibility of understanding the history of Berlin without the intellectual, economic and cultural contributions by the Jewish citizens.
ii. The necessity to integrate the meaning of the Holocaust physically and spiritually into the consciousness and memory of the city of Berlin
iii. Through the acknowledgement of the erasure of the Jewish life in Berlin, Europe can have a human future.
He used materials that represented his basic concepts to make this happen. He made the building in a zig-zag form to establish his concepts. Coarse iron faces, concrete pillars covered with plants and light were used majorly in the construction. He also made use of sound, ratio, colour, time and other materials that could pass the message across.
The majority of the museum’s collection are artefacts, shapes, furniture and the likes that have a playful side to the museum and at the same time makes materials connect with nature. Perhaps a good reason why about 7.5 million visitors find their way here since it opened in 2001.
Examples of Buildings with Biophilic and Biomimicry Design
We have looked at the basic elements of what makes biophilic and biomimicry thick. Let’s look at more examples of buildings that have these designs implemented in them.
- The Beijing National Stadium, Beijing
2. Council House 2, Melbourne
3. Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin
4. The Gherkin, London
5. The Spheres, Seattle
6. One Central Park, Sydney
Conclusion
Having this design in our building makes them more sustainable, habitable and of course, reduce the carbon emissions being released via construction. We see that nature is a big board for us to draw inspiration from and the applications will be felt in every area that affects us, humans.
Got more examples of buildings that exhibit these designs? Let’s hear it in the comment section.
