Nature Works 2.0 // permaculture, neurobiophilia, biomimicry by Loren Johnson

Nature Works 2.0

Nature Works 2.0

But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Jobs 12: 7-10

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Co ntent s Introduc ti o n | Ro bi n R a n d a l l , A I A , L E E D A P B D + C .............................1 G uest Vo i c e s . . . . . . . . . . ....................................................................3 1| Perma c u l tu re . . . . . . ....................................................................7 Permaculture is a philosophy based on common ethics of sustainable cultures throughout history that have designed settlements ac-

cording to natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patterns and lived within its bounds. This is a strategy to implement permaculture in the Constitution Square of Mexico City to offer a public agricultural area, reduce pollution and have an architectural regenerative urban fabric.

2| N euro bi o ph i l i a . . . ...................................................................41 The exploration of the functions and dynamics of the brain in response to nature is called Neurobiophilia, a sub-discipline of neuroscience. This study of neurobiophilia will articulate how the brain responds to nature integrated into an urban setting and will be a source to architects seeking to explore the human brain and how it responds to nature integrated into architecture.

3| Biom i mi c r y . . . . . . . . ...................................................................73 The architecture should imitate natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s models in order to provide solutions to problems of strength, effeciency, durability and even sustainability. We should look into natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s organisms to find examples of how many of the problems we face today are solved and how to incorporate them into our architecture.

4| Clos i n g R e ma r ks . . . ...................................... ...........................101

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I ntrod uc t io n

Pra y er : “Lord of all nature, help us to be the change you wish to see in the world.” ARC600 – Topics in Architecture – Biophilia, Biomimicry and Bioculture

What is our purpose on Earth? How will we use our skills and God-given

At Judson University School of Art, Design & Architecture, we explore the

footsteps resting lightly on the Earth. God’s truth is written in all living things.

church at work in higher education. We reflect on our relationship with nature

Faith is the tool we use to translate his word. As architecture students we are

and the world around us to celebrate God’s creation and practice stewardship.

aware that we reside in this first intentional biophilic age (Living Future Institute).

The following book is an outcome of our Spring 2015 classwork. Our aspi-

Humans are no longer automatically exposed to nature in their everyday lives.

rations are to share new thoughts and interpretations about these immerging

This exposure to nature must be designed into the environments we create in

fields of study through a Christian worldview.

order for the benefits of nature to be actualized. Can Biophilia, Biomimicry, and

talents? Serving as good stewards of our earth, we try to walk in Christ’s

Bioculture create that secure bond to nature? We explore that connection in Course Description:

four distinct ways, by four distinct authors.

This course investigates sustainable design through the experiential lens of Biophilia, Biomimicry and Bioculture. Students will gain an understanding of

We protect only what we cherish, both love and value. Do we value our own

how biological and ecological research can inform design processes and ef-

home enough to save it for the next generation and beyond? How can we fall

fect the way we interpret the definition of sustainability. Students will be ex-

in love with God’s creation enough to spark environmental responsibility?

posed to regional, national and international practices pushing the boundaries of research and application in art, design, and architecture. This course will

This class searches for a way to speak and write about sustainability in a way

enhance student’s knowledge, research skills, critical thinking and sense of

that will resonate and motivate humanity to love nature and therefore care for

discovery. Students will develop communication skills, both verbal and written,

our planet.

participate in investigative experiments to test theories, and produce a final project relative to their subject of study.

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Gues t Vo ic e s

Amy Coffman Phillips Biomimicry Chicago Chicago, IL

Bill Browning Terrapin Bright Green Washington D.C.

Amy Coffman Phillips is the founder of The B-Collabo-

Bill Browning is one of the green building and real es-

Any list of accomplished, influential environmentalists and

rative, an education and design consultancy, serving to

tate industry’s foremost thinkers and strategists, and an

preservationists includes Bob Berkebile. Highly regarded

catalyze and facilitate exciting, nature-based projects.

advocate for sustainable design solutions at all levels of

by fellow professionals, Bob focuses on improving the

She co-developed a Naturally Resilient Workshop for

business, government, and civil society. His expertise has

quality of life in our society with the integrity and spirit of

businesses looking to integrate biological resilience strat-

been sought out by organizations as diverse as Fortune

his firm’s work. In 2009, Bob received a Heinz Award from

egies into their strategic planning, and is facilitating the

500 companies, leading universities, non-profit organiza-

Theresa Heinz and the Heinz Family Foundation for his

development AskPlace Chicago. Amy is a licensed archi-

tions, the U.S. military, and foreign governments.

role in promoting green building design and for his com-

tect, LEED BD+C, MBA and Co-Founder of Biomimicry Chicago.

Bob Berkebile BNIM Kansas City, MO

mitment and action towards restoring social, economEarly in his career, Bill helped build Buckminster Fuller’s

ic and environmental vitality to America’s communities

last experimental structure. In 1991, he founded Green

through sustainable architecture and planning. Among his

Amy presented a vision of a city that is authentic to its

Development Services at the Rocky Mountain Institute,

contributions to his industry, Bob is the founding chairman

roots, both man-made and ecological. Drawing on work

an entrepreneurial, non-profit “think and do tank”. His con-

of the American Institute of Architects’ National Commit-

from biomimics around the world, she conceived of and is

sulting projects at RMI included new towns, resorts, build-

tee on the Environment (AIA / COTE) and was also instru-

working to bring to fruition a “Prairie Project” that discovers

ing renovations, and high-profile demonstration projects

mental in the formation of the US Green Building Council

the “genius of our place,” deep knowledge about the or-

including Wal-Mart’s Eco-mart, the Greening of the White

and its LEED rating system.

ganisms and ecosystems that share our unique place in

House, the National Aquarium, Disney Hong Kong, the

the world, and translates this information through biomim-

Pentagon, Lucas Film, Grand Canyon National Park and

icry to make it accessible to designers, business owners,

the Sydney 2000 Olympic Village. In 1999 Green Devel-

and policy makers. The result of this project, when real-

opment Services was awarded the President’s Council for

ized, will be businesses, buildings, communities, and cit-

Sustainable Development/Renew America Prize.

ies that are naturally sustainable, inherently resilient, and in tune with the context in which we live.

Gues t Vo ic e s Christine Chaney Christine Chaney Creative Seattle, WA

Loren Johnson Legat Architects Chicago, IL

Born and raised at the conflux of cornfields and

Loren Johnson is a graduate of Judson University’s

woodlands in the practical midwest, then trained

Masters in Architecture program where he devel-

in architecture at Ball State University, Christine is

oped his thesis entitled “Architectural Mutualism:

deeply interested in making meaningful experienc-

Ecosystem Dynamics and Architectural Theo-

es for others. Mediums to date have been archi-

ry.”Through practice and research, Loren continues

tecture, art, book and apparel design. Even if the

to examine how ecosystem dynamics form models

other being only inhabits her designs for the length

for how human structures may develop mutually

of an art viewing or the time it takes them to try on a

beneficial interactions with native organisms. As an

garment or to have a lovely dinner, Christine wants

associate at Legat Architects, Loren is instrumental

you to feel at “home” while you are there, inspired

in implementing sustainable strategies and integrat-

and engaged. Christine also finds a deep resource

ing educational environments that teach environ-

for inspiration in nature’s structures and patterns,

mental stewardship. Loren shared with the Arc600

colors and textures, habits and processes.

class a collection of systems thinking applications to enhance biophilic and biomimic design.

1 PERMACULTURE CULTURE + ARCHITECTURE Juan Carlos Ledesma

Permaculture is a philosophy based on common ethics of sustainable cultures throughout history that have designed settlements according to natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patterns and lived within its bounds. This is a strategy to implement permaculture in the Constitution Square of Mexico City to offer a public agricultural area, reduce pollution and have an architectural regenerative urban fabric.

1 1 THE LOST RICHNESS OF MEXICO C U LT U R E + A G R I C U LT U R E

Mexico and Mesoamerica are lands where sophisticated civilizations have arisen through the millennia - and have also developed many sustainable practices that serve as examples and inspirations in the context of permaculture. PreHispanic elements as chinampas - the intensive system of food production in mini artificial islands, which propped up the Aztec civilization in Tenochtitlan - or traditional Mexican backyard with its productive mixed forest, are mentioned in many books and basic texts (Lyle 1994). Mexico brought corn, tomato, chocolate, chili, pumpkin, amaranth, among many other things to the food basket that sustains humanity today. In Mexico, it is still alive the memory of a society based on agriculture and self-sufficiency, and still 30 years ago this was the reality for most Mexicans. Thus, permaculture is done in Mexico in a very different social, cultural and economic context compared with the countries of the so-called first world, where the concept originated (Aghaianian 2007).

During the past 30 years, Mexican society has undergone rapid transformation. Mexico went from being a country where most of its inhabitants lived on subsistence agriculture to an urban, industrial society, whose rising incomes as a nation now are oil, tourism, and remittances sent home by millions of Mexican economic refugees living in the territory of the United States (Aghaianian 2007). Within this scenario of rapid social, cultural, and economic change, the concept of permaculture has earned in recent years an increasingly larger within the alternatives being discussed around the sustainability space.

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P E R M A C U LT U R E C U LT U R E + S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

Permaculture is a philosophy based on common ethics of sustainable cultures throughout history that have designed settlements according to natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patterns and lived within its bounds. (Birnbaum 2014). Permaculture strategies can be used by individuals, groups, or nations to address basic human needs such as food, water, energy, and housing. As a species, humans are being called forth to evolve and thrive, using our collective intelligence and sustainable innovations to meet the challenges of the future. If we are to survive our collective planetary crisis, we need to revisit history and architectural techniques from sustainable cultures from the past to integrate them into a new successful system (Birnbaum 2014). To boldly confront our position on the brink of the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s carrying capacity and make changes for the future, that incorporate the wisdom of the past. Permaculture ethics are earth care, equal share, and people care forming a flower focusing in seven main domains related to permaculture. (Image 5) Permaculture is also divided by five zones to understand and know in what type of zone people practicing permaculture are living. (Mollison, 1988) (Image 6) Twelve Permaculture design principles articulated by David Holmgren (1978) (Image 7) 1.Observe and interact: By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation. 2.Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.

3.Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing. 4.Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well. 5.Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on nonrenewable resources. 6.Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste. 7.Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go. 8.Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other. 9.Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes. 10.Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides. 11.Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system. 12.Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.

1 3 P E R M A C U LT U R E O N E P E R M A N E N T + A G R I C U LT U R E Permaculture One “Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way” (Mollison, 1988). Bill Mollison and David Holmgren (1978) coined the word “permaculture” to refer to their system of “design principles” for constructing sustainable human settlements. These permaculture principles were based on principles of environmental science (Odum, 1971), coupled with an ethic of earth repair, people care and equal share. The premise was to design human settlements modeled after natural ecosystems to decrease waste, work, and pollution while maintaining or increasing their fertility, biodiversity, and sustainability. The word permaculture was a conjunction of “permanent” and “agriculture” or, more broadly, permanent culture. Mollison copyrighted the permaculture concept and spread it around the world by teaching courses while establishing a set of protocols by which practitioners and teachers could be certified to spread the permaculture movement for themselves. What distinguished Mollison’s permaculture from other alternative agricultures was its

emphasis on integrating all the components of a human settlement: architecture, construction, farm layout, transportation, hydrology, energy management, and community relations in addition to food production. Mollison has proposed to construct new communities based on new principles to re-design the whole production process, including architecture, energy, technology, economics, urban design, and governance.

1 4 THE IMPORTANCE OF PERMACULTURE ETHICS + PRINCIPLES Permaculture is important because his foundation is form by the ethics of ecology, economy and equity. The ethics of permaculture design are found in most traditional societies. Ethics are culturally evolved mechanisms that regulate selfinterest, giving us a better understanding of good and bad outcomes. The greater the power of humans, the more critical ethics become for long-term cultural and biological survival. Permaculture ethics are distilled from research into community ethics, learning from cultures that have existed in relative balance with their environment for much longer than more modern civilizations. This does not mean that we should ignore the great teachings of modern times, but in the transition to a sustainable future, we need to consider values and concepts outside of the current social norm.

1 5 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERMACULTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY N AT U R E - T E C H N O L O G Y Permaculture design focus on the landscape and architectural design to mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, water, energy and housing for a provision of local needs. People, their buildings, and the ways they organize themselves are central to permaculture. Permaculture is a design that improve individual, households and community skills, such as organic gardens, urban farming, eco-villages, solar geometry, water harvesting, aquaponics and many others towards a regenerative future. Permaculture main mission is to draw together the diverse organic ideas, skills and ways of living which need to be rediscovered and developed to empower us to move from being dependent consumers to becoming responsible and productive citizens within our bounds. In the other hand, sustainable development is defined in the Brundtland Report of the United Nations as â&#x20AC;&#x153;development that meets the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needsâ&#x20AC;?. Having this in mind, sustainable design focus on the health and comfort of the occupants but does not make them productive.

Also, sustainable design focus minimally on culture, and some of the technological systems used make the building function are still in examination and the cost to build them is high as well as the energy consumption. Most of the skills used in permaculture are develop by human work, and although the skills or systems might be expensive, they were used by civilizations of the past.

1 6 P E R M A C U LT U R E I N T H E C I T Y U R B A N A G R I C U LT U R E + P R O D U C T I O N When asked to visualize a sustainable living environment, many of us envision a rural farm-like setting with lots of land and plenty of natural resources around that can support our needs. The reality, though, is that the majority of us live in cities and for various reasons the proportion of city dwellers is continuing to rise. (Brown 2003) So we’re faced with the difficult question, “How can permaculture address life in a city?” When applying permaculture to an urban environment, it’s especially important to understand the principle: “the problem is the solution.” It’s very easy to identify problems in most cities - air and water pollution, overcrowding, and lack of green space but this can work to our advantage if we are intent on creating solutions rather than merely drawing attention to the problems. (Brown 2003) First, we might think of a city’s characteristics in terms of an ecosystem such as a forest. A mature forest has a forest canopy, which in a city is the top of tall buildings. Mid-sized buildings can be analogous to the forest understory. Small buildings and other human and natural structures are parallel to a forest’s shrubs and ground cover. Finally, the city equivalent to a forest’s soil could be streets, sidewalks, and yards. (Brown 2003)

Once we look at the city’s elements as opportunities to create beauty through design, we begin to find solutions, including: • Building greenhouses and planting herb gardens on rooftops • Turning our grass lawns into gardens that produce food and are aesthetically beautiful • Creating community by combining backyards with our neighbors, such as tearing down fences to create bigger parcels of usable land • Using the presence of buildings to cultivate plants that need partial shade or vertical climbing space • Designing a water catchment system on the roofs of our houses that can provide all the water needs for the garden • Building bridges between biological, cultural, social, and economic sustainability Remember, it is a conscious choice for us to see “impediments” to rebuilding sustainable cities as resources and opportunities. Urban areas have lots of energetic people who, when putting their minds and hearts together, can create beautiful, healthy living environments in the midst of supposed chaos. (Brown 2003)

1 7 PERMACULTURE INTERRELATIONSHIP WITH LIVING COMMUNITY CHALLENGE The interface or edge between different systems, ideas, and communities is where the most productive and interesting events take place. The edge between Permaculture Design and the philosophies behind the Living Community Challenge is ripe for exploration. Permaculture is a system of design protocols for critical thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving based on the patterns of nature. On the other side, the Living Community Challenge is an attempt to raise the bar, to extend the ideals established by the Living Building Challenge from the individual project site outward into the community as a whole. The Living Community Challenge defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and acts to diminish the gap between current limits and ideal solutions. Permaculture is most commonly used for creating food production systems but can be applied to designing a business, commercial building, community, or your life. There is an interaction between the philosophies of both systems. Permaculture can be involved in different petals of the Living Community Challenge since both focus on people care, earth care, and equal share. In other words, Permaculture can help a community become Living Future. A framework of urban design strategies can be used to aid creating permacultural landscapes that promote ecological biodiversity and social sustainability in urban environments no matter what the scale, the type, or location of the landscape. Incorporating systems, thinking an approach that considers appropriate mythologies and tools, creativity and innovative technologies, combined with the urban design strategies

that follow, urban permacultural landscapes can flourish and aid in the evolution of the sustainable city (Phillips, 2013). Most of the residents of the city would think of eating and farming and perhaps of buying of fresh food at farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; markets if asked to identify the elements of a food system. All buildings types can integrate permaculture into their system matrix through both form and function. This encompasses not just food support use but also an experiential component. The building program, facades, roofs, and design character are all part of the strategy. Widening the building system to include the landscape property provides, even more, opportunities such as parking lots and streetscapes designed for orchards, backyard or front yard edible programs, community open space gardens. All public open scale developments such as parks, plazas, recreation centers, vacant lots, and remaining residual open space parcels offer opportunities for the community to be produce gardens and orchards. There could also be an integration of permaculture on the sidewalks, trails, paths, medians and streetscapes. As long as the streets can continue to convey the constant traffic, they can be redesigned, to include storm water management swales, community gardens recreation, play areas, picnic nodes, public art, habitat corridor and food. Schools can be part of the permacultural gardens too. Schools should integrate into their curriculum classes for students and workshops for the city residents to educate both the students and the community about permaculture. Schools should also have gardens and orchards to demonstrate the importance of permaculture in the community.

1 8 THE CONSTITUTION SQUARE M E X I C O C I T Y + P E R M A C U LT U R E The Zocalo is the ideal spot to begin permaculture in Mexico City. Once the main center of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, this is the beating heart of Mexico’s capital. Within a few meters, you will discover pre-Hispanic ruins and majestic colonial buildings. In the surrounding streets, you will encounter a cross section of Mexico City’s population: business executives, workers, and fashionistas, as well as vendors, buskers, and Aztec dancers. Tourists and locals alike wander these streets where Mexico’s past and present intersect. The main square of the city is called the Zocalo, but its official name is Plaza de la Constitucion, Constitution Square. It takes up a whole city block and is among the largest squares in the world where people gather for civic and cultural events and celebrations throughout the year. Over the years the Zocalo has undergone several different incarnations; inside the Zocalo metro station, you can see scale models of its many different phases.

through to modern times. This series of murals, entitled “Mexico a Traves de Los Siglos” (Mexico Through the Centuries) was painted between 1929 and 1951 and highlights the most dramatic moments of the nation’s past. Other areas of the National Palace that are open to visitors include the Treasury, historical presidents’ quarters and a botanical garden. Mexico City’s cathedral, the Catedral Metropolitana, located north of the Zocalo, went through several construction phases. The variety of architectural and artistic styles combine to create a fascinating testament to the passage of time. The cathedral is also replete with colonial religious art and beautiful gilded altarpieces.

The Palacio Nacional (National Palace) is another of the must-see tourist attractions in Mexico City. This beautiful colonial building, located to the east of the Zocalo, is the very site where the palace of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma once stood. The walls above the main staircase and along the corridor of the second floor are covered with murals by Diego Rivera, who depicted the history of Mexico from before the arrival of the Spaniards

1 9 C H I N A M PA S A Z T E C S + A G R I C U LT U R E The economy of the Aztec civilization was based primarily on agriculture so they used different systems and cultivation methods such as the chinampa. (Aghaianian, 2007). As in good permaculture design, Chinampas work by turning wastes into resources while stacking functions to maximize yields and minimizing work. After a plot is staked out into the low ground or shallow ponds and lakes, a fence was woven between the stakes to create a cage or large basket that the farmers could then fill with the surrounding sediment and various forms of vegetation. The beds would be built high enough to become permanently above the high water mark, and willows would be planted on the edges to protect the banks from erosion over the long term for when the posts rotted. Channels were maintained between the Chinampas for canoe access and the growing of fish and waterfowl (Lyle 1994). In Aztec society, Calpulli (a small community) was not the true owner of the plot, and it could not even sell or trade; meanwhile, the nobles were those who had the right, like warriors on the lands

won in the wars. For all this, there were not many fertile land and Aztecs built chinampas to generate space to plant their main crop: corn. After the Aztec civilization had a great shortage of food, the tlatoani Acatonalli gave the council of elders a technique to cope; this was to gain landfills the lake with silt and rods (Aghaianian, 2007).Thus, the chinampas originated in the lake region of the Valley, to produce corn and beans, among other crops diversities. The fertility of these artificial islets was assured since they could absorb water through the porous floor. Aztecs used trajineras; trajineras were canoes that were put next to each chinampa and were intended to transport the products cultivated in them were used.

1 10 L A S T C L U E S O F L A S C H I N A M PA S M E X I C A N P E R M A C U LT U R E A fantastic destination to explore can be found just outside Mexico City. This is where the historic canals of Xochimilco (so-chee-mil-co) are located. In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, Xochimilco means “garden of flowers”. Enjoyed by foreigners and nationals alike, this magical location dates back several centuries. Miles of canals dot the landscape in Xochimilco, enchanting the senses with their natural beauty. Flat-bottomed boats called trajineras travel these waters, as they have for hundreds of years. Produce and flowers grow in abundance in this exotic atmosphere. What makes Xochimilco so fascinating is its embodiment of traditional Mexican culture (Aghaianian, 2007). These canals and gardens represent a living example of an ingenious agricultural practice that was invented long ago.The Xochimilcan people settled in the Valley of Mexico between the eighth and tenth centuries. One of the key challenges for these early inhabitants were the vast amount of wetlands that the area possessed. Traditional farming methods were not conducive in this setting. To surmount the obstacles this water-filled environment presented, the Xochimilco came up with a creative solution. Using available resources, these settlers built chinampas (floating gardens) on the surface waters of Lake Xochimilco. Using cane structures, mud was placed inside these containers and were anchored in position by trees lining the shore. Fertilizer was culled from the floor of the lake bed which was rich in aquatic mulch. Flowers,

fruits, and vegetables grew abundantly using this successful farming method (Aghaianian, 2007). The Xochimilcan people who established these chinampas were ultimately conquered by the Aztecs, who in turn utilized these floating gardens to feed their growing empire. During its height, the chinampa system extended over 22,000 acres of wetlands and provided food for tens of thousands of people. The canals were built to navigate the chinampas and to provide a transportation corridor which brought produce to the Aztec Empire. Today, the existing canals of Xochimilco represent only a fraction of their former acreage. A portion of the canals has been set aside, dedicated to an ecological park, the Parque Natural Xochimilco. This area of Mexico represents the only remaining habitat for the Axolotl salamander, a critically endangered species. Also, a great number of birds make their home here, including herons, egrets, and ducks, to name just a few. In actuality, Xochimilco is home to over 150 native birds with approximately 70 species visiting the canals during the winter season (Aghaianian, 2007).. Visiting Xochimilco provides the traveler the opportunity to view a part of Mexico’s historic past. On Saturdays, a popular produce market attracts large crowds. In the 1920’s when the area was first starting to attract tourists, Xochimilco was affectionately called “the Venice of Mexico.” In 1987, it was designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO (Aghaianian, 2007).

1 11 CONCLUSION P E R M A C U LT U R E Permaculture is a positivistic ethical design science that creates regenerative lifesupport systems that mimic the patterns and processes found in nature (Melby 2002). In other words Permaculture is human ingenuity wedded to the wisdom of the wild. Permaculture recognises the illusion of separation that is now widespread in mainstream culture has not only led to a disconnect from our true nature and identity but has also profoundly perverted our value systems which is manifest in the global epidemic of ecological and cultural degradation.

view that incorporates the environment, energy, resources, housing, community, technology, education, the arts, spirituality, healthcare and more. It is a positive, solutions-based way of thinking and an integrated design system that provides a realistic alternative for future civilizations.

Permaculture is an approach to regenerative living that highlights individual and community responsibilities for sustainability and focuses on choices, values, ethics and the way in which human beings interact with the natural world. Permaculture is a lifestyle choice that considers a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship within the community and the natural environment and seeks harmony with both. Permaculture is found on landscapes that mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature that provide diversity, stability, and resilience. These systems yield an abundance of shelter, water, energy, and food for the provision of local requirements. Understanding that Permaculture is much more than just sustainable agriculture; it is an integral

1 12 LIVING ENVELOPE P E R M A C U LT U R E + D E S I G N Imagine that the Constitution Square goes by a series of iterations to be the main center of Permaculture in Mexico. According to archeologiest, what today is the center of Mexico City, used to be Lake Texcoco. The Lake was sorrounded by Chinampas. Since the chinampa is a permacultural strategy, it can be incorporated into the plaza bringing back those strategies that once made the Aztec Empire rich. This will be a holistic approach to regenerative Mexico City and in the future Mexico will be highlight as an agricultural country again and the people and the community will be more responsible and focus on choices, values, ethics and the way in which human beings interact with the natural world. Permacultural chinampas will be a lifestyle choice that will improve personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship within the community and the natural environment and seeks harmony with both.

AUTHOR

JUAN CARLOS LEDESMA Y U R I R I A G U A N A J U AT O , M E X I C O

My name is Juan Carlos. I was born in Yuriria Guanajuato Mexico and migrated to the United States when I was 12. I grew up in a town named Cupareo, which means crossroad of four paths. When I used to live in Mexico, there was a lemon tree at my parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; house, and I used to see how the lemons grew from the branches every year. I still remember when my parents were planning their house and always try to protect the lemon tree, since it was planted by my dad and my great grandmother. My father built the house without cutting the lemon tree, and I used to see how the house was built. It was here when my interest for architecture was born and since the desire of becoming an architect was on my mind. Also, my grandfather, on my father side, used to have crops of corn, wheat and beans and I used to go to pick up some produce when the crops were ready to be the harvest. I enjoy seeing all that vegetation

grow and see the hard work that was done to cultivate the crops, but it was worth it since we did not have to buy produce instead we used to trade produce with our neighbors since they had produce gardens and orchards in their backyards. On the other hand, my grandfather, on my mother side, works on the apple, pear and cherry orchards of California. I had been there only once, but when I was at his house, I felt that I was in Mexico. When I go back to Mexico, there are only memories. The lemon tree was cut when we decide to migrate to the United States and my grandfather pass away ten years ago. It is sad to see how my hometown has changed since I was a child. All those memories from my childhood and my desire to practice architecture back in Mexico, drove me to explore permaculture as a way to bring back sustainability strategies used by ancient cultures.

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Jeremiah 29:5

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P hi l i p s, A pr i l . De si g n i n g Ur ba n A g r i c u l t u re : A C o m p l e te G u i d e f o r t h e P l a n n i n g , D e s i g n , C o s t r u c t i o n , M aintenance and M anagement of Ed ib le Land scap es. Ho bo ke n , NJ: W i l e y, 2013.

IMAGE CREDITS 1.

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IMAGE CREDITS 28.

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2 NEUROBIOPHILIA

COGNITIVE EFFECTS OF NEUROBIOPHILIA Jhony Molina-Ayala

The exploration of the functions and dynamics of the brain in response to nature is called Neurobiophilia, a sub-discipline of neuroscience. This study of neurobiophilia will articulate how the brain responds to nature integrated into an urban setting and will be a source to architects seeking to explore the human brain and how it responds to nature integrated into architecture.

2 1 COGNITIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE INTRODUCTION TO NEUROBIOPHILIA What is Neurobiophilia? Neurobiophilia, a sub-discipline of neuroscience is a new concept that integrates neuroscience and its correlation with nature. The term is rooted from E.O. Wilson’s Biophilia Theory, which insists on an instinctive bond between human beings and other living beings and systems. An exploration in neurobiophilia explains the cognitive benefits of contact with nature and the vast impacts of nature deprivation to human health. The exploration of neurobiophila can be researched in different methods, which include but are not limited to: EEG (electroencephalography); fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging); CT (Computer Tomography) scans; PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans; and ECOG (electrocorticography) (Neurobiophilia.org). In short, your brain “on nature” is neurobiophilia. For centuries we have understood that nature has a restorative effect on our brains, in which nature calms and enlightens us.

But the question is why? The answer is simple; nature becomes a multisensory therapy to the brain that is rich and complex that affects all the senses. An example of studies that affect the brain through nature were studied by Rachel and Steven Kaplan from the University of Michigan that came up with a prevailing theory called the Attention Restoration Theory. The Attention Restoration Theory has three parts: directed, voluntary and involuntary attention. Nature has our involuntary attention because it draws us in with what psychologists call “soft fascination.” It does not take much effort for nature to grab our attention without taxation. It also does not require a lot of focus or attention such as the activity of driving, which is why nature has a natural restorative affect on humans. These studies in Neurobiophilia are the building blocks to how architects rethink and reshape spaces specifically designed to improve human performance.

2 2 COGNITIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE UNDERSTANDING COGNITIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE

Cognitive and behavioral neuroscience (CBN) is a sub-branch of neuroscience that focuses on the scientific study of the biological basis of behavior; how the brain affects behavior. Cognitive and behavioral neuroscience has a strong overlap with cognitive psychology, which focuses on the study of mind and mental function, including learning, memory, attention, perception, reasoning, language, conceptual development, and decision making (psych.rutgers.edu).

Behavioral neuroscience emerged from a variety of scientific and philosophical traditions in the 18th and 19th centuries. Rene Descartes is an early example that proposed physical models to explain animal and human behavior. Topics in behavioral science include sensation and perception, motivated behavior, control movement, learning and memory, sleep and biological rhythms, and emotion.

CBN includes both human and animal studies of specific brain regions and their neurochemical factors in behavior. Such examples are the study of drugs and their effects on mechanisms of action; the biological bases of learning; behavioral problems associated with damage to specific brain regions; anatomical and chemical correlations to mental illnesses; and the use of modern noninvasive imaging techniques to study brain involvement in human cognition, perception, emotion, cognitive aging, and other aspects of behavior (psychology.gmu.edu).

2 3

NEUROMORPHIC ARCHITECTURE

INTRODUCTION TO NEUROMORPHIC ARCHITECTURE

What is Neuromorphic Architecture? Neuromorphic architecture is the biological comparison between neural networks and similar artificial neural networks in architecture. In the words of Dr. Michael Arbib, neuromorphic architecture is “what happens if architecture incorporates in itself some of the lessons of the brain. If in a sense, you give a brain to a building.” Dr. Michael Arbib first introduced this term in a 2012 paper for Intelligent Buildings International: “Brains, machines and building: towards a neuromorphic architecture.” The paper explains the intent behind neuromorphic architecture as: “exploring ways to incorporate lessons from studying real, biological brains to devise computational systems based on the findings of neuroscience that can be used in intelligent buildings.” The argument continues with the premise that future buildings will be “perceiving, acting and adapting entities.” Neuromorphic architecture is a similar concept to neuromorphic engineering, a concept developed by Carver Mead in the late 1980’s. His concept described the use of very-large-scale integration

systems that contain electronic analog circuits to mimic neuro-biological architectures found in the nervous system. The exploration of how the nervous system is structured has helped further develop technology used in building systems. It is important to understand how information is transferred in the nervous system through electrical impulses along nerve cells. This information can be implemented in MEP systems that could possibly improve their performance. In a similar fashion, systems mimicked by neural systems would help nourish the building by allowing it to grow and flourish in its environment. The characteristics of cellular organization and nutrition would be used and would allow for a “living system.” A living system would consist of structural and functional units similar to cells. The cells would be able reproduce and decompose over time. This would give the building the ability to heal itself as needed and adapt to its surrounding environment without needing the ability to “think” or “remember.”

2 4

NEUROMORPHIC ARCHITECTURE ADA - THE PLAYFUL INTELLIGENT SPACE

An example of neuromorphic architecture is a pavilion called the Ada—Playful Intelligent Space, which was named after Ada Lovelace, a pioneer of early computer programming. The basic concepts, principles, methods, and technologies of Ada are based on the research projects of the INI and its collaborators. The pavilion was designed by ETH Zürich, which was exhibited at the Swiss National Exhibition of 2002. The exhibit displayed a series of responsive and interactive elements that conveyed “emotions” and a “desire” to interact with visitors. The pavilion was known as the “inside-out robot.” Ada has an interactive space that is 180 meters squared and the exhibit as a whole is 400 meter squared. One of the adjacent spaces to the main space is called the “Brainarium.” The Brainarium’s purpose is to allow visitors to understand the Ada system. The space is the educational component of the project where questions regarding the operation of Ada are answered and the parallels to the functioning of the human brain are drawn.

2 5

NEUROLOGICAL NOURISMENT N O U R I S H M E N T T H R O U G H N AT U R E - C A S E S T U D Y 1

“Nature Imagery Project” Nature in many aspects has been used as a therapeutically treatment in places such as maximum-security prisons to help ease the psychological stress of solitary confinement. The treatment is called the Nature Imagery Project, which attracted international attention and earned a spot on TIME Magazine’s list of best inventions. The idea of the project is that – like trees, inmates in solitary confinement have the capacity for change. “Prisoners seem to be these people who will never change,” said the biologist, Naini Nadkarni, a professor at the University of Utah. “They will always be violent, always a burden on society. But if we can change our perspective, we can see that people can move even if they seem stuck.” The project was simple, set up a projector in an empty prison cell with the lights dimmed. Next, biologist Nalini Nadkarni, a professor from the University of Utah and filmmaker Tierney Thys, chose a series of nature videos culled from National Geographic and other sources. They called this room the Blue Room where the projector then splashed images across a blank wall and soothing nature sounds would be

played. Inmates were then filtered into the room for an hour and the results were staggering. “When I’m irritated, it’s something soothing to me,” one inmate said in a questionnaire that Nadkarni administered. “I have pent up tension. Sometimes, [this helps] my mood mellow out” Other inmates said they were able to sleep better at night and the Blue Room was an “escape” from reality.

The Blue Room quickly became very useful and became a tool to defuse potential volatile situations. If an inmate was stressed, they would be recommended some time be spent in the Blue Room. Other inmates even requested the room because they knew it would help them. Because the project is seemingly young, it is hard to quantify the full impact of the experiment on the prison. But Lance Schnacker, a research analyst with the state youth authority who has studied the program’s efficacy, has said the change has been “significant.”

2 6

NEUROLOGICAL NOURISMENT N O U R I S H M E N T T H R O U G H N AT U R E - C A S E S T U D Y 2

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Natural Learning Initiativeâ&#x20AC;? North Carolina State University has created the Natural Learning Initiative, which studies and helps promote outdoor learning environments for children. Children center naturalized outdoor learning environments (OLEs) help stimulate the diversity of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s play experience which contributes to their healthy development. The study specifically focuses on naturalizing outdoor learning environments in childcare. What they found was that children in a daycare setting that implements outdoor learning are a lot less stressed than other children. Green plants and vistas reduce stress among highly

stressed children. Studies also found that children in schoolyards found that children engage in more creative forms of play in green areas because their minds are clearer. Play in nature is especially important for developing capacities for creativity, problemsolving, and intellectual development. It enhances the cognitive abilities of the children through the daily exposure of natural settings. It has bee also proven that contact with the natural world can significantly reduce symptoms of attention deficit disorder in children as young as five years old.

2 7

BUILT ENVIRONMENTS N E U R O S C I E N C E A N D B U I LT E N V I R O N M E N T S

Some observers have characterized neuroscience as the most exciting frontier of human knowledge since the Renaissance. The study of neuroscience has benefited humanity in countless ways. Applied neuroscience plays such a big role in architecture that it might soon impact the education of architects. Cognitive skills should be developed through an architectural education so they can be implemented out on the field to create new models of

architectural design. This new approach will create a new cognitive development for architectural students and therefore impact the built environment. The study of neuroscience can be implemented into architecture in many ways. One way is through the design process, where neuroscience can better explain the architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brain activity during the development of a project. Another example of neuroscience

implemented into architecture is the understanding of the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience in a built environment through a neurological lens. Neuromorphic architecture is another concept that links neuroscience and architecture. This concept uses neural networks and mimics their structure into buildings and hardware systems.

2 8

BUILT ENVIRONMENTS B U I LT E N V I R O N M E N T C A S E S T U D Y - W A Y- F I N D I N G

“Way-Finding” A study of how built environments affect the human brain was done by Calit2, in collaboration with architects and UC San Diego Neuroscientists. The study focused on how “way-finding” affects the brain. A 2004 study published in the U.K. medical journal, The Lancet found that staff at a large hospital facility spent roughly 4,500 hours giving directions to patients a year. That’s an associated annual cost of $220,000. Patients who are critically ill and can’t locate the emergency facility can cause the difference between life and death. Way-Finding is the process of navigating, getting lost and using cues to reorient one’s self. Researchers from the UCSD division of Calit2, the UC San Diego’s Division of Biological Sciences, and the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience created a virtual-reality prototype system that studies the human brain in accordance to different architectural cues. The researches hope that this study will help to improve the design of buildings, neighborhoods, and urban settings by helping people know where they are going with little to no confusion.

In the experiment, test subjects wore a virtual-reality headset and were given the task to way-find through two different environments. The first environment was a realistic depiction of the wing’s front lobby, which had rich visual cues such as architectural landmarks, interior, finishes, and colors. The second environment was an ambiguous rendering of the wings south corridor, which contained no visual cues, had white walls, totally symmetrical space, unmarked doors, and no shadows. The test subjects also wore a fitted cap with 256 highdensity EEG electrodes, which was used to measure electrical activity in the brain. Movements were synchronized between the EEG sensors and the virtual reality system. Researches were then able to track the movement of the subjects along the routes and observe the subject’s physiological brain responses as they encountered specific architectural landmarks or cues. These methods of experimentation allow for more effective way-finding designs in institutions such as hospitals, which allows for a better user experience in a given space.

2 9

BUILT ENVIRONMENTS M ORE

NATU RE,

A large urban city will have different urban transects ranging from a T1 zone “natural zone,” to a T6 zone “urban core zone.” This implicates that there is more building structures and less nature the closer you get to an urban core. But how does this affect the human mind visually in terms of seeing more buildings and less nature? Research has indicated that the human eye has a preference for images of nature over images of built environments and that the eyemovement behavior and attention are significantly different across these categories. If this is true for imagery, then it also holds true for real built environments and nature. To build upon these findings, an investigation of the influence of low-level visual properties on scene preference, cognitive load, and eye-movements was conducted. This investigation was prompt by the idea that nature has a “soft fascination” on us. In the study, participants were asked to view a mix of altered and unaltered photographs of nature and urban scenes to determine if low-level visual properties influenced responses to scenes. Altered photographs included only low or mid-to-high visual spatial frequency information, and photographs where the phase or

LESS

B UI L D I N G

amplitude of visual spatial frequencies had been scrambled. These findings were replicated, demonstrating preferences and longer fixation-time for nature scenes versus urban cities. This was a demonstration that visual spatial frequencies and power spectra contained in images can significantly influence preferences, cognitive load, and eye-movements, and can partially explain the restoration response to natural environments.

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BUILT ENVIRONMENTS C O G N I T I V E E F F E C T S O F N AT U R E WA L K S

In todays society about 50% of people live in urban areas. By 2050, the number of people in urban areas will amount to as much as 70% of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population. Although we know that urbanization is linked to an increase in levels of mental illness, we do not know why this occurs. One of the mental illnesses mostly linked to urbanization is depression. Experiments have shown that decreased

nature experiences may help explain the link between urbanization and mental illness. A growing body of correlational and experimental evidence raises a further question: what mechanisms link decreased nature experience with the development of mental illness? One mechanism that is known is the impact of nature exposure on

rumination, the tendency to repetitively think about the causes, situational factors, and consequences of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s negative emotional experience, which is associated with a heightened risk for depression and other mental illness. Healthy participants in a brief nature experience showed that in a 90-minute walk in a natural setting decreases both self-reported rumination and neural

activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex (sgPFC), whereas in that same experiment the participants that walked for 90-minutes in an urban setting showed no such effects on self-reported rumination or neural activity. The study reveals that walks in a nature setting greatly improved mental well-being and suggests that accessible natural areas within an urban context may be a critical resource for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world.

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CONCLUSION

COGNITIVE EFFECTS OF NEUROBIOPHILIA The exploration of the functions and dynamics of the brain in response to nature is called Neurobiophilia, a subdiscipline of neuroscience. This study of neurobiophilia will articulate how the brain responds to nature integrated into an urban setting and will be a source to architects seeking to explore the human brain and how it responds to nature integrated into architecture. In summary, research in neurobiophilia is the next step in finding how the human brain works in correlation with architecture and nature. In the presence of nature, our brains go through a therapeutic process in which our minds become revitalized. This is why we as architects need to integrate nature into our architecture. The source for a healthy mind is found in the roots of nature.

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THE LIVING ENVELOPE D E S I G N

C H A L L E N G E

“The Living Envelope” The relationship between the biogenic and the anthropogenic is complex and varied; they are both parts of larger lineages of patterns, trends, and shifts. While vernacular building elements have been made of dead materials (straw, wood, soil), few building materials have been used in their living state, and architecture has not been known to be a living thing. What if a building envelope could reproduce the conditions of life, or appear to be alive? How might the form of multiple buildings be hybridized to create new forms? What does it mean to be alive? Response: If a building had a living envelope, it would be multi-sensorial like the human body. This means that buildings would be able to sense and feel changes such as temperature and other outside conditions. Like most organisms, they would be able sense the world around them and process information from their environment. This would be of great benefit, as it would allow building envelopes to adapt and change to improve according to outside conditions. In extreme conditions, a building would insulate itself and thus save on energy,

assuming that the insulation a building provides is sustainable. To be a living organism requires some fundamental characteristics such as cellular organization, metabolism, nutrition, and reproduction. It’s these characteristics that make ‘life’. A definite characteristic of a living organism consists of structural and functional units called cells. A living envelope would require cells that build and decay over time, giving the building the ability to age. With the ability to age comes death, the final termination of life activities. If a building envelope suddenly “died,” like any living organism, it would mean that the building envelope would suddenly stop working which would create a domino effect to the rest of the building. Another interesting aspect of a living envelope would be its ability to reproduce. In theory, that means that a building would reproduce and create other buildings throughout its life. If a building were to reproduce, then what kind of form would it create? This is interesting because architects would technically not be needed, or at least not go through the same process of creating new buildings as we do now. We would have to harvest and thus let a building grow on its own. Although

a living building would not create an offspring, it would still create other forms of life through its nourishment of the surrounding environment. The study of biophilia can be integrated into building envelopes in many ways. Although we would assume a living envelope would not have a nervous system because they wouldn’t have nerves, they would still be capable of generating electrical impulses called action potentials, just as nerve cells in animals do. Although Living buildings would not be able to “think or remember,” they would still be able to transmit information such as plants transmit information from leaf to leaf. This does not impair plants because they are still able to react and change, a similar characteristic to what a theoretical living building envelope would have.

AUTHOR

JHONY MOLINA-AYALA ROCKFORD, IL

I am a current graduate student at Judson University pursuing my Masters Of Architecture. I also received my Bachelors of Arts in Architecture at Judson. I currently reside in Rockford IL, where I am employed at McClellan Blakemore Architects. I am also proudly serving in the military as a Combat Engineer. I was born in Mexico and moved to Illinois when I was 5. I then moved from Belvidere to Rockford at the age of 13. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been fascinated by art all my life and started drawing and painting when I was young. My passion for architecture has only grown in the past couple years. More specifically my passionate for a sustainable practice has emerged through my recent studies. I am intrigued on the works of nature and what it has provided to humanity. I plan on saving back what we have lost.

This class has given me the opportunity to study a subject that I appreciate, nature and the human brain. I hope to one day use this research in my practice and design spaces that embrace the human brain. As an upcoming architect, I am driven to design structures with the upmost beauty while maintaining the highest standards in sustainability. Structures that will positively in uence the environment while providing beauty in every aspect of there design. I use architecture to shape the world by combining ecology, design, and human delight.

TEXT

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3 NATURE INSPIRES ORGANISMS + ARCHITECTURE Arturo Villalpando

ARCHITECTURE SHOULD IMITATE NATURE’S MODELS IN ORDER TO PROVIDE SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS OF STRENGTH, EFFICIENCY, DURABILITY AND EVEN SUSTAINABILITY. WE SHOULD LOOK INTO NATURE’S ORGANISMS TO FIND EXAMPLES OF HOW MANY OF THE PROBLEMS WE FACE TODAY ARE SOLVED AND HOW TO INCORPORATE THEM INTO OUR ARCHITECTURE.

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N AT U R E I N S P I R E S

ORGANISMS + ARCHITECTURE Buildings have the ability to become regenerative-like organisms that can provide a positive impact on environment through modern technologies. Example range from fungi that have the ability to remove waste from the ground and the bottom and the ocean. I believe it is possible that buildings through careful planning can have the same result. I will research buildings today that are aiming to make buildings have a positive impact on the environment and in addition giving something back. Buildings today use technology that collect rainwater and purify it so it could be drinkable. Other examples are buildings that run solely on solar energy and have extra energy that they give it back to the neighborhood grid. These are a few examples of technologies available today that top sustainable architecture firms are implementing in their designs. In addition to buildings I would find specific organisms that have regenerative properties that their existence value the environment where they inhabit. At the same time technology can also be made beautiful the same way that organism all have unique biomorphic forms.

What is Biomimicry? 1.Biomimicry is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes. (Benyus 1997) 2. Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time-tested patterns and strategies. (Biomimicry Institute 2016)

The overall goal is to create products, processes, and policies- new ways of living- that are well adapted to life on earth over the long haul. Biomimicry Institute mentions that the core idea is that, â&#x20AC;&#x153;nature has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers.â&#x20AC;?

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P O L A R B E A R ORGANISMS + ARCHITECTURE 2.1 Skin Layer The double layered façade can be compared to many mammal that use their outer double layered skin for similar reasons. Fur. Polar bears’ fur consists of a dense, insulating underfur topped by guard hairs of various lengths. It is not actually white—it just looks that way. Each hair shaft is pigment-free and transparent with a hollow core that scatters and reflects visible light, much like what happens with ice and snow. Polar bears look whitest when they are clean and in high angle sunlight, especially just after the molt period, which usually begins in spring and is complete by late summer. Before molting, accumulated oils in their fur from the seals they eat can make them look yellow. Polar bears have black skin under which there is a layer of fat that can measure up to 4.5 inches (11.5 centimeters) thick. (Udell 2014) 2.2. Heat Retention On land (or on top of the sea ice) the polar bear’s thick fur coat—not its fat— prevents nearly any heat loss. In fact, adult males can quickly overheat when they run. In the water, polar bears rely more on their fat layer to keep warm: wet fur is a poor insulator. This is why mother bears are so reluctant to swim with young cubs in the spring: the cubs just don’t

have enough fat. To keep warm, a polar bear has two types of fur; a top layer and an under layer. The top layer is made up of long oily hairs which act like a winter jacket does; it is a protective layer to keep the polar bear warm and dry. When a polar bear goes for a swim, the top layer keeps the under layer from getting wet. When the bear is done swimming they can shake off all the water, just like a dog shakes off when it is wet.

The under layer is a soft layer of fur that acts like a sweater does. It is thick and wooly, and keeps the bear warm. All the little spaces between the hairs are just like the little spaces between the threads of a person’s sweater - they both hold on to warm air, which keeps us (or the polar bear) warm. Each hair also has little spaces to hold more air, which makes polar bear hair very good at keeping polar bears very warm. (Udell 2014) 2.3. Air Air is also very good at making things float. Just like a beach ball floats because there is air inside, the air around a polar bear’s fur helps keep the bear floating. (Udell 2014)

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POROUS TECHNOLOGY ORGANISMS + ARCHITECTURE 3.1 Homeslicker Rain Screen The Silver Bullet Tiny House group came up with a few solutions to a problem they were facing with their tiny home concept. They wanted to create a rain screen system that protected the home from water, but also allowed natural ventilation to penetrate. The same way that the polar bear used its guard hair to protect its skin from getting wet the tiny house wanted to use it. The product they developed was called “Homeslicker Rain Screen” and it was essentially a nylon mesh matrix that comes in 40” x 46” roll and has little vertical channels that direct rain flow down the walls surface. It provides about a 1/8” - 1/4” air layer, when compressed, between my Zip panels and my metal or wood siding. Homeslicker will protect your wall assembly from rot and mold, allow moisture to escape, a thermal break, and prevents damage from surfactants between your vapor and siding. (Obdyke 2016) (Figure 8) 3.2. Featherlight Han Butitta and Robert Holley wanted to solve the problem of managing water in building systems and how to work with it rather than how to quickly get rid of it. They know how much architects are constantly fighting against water, and are often losing. Knowing that water is an essential element in every biological system

Butitta and Holley were confident that in nature they would be able to find countless examples of organism that were working with water, rather than against it. While researching the problem almost four months, using a bio-inspired design process that mimicked bird feather, Butitta and Holley developed a dynamically variable rain screen system that changes between states of water permeable and water repellent depending on the situations at hand. (Biomimicry Design 2012) (Figure 9)

3.3. Dew Bank For over one hundred years, scientists and engineers have been studying ways to effectively harvest fog as a source of water in arid regions. Although some of these man-made systems have proved useful, the plants and insects that inhabit deserts are far more efficient dew collectors. One ingenious bug known as the “fog beetle” collects drinking water by perching in an opportune position that allows dew droplets to collect in ridges on its back (Figure 12). Seeing this, designer Pak Kitae developed an ingeniousbiomimicking Dew Bank bottle that could provide hydration to millions of people that lack accessible drinking water. (Radhika 2010) (Figure 10, 11, 12)

3.4 How can the technology be applied in architecture? Homeslicker and Featherlight use similar concepts to protect the interior of the building, but Featherlight goes a little further in terms of research because their concept is more advanced since the rain screen system changes between states of water permeable and water repellent depending on the situation. Having the skin of building be able to change

depending on the climate conditions will bring the use of this technology to the next level. The buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cavity walls will never have to worry about water seepage again. But at the same time areas where water collection is a preferred, the ability of the rain screen to allow water to penetrate will be also advantageous. Water can be collected when needed and the skin can stop letting water come through when to more water is needed.

It would be really interesting if the Dew Bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability for filtering water will be have a positive contributions to buildings if combined with Homeslicker and Featherlight. The water coming in the building can be filtered all throughout and allow users to have access to clean water at all times.

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FUNGI

ORGANISMS + ARCHITECTURE 4.1 What makes them useful? Fungi are one of the most important groups of organisms on the planet. This is easy to overlook, given their largely hidden, unseen actions and growth. They are important in an enormous variety of ways: 4.2. Recycling Fungi, together with bacteria, are responsible for most of the recycling which returns dead material to the soil in a form in which it can be reused. Without fungi, these recycling activities would be seriously reduced. We would effectively be lost under piles many meters thick, of dead plant and animal remains. (Royal Botanic Gardens 2016) 4.3. Food Spoilage It has already been noted that fungi play a major role in recycling organic material. The fungi which make our bread and jam mold are only recycling organic matter, even though in this case, we would prefer that it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t happen! Fungal damage can be responsible for large losses of stored food, particularly food which contains any moisture. Dry grains can usually be stored successfully, but the minute they become damp, mold are likely to render them inedible. This is obviously a problem where large quantities of food are being produced seasonally and then require storage until they are needed.

4.4. Mycorrhizae and Plant Growth Fungi are vitally important for the good growth of most plants, including crops, through the development of mycorrhizal associations. As plants are at the base of most food chains, if their growth was limited, all animal life, including human, would be seriously reduced through starvation. (Royal Botanic Gardens 2016) 4.5. Medicines Penicillin, perhaps the most famous of all antibiotic drugs, is derived from a common fungus called Penicillium. Many other fungi also produce antibiotic substances, which are now widely used to control diseases in human and animal populations. The discovery of antibiotics revolutionized health care worldwide. (Royal Botanic Gardens 2016)

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ZERO WASTE TECH. ORGANISMS + ARCHITECTURE 5.1 Waste Management Recycling is a common practice. Waste Management is making a serious effort to go beyond recycling to protect the environment and get the most value out of what normally would be put into landfills. By creating products from waste, the company is reducing the amount of raw materials that need to be obtained. Waste Management is mimicking the way that natural systems reuse all materials. In nature, there’s no such thing as garbage, because every molecule goes through multiple configurations in multiple organisms. When a tree falls, a community of organisms breaks down the tree’s chemical compounds into other compounds and individual molecules, which are then used in other organisms. Everything is used, and there is no waste. (Figure 19) (Biomimicry Insitute 2016) 5.2. Terracycle Terracycle are working to collect difficult-to-recycle packaging and products and repurpose it into affordable, innovative products. Terracycle’s creative waste solutions range from upcycled backpacks made of used chip bags to recycled plastic planters made from 100% e-waste. Upcycling and recycling not only prevent waste from going into landfills or incinerators where they have no value and harm the environment,

but they significantly reduce the environmental impact of producing new materials from virgin inputs. (Garcia 2016) (Figure 20) 5.3. Ecovative Design Ecovatice Design is an innovation company that is embracing zero waste technology, systems that aim to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use. Ecovative design came up with “Mushroom Packaging” which a new class of home-compostable bioplastics using mushroom mycelium, a living organism, and agricultural “waste.” Mushroom Materials are high-performance, environmentally responsible alternatives to traditional plastic foam packaging, insulation, and other synthetic materials, which are environmentally damaging to produce and dispose of. Mushroom Materials are “self-assembling” (it grows itself!), a core principle of biomimicry, and at the end of their life, they can be returned to the earth to become beneficial feedstock to the next generation of life, a perfect zero-waste cycle. (Ovaska, Jukka 2015) (Figure 21)

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SPIDERS

ORGANISMS + ARCHITECTURE 6.1 What makes them useful? When people think of spiders, they see dangerous and creepy creatures that have no reason for existence, but in the contrary we benefit from their existence. On the positive side, chemicals harvested from spider venom help control and treat several diseases. Spiders also kill other arachnids and spiders - even those of the same species - which helps keep their own numbers in check. Furthermore, spiders are an important food source for a variety of birds, lizards, wasps, and, especially in deserts, mammals. An most important is spider silk which has proved to be the strongest natural material, has inspired mechanical engineering to new heights. (Scheibel 2008) 6.2. What is spider silk? Spider silk is one outstanding fibrous biomaterial, which consists almost entirely of large proteins. Silk fibers have tensile strengths comparable to steel and some silks are nearly as elastic as rubber on a weight-to-weight basis. In combining these two properties, silks reveal a toughness that is two to three times that of synthetic fibers like Nylon or Kevlar. Spider silk is also antimicrobial, hypoallergenic and completely biodegradable. (Scheibel 2008)

6.3. Structure stability of spider silk The most outstanding property of spider silk is its maximal resilience. Distinct spider silk threads are able to absorb three-times more energy than for example Kevlar, one of the sturdiest materials on a weight-toweight basis. Spider silk shows a wellbalanced combination of strength and elasticity and therefore mechanically outperforms other natural fibers as well as synthetic threads under certain circumstances. Silk is both stretchy and lightweight. It must be sticky in some places to catch prey, and not sticky in others so that the spider can scuttle across it. (Scheibel 2008)

6.4. Silk Rope Certain spiders protect their delicately crafted insect nets with a special silk rope that reflects ultraviolet rays. Birds can see the ultraviolet rays and recognize the webs as obstacles they should avoid. (Scheibel 2008)

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ADHESION TECHNOLOGY ORGANISMS + ARCHITECTURE 7.1 WEB Medical Tape Scientists have created a medical product that mimics this property: a flexible tape that can be peeled off a wound without damaging the tissue underneath. The sticky material could be useful for attaching tubes or sensors to the delicate skin of newborns and the elderly. Traditional medical tape is made by applying a sticky substance onto a thin backing material. To make the silk-inspired tape, researchers applied a silicon-based film to the backing material first, and used a laser to etch a grid pattern onto the silicon. The grid makes some parts of the material sticky and other parts nonsticky, just like a spider’s web. (Ong 2014) (Figure 25) 7.2. Spider Web Glass If engineers can reproduce the effect, it might save birds from their occasional accidental suicide runs into glassy buildings. German engineers at Arnold Glas copied the spiders and glazed their Ornilux-brand glass with a web-like pattern of ultraviolet-reflecting coating to save the birds from high-speed headaches.

“decorations” include attracting insects and distracting or warning away larger animals, including birds. This is to the spider’s advantage, because if a bird were to fly through the web, the spider would temporarily lose its ability to capture prey. (Biomimicry Institute 2016) (Figure 26) 7.3. Velcro Velcro is ubiquitous these days, found on everything from astronaut suits to children’s shoes. The sticky material was actually inspired by the way plant burrs stick to dog hair. In 1941, the Swiss engineer George de Mestral looked at the burrs under a microscope and noticed they contained hundreds of tiny hooks that could catch on loops of hair or clothing. He developed a material based on this and called it Velcro, from the French words “velours,” meaning velvet, and “crochet,” meaning hook. (Gunther 2010) (Figure 27, 28, 29)

The inspiration for the use of UVreflective patterns came from knowledge of how some species of spiders incorporate UV-reflective silk strands to their webs. The reasons for what some scientists refer to as

7.4 How can the technology be applied in architecture? Spider silk has the potential to become a structural component in buildings and bridges. Spider silk is very elastic in comparison to many tension cables found in bridges. In spider silk is many tons lighter than steel rod cables and will bring labor cost down due to the use of heavy and large machinery to handles such cables. The best reason why spider silk has the

potential to become a great resource in architecture is due to its organic form. It can be bend and moved in a infinite of ways that will minimize the need for joints to achieve the desired shape (figure 31). Applying the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Spider-Web Glassâ&#x20AC;? to the curtain wall of buildings will save buildings money in broken and cracked glass when hit my aerial animals. The reflective coating of the glass will warn

them and help them avoid buildings and potential headaches on buildings owners. It is very dangerous and a liability when people have to fix broken and cracked windows on skyscrapers. Another problem that could be avoided.

3 8

THE LIVING ENVELOPE D E S I G N

C H A L L E N G E

8.1 Question The relationship between the biogenic and the anthropogenic is complex and varied; they are both parts of larger lineages of patterns, trends, and shifts. While vernacular building elements have been made of dead materials (straw, wood, soil), few building materials have been used in their living state, and architecture has not been known to be a living thing. What if a building envelope could reproduce the conditions of life, or appear to be alive? How might the form of multiple buildings be hybridized to create new forms? What does it mean to be alive? 8.2 Response Using dead materials has been the modo for the last centuries and not many people have taken the idea to use a living envelope in their buildings. Being alive is a Godly concept that many feel cannot be done and it should not be attempted. Creating a living building can be compared to â&#x20AC;&#x153;Artificial Intelligenceâ&#x20AC;? in robotics and making them think for themselves. We are years from achieving this technology and I feel that we are in the same scenario with buildings. I feel passionate about this concept and I would love to see it become a reality, but today we can only achieve this at a minimal scale. We can have vegetation grow on the envelope of the buildings for years, but how do we take that to next level?

How do we use the vegetation to help purify and ventilate the building? If it were possible it would create a new way of thinking to mechanical systems. No more energy would be required to power the machines and also the use area that those machines take up will be removed. Taking the concept of absorbing vegetation and nature in the building can be push even further. The process by how plants use photosynthesis to create energy and food for themselves could be interesting if through that process the buildings can be powered. Natural energy would be taken to the next level and it would change the way of how we view energy. Plants would become the new form of energy and it would move away from power plants and solar panels and would allow the buildings to be self energy sufficient.

AUTHOR

ARTURO VILLALPANDO STREAMWOOD, IL

I am about two days from graduating with my Master in Architecture from Judson University. I have been waiting for this day for so long and it has finally come! I decided to go straight into the masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s program when I graduated with my bachelors from also Judson University.

Enough talk about architecture! I grew up in Chicago and moved to Streamwood when I was seventeen. It was not an easy move because I had grown really attached to the urban way of living. But over time I started to get used to living in the suburbs knowing that one day I will return to Chicago.

I have being interested in architecture for along time now even before I started college. I went to a college preparatory in Chicago called Lane Tech. It is known for having one of the best architecture programs in the Chicago area. Everyone is required to take architectural drafting freshmen year. I got really interested in architecture from that point on that I majored in architecture all four years of high school.

I have a two year old German Shepard that I love so much. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had him since he was six weeks old and it has been a blast watching him grow. I have two younger brothers that can be a pain sometimes, but love no matter what. And finally I have two loving parents that I owe my whole life too. I would not have made it where I am with out their unconditional support.

Now that the time has come to graduate I will return to work full time at an architectural firm in Chicago that I have been working at for the past six years. It feels really good knowing that you are returning to work full time with you masters degree.

TEXT

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4 | CLOSING REMARKS R o bin R a n d a l l , A I A , L E E D AP BD+ C A rchitect u re c a n i n s p i re . . . . Archi tect ure can i ns p i re curi o s i t y an d provoke le arn in g. [ A rchitect u ra l T h e s i s , B a l l St ate Uni vers i t y, 1 9 8 6 ]

Can architecture inspire environmental respect that leads to responsibility? I’m counting on it. As we practice in the “intentional biophilic age,” (Jason McLennan) it is imperative that we integrate nature into our design. Humans need nature to thrive and we no longer are guaranteed exposure in our busy lives. Please take the time to ponder our chapters on biophilia, biomimicry, and bioculture and share your own memory, faith, protection, or question with us. Continue the conversation. - Robin R. Randall, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Contact: Robin R. Randall, AIA, LEED AP BD+C rrandall@legat.com Juan Ledesma architect_jcl@live.com Jhony Molina-Ayala jhonyayala@gmail.com Arturo Villalpando email

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He has made everything beautiful in its time, Also he has put eternity into manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3: 11

IMAGE CREDITS Cover:

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I m a g e b y J ho ny Mo l i na-Ayal a. B arcel o na, Spain . (Sagrada Familia main e n tran c e )

I m a g e b y J ho ny Mo l i na-Ayal a. B arcel o na, Spain .

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I m a g e ret ri eved fro m g o o g l e.co m, ed i ted b y Jh on y Molin a-Ayala on May 3, 2016

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Back:

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We wo u l d l i ke to t h a n k Lo re n J o h n s o n , Ro b i n Ra n d a l l , a n d t h e k i n d s u p p o r t of Legat Architects .