Mother knows best (part two)
Biomimicry: design by humanity, nature-inspired.
According to William McDonough & Michael Braungart: “Taking an eco-effective approach to design might result in an innovation so extreme that it resembles nothing we know, or it might merely show us how to optimize a system already in place. It’s not the solution itself that is necessarily radical but the shift in perspective with which we begin, from the old view of nature as something to be controlled to a stance of engagement.”
From mimicking natural forms and processes such as the Lotus flower and the gecko (described in Mother knows best Part 1) onto the third level, mimicking natural ecosystems. We are lucky enough to have two examples of biomimetic architecture that showcase the third level within reach.
In Seattle the Bullitt Center, which opened its doors in 2013, is the world’s greenest commercial building designed to behave like a Douglas-fir forest. The structure is a closed-loop system utilizing sunlight through solar, water from rainfall and heating and cooling via geothermal heat pumps.
Imagine buildings that create more energy than they use, purify their own water and waste and create habitat. They emulate local landscape, climate and culture. Structures that function like trees in the forest working together through an intertwined root system maximizing their inputs and outputs. That’s how the Bullitt Center was designed, to endure the next 250 years and inspire us to get off the grid.
Today, a different sort of biophilic design is taking form in Seattle. Biophilic design, similar to biomimetic design, seeks to reconnect human connection into the built environment. The Amazon Spheres will be a wireless wilderness in the midst of the city consists of three spheres that use overlapping repeated shapes (pentagonal hexecontahedrons to be precise) that will contain a plant conservatory. This dome-shaped office building touts the latest workplace design as being ‘doused in nature.’
While we are not all Jeff Bezos, who can afford to surround his employees with rare plants from around the world to relax their stress levels and enhance their cognitive abilities, we can soak up the scene and allow ourselves to be inspired by what naturally occurs in our own physiology as we encounter nature-emulated architecture.
In fact, many of today’s hospitals are being designed for patients to encounter nature since it is proven to decrease recovery time. Another biomimetic health innovation is in the works to solve the spread of germs. Inspired by the antimicrobial properties of sharks, surfaces for medical devices may soon mimic shark skin!
Biometric design is critical. There is a way to live on earth without destroying it. We are a species living among other species. Some believe we are the only species able to assess present trends, predict the future based upon them and then adapt accordingly rather than wait for natural selection.
If our communities use nature as model, measure and mentor, we have the potential to mature into a great and resilient species. Let’s design and build communities to resemble the successful natural communities that nature has already perfected. After all, mother knows best.
