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Veena Yelamanchili - a1882682

Barsha Neupane - a1878817

Biomimicry and Sustainable Beauty: Rethinking Design

Sustainable design is described as a way of meeting the needs of modern humans while considering environmental efforts. Nature Inspired design known as Biomimicry enables to solve by copying nature’s smart solutions . Therefore, we state the need for re-thinking sustainability because current approaches to design are pre-occupied with aesthetics and appearance. We also position ourselves that nature is naturally beautiful & biomimicry enables a better expression of beauty for efficiency. This links to the statement by Colomina and Wingley in their book, Are we Human? that a good building design involves user comfort, how we feel in a space.

INTRODUCTION

McHarg mentions in his book ‘Design with Nature’ that sustainable design is about designing based on the functioning of natural systems that exist on site. On the urban scale, it is about designing keeping in mind a broader knowledge of the ecological context of the region we design in.1Using renewable resources available in and around site conditions accounts for sustainable design. By doing so, we increase the longevity of designed architecture. However, using non-renewable energies such as incorporating artificial air-conditioning or materials imported from other sources adds to the building load and economy cost. This leads to questioning the uncertainty of energy efficiency in buildings.2 The World Commission on Environment and Development identified Sustainable design as a goal to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.3

In the modern world, ‘Interior Comfort’ has become a mandated luxury that burdens the natural resources, leading to ‘higher levels of energy consumption. Sustainable design is defined as a response to the efforts of modern human requirements. 4In a way, Biomimicry partly helps achieve sustainability indirectly. Nature Inspired Design leads to an efficient form and facade, but integrating the architecture with the existing site resources, by responding to them makes the designed architecture entirely sustainable. Biomimicry offers a framework for sustainable innovation by getting inspiration from nature’s solutions. Nature excels in minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency as organisms have evolved to utilize materials and energy in highly efficient ways, this is what sustainability is all about, so they go hand in hand.

As Colomina and Wingley talk in the first three initial chapters of their book, ‘Are we Human?’ they mention how Design is sometimes about shaping things rather than finding something new and that we live inside design and every layer of design rests on one another. This also leads us to think of how this affects the end user of a particular design proposal. The authors have talked about how we cannot be separated from the artifacts we produce, and how archaeology is a kind of reverse engineering of design. Since ancient times, design has always been upgraded to accommodate human needs and requirements while creating solutions to humans.

For instance, the human hand evolving in the shape that serves the purpose to grab the stones and weapons. However, beneath the surface, design also has the power to influence and shape human behavior and perceptions.5 Humans learn from shapes, forms and the characters of plants and animals and try to replicate them in design because they know that the natural form and function will always work as they have been created in that way for those beings. How the evolution of technology has helped humans to understand not just the materiality of any object but also the things beyond the outer surface. Colomina and Wingley believe that design is precisely a form of thinking ahead and they stress the thought that a good design is meant to be thought well. The smallest objects are also thought about how to change the wellbeing, emotions, and thoughts of whoever is the user or viewer of itself is.

WIDER SCOPE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Achieving Sustainability for a building has a wider scope to it apart from just the exterior; our argument is re-thinking sustainability because current approaches to design are pre-occupied with aesthetics and appearance. We also state that designers and architects can efficiently use natureinspired technology to achieve sustainable beauty. Janine M. Benyus, who is a biologist, author, innovation consultant, talks about designing objects of everyday life inspired by nature, also known as biomimicry. Biomimicry would be a great topic to discuss in general and in terms of architecture as humans are co-living along with other organisms on this planet, sharing needs and learning from each other every day in life. Nature-Inspired design known as Biomimicry is currently successful and is going to be a viable thing in the future. This concept of sharing comes from understanding nature as a reference model. In her words ’doing nature’s way ‘.

According to her, anything, and everything a human wanted to invent had traces of a similar idea created by nature. We have moved past the era of improving nature.

6Our primary task is to only re-instate the idea in a new form or technology. Imitating nature for solving human problems has three wider aspects to it. Firstly, mimicking the form of the natural element as it is. For Instance, the Lotus Temple in New Delhi, India. Secondly, adapting the behavioral aspect of a natural element - the Ant Communities Inspire efficient traffic control, Velcro which is a hook and loop fastener is based on how the burdock plant has small hooks that could attach to anything loop shaped, and the nature of kingfisher inspired faster and quieter trains. Even the architectural supports – strut and beam that are used to support roof load takes nature as its guide, as this technology is already found in Lily pads and Bamboo Stems.7

Janine also makes us understand that biomimicry is beyond just imitating nature to generate designs for human needs by taking inspiration from nature, but also considering her as our mentor and how we are learning from her. By doing so, we get to immerse ourselves in nature. In chapter 5 of the book, ’Are we Human?’ Colomina and Wingley mention that in the last 12000 years, humans adjusted themselves accordingly, as per the changing times, situations, and needs. Humans are those species that keep on reflecting on the possible uses of the artifacts and try to make them better and better by flickering back and forth.

Here, we agree with them that the choice of form and materials for a design should align with the functional requirements of a building design. This leads to understanding the third aspect of Biomimicry of imitating the looks, materiality, construction methodology and the successful functioning of the natural element. Given most of the current examples only address the two aspects of Biomimicry, there is room for the third to become prominent and address wider sustainability issues.

In between all the energy resources our planet provides us with, there are lot of sustainable natural energy we get as a gift. Yet, in the process of our progression, we often overlook the potential of renewable resources and try to overuse them by taking them for granted and acting as if they are infinite. Instead of settling for less non-renewal energy, we should aspire for designs that are in harmony with nature and that use all potentials of nature’s offerings. In the book Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture and Planning, author Daniel E Williams, dives deep into the relationship between ecological principles, architectural designs and urban planning offering an exploration of how biomimicry emerges as a powerful tool for achieving sustainable goals. From passive solar heating technologies employed by dessert organisms to natural ventilation systems observed in termite mounds, biomimetic architecture helps take natures wisdoms to create designs that are effortlessly energy efficient and responsive towards their surroundings

By mimicking nature’s strategies of resource management and biodiversity conservation, planners can develop sustainable urban landscapes that promote human health, ecological honesty, and social fairness. For instance, getting inspired by the restorative effects of spending time in natural settings, designers and planners integrate biophilic elements such as natural lighting, ventilation and water features into buildings and urban settings to promote health and well-being while maintaining a deep connection to nature.

NEED FOR MIMICKING FUNCTIONALISM

‘Functionalism’ is a common fuel to both nature and architecture. If one closely observes nature, they have an apparent reason for being that way. It is what drives the usage. As we mentioned earlier, In the field of Architecture we often take inspiration from nature that translates into the building form. The innovative task is to understand what the internal functional requirements are, and how nature can respond to it in terms of energy efficiency. Nature, being a good teacher, guides us in terms of being efficient and sensitive towards architectural design proposals. Designing a building is more than just putting together the form and inserting programmatic requirements, it is also about responding to the energy, light, and ventilation concerns of the design, and how this affects the end user. Here, designers need to creatively imbibe an existing technology found in nature and establish a collaboration between Biomimicry and Sustainable Architecture. This drives us to achieve an elevated level of comfort within the building using minimal resources. Additionally, we also get to achieve our goal of designing an architectural setting that is truly sustainable in all aspects of building experience.

The books Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning by Daniel E. Williams & Bio-Architecture by Senosiain Javier introduce us to different perspectives on what exactly is sustainable design and what different key people have a say on it. They also talk about achieving energy efficiency and its limitations in buildings presently. In the Article Biomimetic Design for Adaptive Building Façades: A Paradigm Shift towards Environmentally Conscious Architecture, they discuss the novice understanding of Biomimicry has always been looking at nature for taking inspiration in terms of how a particular natural element looks like and how it would well suit our site context. The authors talk about how there is a need for wider investigation in nature to better develop the facades to solve the issue of thermal comfort in sustainable architecture experienced inside buildings. Here the book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature guides further by talking about the importance of not just imitating nature for designs but thinking beyond that to solve human problems. Genuine sustainability extends beyond aesthetics and appearance. In the book Biomimetics in Architecture by Petra Gruber, the previous statement is supported by mentioning that any element found in nature simply does not exist, it has undergone several trials and transformations before becoming a successful example for mimicking. She also guides us in understanding how a building construction process is like evolution of a natural element, this establishes a strong foundation for re-thinking sustainability through the lens of Biomimicry. What made our argument stronger is when we read further articles that talked about the use of artificial cooling with an increase in urban population leading to an extensive need for wider study and research in terms of the choice of using renewable resources over non-renewable resources, that affect the load a building puts on nature.

The Books we went through helped us understand the topic of Sustainable design at a broader level, understanding different concepts associated with it and its relevance in architectural building design in depth. This foundation helped us understand the concerns associated with the application of sustainability in buildings so far and link to our position that genuine sustainability must extend beyond aesthetics and appearance. The moment we started to understand Biomimicry, the book by Janine M. Benyus, became a starting point for us. Biomimicry would be a potential tool to explain and address the current lag of buildings design and internal user experience. Specific articles helped us understand different stages of Biomimicry and read different examples of each stage. Furthermore, different selected articles and books helped us in establishing a relation between sustainability and biomimicry by understanding the impact latter can have in filling that small void that is left behind even after applying sustainable strategies to buildings. We made a deliberate approach to sources. There were quite a few sources that we had to overlook as they were talking solely about green buildings, or a specific building category, or weren’t clear on linking Biomimicry, thermal comfort and Sustainable building envelope. The published books and articles give a clear idea about what we want to rethink about sustainability and why, and a strong lead on how biomimicry comes into being. Every chosen source brings in different perspectives with a common background, which is our argument that that making buildings sustainable involves more than just their outer appearance and that looking into nature can improve thermal comfort through energy efficiency by designing buildings that work more like natural systems.

Our position is that preoccupation with aesthetics and appearances undermines the drive towards sustainability and that architects and designers clearly need to take a wider inspiration from nature to achieve sustainability in building design taking inspiration from nature while still giving it a beautiful appearance. The carefully selected sources are written and established with strong research. The work that went behind in gathering and illustrating different examples of case studies in each source clearly helped us make the argument we want to present stronger. For Instance, the books Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning by Daniel E. Williams & Bio-Architecture by Senosiain Javier provide guidance on understanding sustainability and talk about the lack of achieving accuracy in the same field. Janine on the other hand talks about Biomimicry in detail.

The rest of the books and articles support by providing tangible evidence established through their research. They helped us understand that there is always a discipline collaboration required to achieve accurate results. Through the integration of Biomimicry into architectural design, buildings can be crafted to mimic natural systems, resulting in enhanced thermal comfort and energy efficiency, thereby advancing sustainability. The authors personally studied several articles and did a few investigative case studies to understand the importance of putting in more effort right from the start of any project to achieve high levels of energy efficiency using the building facade as a barrier rather than just as a medium to control the thermal levels and address the lack in sustainability of buildings, which links to our argument. The articles additionally address the importance of relying on renewable energies to lessen the load on nature, which is also being sustainable.

‘We argue that preoccupation with aesthetics and appearance undermines the drive towards sustainability’.

When we talk about making things that are good for the environment, there’s often a big debate about what matters more; how things look or how good they are for the planet. Sustainable design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning says that sometimes people care more about making buildings look nice than making sure they’re good for the environment. It also indicates that making buildings that are good for the environment isn’t just something people talk about but rather important. Buildings use a lot of energy and produce a lot of pollution, so using Eco-friendly building practices isn’t just a trend; it’s crucial for protecting the planet.

Biomimetic Buildings: Copying Nature for Energy Efficiency says even though it is important to reduce the impact buildings have on the environment, right now, making buildings look nice is what people think is most important in design. While modern trends may prioritize visual appeal, sustainable design reminds us that the environmental consequences of our built environment cannot be ignored. Hence, architects aiming for Eco-friendly buildings must tackle the challenges of modern design styles, ensuring that the appearance and functionality come together seamlessly. The goal is to create buildings that not only look impressive but also contribute positively to the environment.

Sustainable design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning emphasize that sustainability extends far beyond surface-level aesthetics. It underscores the urgent need to prioritize eco-friendly building practices, considering the significant energy consumption and environmental impacts of building globally. By embracing ecofriendly building practices, such as energy efficiency, use of renewable resources, and integration of green technologies, architects can create buildings that not only look good but also minimize environmental footprints. Moreover, sustainable design can make life better for the people who use those buildings.

By prioritizing factors like indoor air quality, natural lights, and access to green spaces, architects can create healthier and more comfortable living environments. Biomimicry: Innovations Inspired by Nature introduces the concept of Biomimicry, which advocates for drawing nature’s design principles and observing the efficiency and resilience of natural systems to create more sustainable solutions. While aesthetics will always play a role in architecture and design, sustainability must take one step forward in shaping the built environment of the future. By going beyond the preoccupied aesthetics and embracing a full scale approach to sustainability, architects can create buildings that not only delight the eye but also nurture the planet and its inhabitants for generations to come.

The Depth of Sustainability

Biomimicry and Beauty

The key aspect of Biomimicry is to consider nature as an inspiration to better work out the efficiency of building design in the same manner nature carries out its tasks in an efficient manner. Over the years, nature has evolved with its own patterns, and it operates accordingly. By patterns, it means the way and functioning of a system. Nature has perfected its systems over time and there’s a lot we can learn from her. The beauty of a sustainable building lies in recognizing this pattern to address the current problem with modern aesthetics.

The integration of biomimicry into architectural design presents a compelling pathway toward enhancing sustainability, particularly in terms of thermal comfort and energy efficiency. This is explored in the book ‘Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature’, in which the emphasis lies on innovative solutions that can be derived from observing and emulating nature’s design. This book highlights how biomimicry can lead to the development of materials, structures, and systems that optimize energy usage and enhance environmental sustainability. It also highlights that Designers can draw inspiration from nature’s experience to inform the building design and construction process and keep in line with human needs and design strategy for a building.

‘We also argue that biomimicry is a way of achieving sustainable beauty’

Sustainable Beauty

The buildings that are classified as sustainable, based on the imitation of nature’s harmony through its outer construction layer, have a beautiful appearance. However, the link between biomimicry and architecture is the best way to show real sustainability through structural and material efficiency. The reason is that Biomimicry, as it seeks to achieve the efficiency of nature, is already sustainable. Nature has abundant solutions of successful design strategies to solve human requirements. Thereby applying this to architecture by magnifying the scale of existing solutions found in nature to achieve structural stability and material application. This combined approach of beauty found in nature with the successful functionality of existing systems leads to a design that is cherished and is central to sustainable thinking.

Sustainability is dynamic - a life-long process, like the alwaysevolving nature. Nature always renews its resources to improve the process while appealing to the surroundings. This explains why no better than nature to express a building truly in its sustainable form for optimal performance. Through the integration of Biomimicry into architectural design, buildings can be crafted to mimic natural systems, resulting in enhanced thermal comfort and energy efficiency, thereby advancing sustainability. This establishes a connectivity between nature and humans in a sustainable yet aesthetic manner enabling better appreciation of modern architecture.

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END NOTES

1 Daniel E.Williams, 2007, Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture and Planning (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons), 23-25.

2 Miguel Chen Austin, Kevin Araque, Paola Palacios, Katherine Rodríguez Maure and Dafni Mora, 2022,’ Numerical Assessment of Zebra-StripesBased Strategies in Buildings Energy Performance: A Case Study under Tropical Climate’, Biomimetics 7, 2-26.

3 Williams, 2007.

4 Niloufar Varshabi, Semra Arslan Selçuk and Güne¸s Mutlu Avinç, 2022,’ Biomimicry for Energy-Efficient Building Design: A Bibliometric Analysis’, Biomimetics 7, 18.

5 Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley, 2016, Are we Human? Notes on an Archaeology of Design ( Switzerland: Lars Muller Publisher), 9-49.

6 Janine M. Benyus, 1997, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (United States of America: HarperCollins Publishers), 1-9.

7 Benyus, 1997,1-3.