Animal architecture: Exploitation

Animal Architecture is a discourse of contemporary architecture stemmed from biomimetic and sustainable beliefs often seen as a subset rather than being considered an integral architectural practice. Animal Architecture not only utilizes ecology as a design intention, but also as a cultural and social intention, which allows it to bridge a multiplicity of fields other than architecture. In short animal arch harnesses the abilities of nature, but most importantly, it utilizes the ideas of adaptation and symbiosis, and integrates ecologies to form complex systems for both humans and other animal species to develop. Through multiple case studies interspersed throughout this article I wish to educate you on where, why, and how animal architecture has developed and what future implications it can have on our built landscapes.

I think it is important to state that the bugs, birds, and mammals in animal arch are the tertiary or subsidiary life forms and humans should gain the most from the field. Animal architecture in my opinion should not be seen as solely an animal conservation effort, but rather an exploitation of these creatures for our own gain. As a whole animal arch relies on functionality and optimization to maximize yields with as little energy as possible ‘similarly’ to modernist strategies where organicism stems, i.e. Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan. I emphasize similar because Modernist paradigms of functionality were limiting/controlling ornament and creating spatial arrangements where animal architecture differs and pushes further. Michael Pawlyn a biomimetic architect demonstrates how animal architecture can become functional with The Mobius Project.

Pawlyn uses what he describes as closed loop systems (or mobius strips) to generate form and maximize efficiency. In this case the design is for a restaurant where they generate and recycle within the same facility food, waste, energy with the help of animals, plants, and sunlight. Pawlyn see the potential in biomimicry with his architecture and captures the essence of how ecologies work in the animal kingdom. The design although may not be the most beautiful uses a closed looped system utilizing and exploiting natural resources while giving patrons a unique experience of how and where their food is comes from and goes to.

Modernism only scratched the surface of functionality and efficiency but leaving that gap allowed for animal architecture to develop and grow from. Animal Architecture cooperates with functionalism and that’s because it uses adaptation and symbiosis. We can also begin to understand why animal architecture has evolved out of our past failures, most notably industrialization, and urban/suburban sprawl.

Labeling Industrialization as a failure to some may seem radical, because it has catapulted us into the 21st century, but looking in hindsight it has produced massive and unused excess, increased our population exponentially, and disregarded surrounding ecologies.

The manufactures and architects from the past never thought about the larger ecological and economic threat they could possibly pose. An interesting case study to exemplify industrializations absolute disregard of surrounding ecology and economy is the Onondaga Lake superfund site in Syracuse NY from 1900 to present. Onondaga Lake was a large tourist destination but due to the Honeywell industrial plant’s direct runoff line into the lake it was deemed un-­‐swimmable in 1940 and unfishable in 1972. This ecological disaster ultimately destroyed the surrounding cities economies by eliminating Syracuse and Liverpool as tourist destinations, destroyed an entire ecosystem, and polluted the water table of the greater Onondaga area. I worked on a project with Maxwell Rosner using

Onondaga Lake as the site and focused on the salt industries impact, on Syracuse the map.

We utilized the idea of the water cycle within our design because not only is it a closed looped system, but also Syracuse realized early on how profitable it was using a natural system to produce salt. We chose the inner harbor as a starting point to break surrounding industrial barriers, i.e. destiny USA, the water treatment plant, and the city of Syracuse, and reintegrate them with the northern, cleaner, portion of Onondaga. By creating an artificial shoreline using marsh grasses to improve the quality of water and bring bugs for both local species of bats and fish to feed off of the site could be in turn revitalized and bring people back to the area to enjoy what Lake Onondaga has to offer. By creating this symbiotic relationship with this different species in a controlled built landscape the local population could profit from such interventions with the additional profits of tourism. This is a small example comparative to other ecological disasters but begins to exemplify why animal Architecture should develop. These ecological landscapes can positively affect economies and people.

This pull away from industry utilizing the ideas I hope have been resonating (adaptation and symbiosis) are not just limited to evolving architecture but I believe evolving humans culturally and biologically. Ryan Ludwig’s research in the field of animal architecture and its effects in the Darwinian arena really struck me because every living and non living thing is subject to a “Terra Fluxus.” Terra fluxus is a term coined by the landscape architect James Corner, meaning a ground constantly in movement. As a species we must constantly adapt to new conditions that arise and ecological problematique is part of this flux. By utilizing nature as a tool of learning we can understand how to evolve in the Darwinian arena to neither overcome nor conquer our environment but symbiotically exploit one another.

Humans as a species can evolve using animal architecture because we are trying to move past this postindustrial rut and into a greater network creating a cultural closed loop system where we don’t waste. Alan Berger’s Drosscapes essay epitomizes in my belief how we should view built animal architecture.

Cities are not static Objects but active arenas marked by continuous energy flow and transformation of which landscape and building and other hard parts are not permanent structure but transitional manifestations. Like a biological organism the urbanized landscape is an open system -­‐Allen Berger, Drosscapes

If we think of our buildings as landscapes that we inhabit then we can start to understand that they can easily function as natural landscapes housing multiple species. As designers we must understand how these landscapes function and build ours to function better for us. For example looking into the animal kingdom through evolution of what helps species survive we can see many brilliant examples. In Coral reefs conditions for life produces incredible designs in animal habitats between predators and prey, but in some instances symbiosis. One of my favorites is the relationship of the clown fish and the sea anemone.

The clown fish can withstand the shocking tendrils of the sea anemone and use it as protection from predators while keeping it clean by eating the bacteria which the sea anemone can’t protect itself from. Using these biomimetic strategies not visually but

functionally can push the boundaries of current architectural function and form. These leads me to my final point ecological modernization.

Dr. Maarten A. Hajer developed a policy model during the early 1980’s called ecological modernization. It is a discourse in policymaking where the moving towards environmentalism can have economic and technological benefits at a multiplicity of scales.

This very interesting field also stems from biomimicry and sustainability because it realizes that by exploiting our natural habitat we can save money and maintain a balance with our natural habitat. An interesting and unrealized animal architecture project which exemplifies this is called The Last Wilderness. The project takes on the issues of global deforestation, in this case coastal mangrove forests in Madagascar. The local shrimp farming industries keep many of these coastal economies alive but the use of mangrove wood is also in demand causing the deforestation. The Architect Jonas Braoude saw the opportunity to create an artificial mangrove forest system that can protect the shrimp, along with other fish species, with a canopy and root system to provide the fisherman with a fishing facility to capture and distribute the shrimp easily and efficiently. This symbiotic relationship of building something specifically for an animal to yield food for not only the coastal city but also revenue is indicative to how animal architecture utilizes the biomimetic paradigm of learning from nature to create architecture but also uses Dr. Hajer’s ideals of Ecological modernization. Ecological modernization validates animal architecture as a practical and efficient method of design, and doesn’t carry the “treehugger” or similar marketing gimmicks sustainability seems to connotate in the profession.

Now we are left with the question what are the possible future implications animal architecture can have on our landscapes? The most important result is that new typologies of vernacular architecture can form by utilizing animals as the main source for design intentions. Creating and extrapolating relationships both aesthetically and functionally the way we design will always be geared to not only what works the best, but what has the capability to evolve our species allowing us to essentially control the destiny of the human race.