Research Writings: Biomimicry in 21st Century Architecture Paper: A Short Introduction

As intellectual and exploratory beings we quite naturally ask questions about our existence and experience. Some of the answers we have arrived at have helped us to live the way we do so and perceive, build and inhabit the world around us today in the 21st Century.

One man put forward the notion of a design theory to explain the world around us: Through examining the Earth and elements concerning it, William Paley developed the “Watch Maker’s Theory.” Just as a watch has a make up of mechanisms and design of all the small fundamentals, working in synchronisation to allow the apparatus to function, so too does the Earth. By studying patterns, geographical features, similarities, atomic structures, elements, gases and temperatures that are part of the genetic make up of what we know the Earth to be, it would appear (Paley argued) that as a result of these fractionally perfect phenomena would, fundamentally, propose the suggestion of a design, just as do the workings of the watch. If something appears to have been designed, this must surely warrant the argument for a designer. This great Eighteenth Century philosopher’s thought process through which a religious argument was based upon, shapes a way in understanding design our natural world.

This fascination with design and the principal desire to understand the world we inhabit runs across a broad spectrum, as design today involves different processes, sustainable issues and costing factors. It is important to come back to this idea of organic “fat free” design. In an economically driven society, designers understandably tend to take their eye off the ball, potentially forgetting the key issues and underlying overtones that we should be striving to maintain at the forefront of any design.

By analysing the world around us and examining natural design, we can begin to understand, and learn from, what enabled the world we live in to be what it is today. Furthermore, as Pearce, P. 1978 writes, Structure In Nature is Strategy for Design (MIT Press) by analysing forms, geometries, patterns and the mathematical make up of the natural elements around us from rock formations to spiders webs, and from snowflakes to the wings of dragonfly we can unlock the characteristics of truly organic design to ultimately benefit and change the perception of design in 21st Century society.

Through exploring the natural world, and looking at case studies of those who have shown how we can learn from natural design this paper reflects findings discoveries of how architecture and biomimicry work hand in hand to generate space and meaning from the city to the countryside. As well as challenging our ideals and perceptions behind our appreciation of space and architecture, these writings will address how we benefit from natural design. From this new paradigm of biomimicry it is crucial that people across all disciplines from design, science, and engineering fields take note of the potential in natural design; after all, there is no more sustainable (eco) system than that which our planet has already created (Benyus 2000). Benyus, who coined the phrase “biomimicry” sees the practice as nature as a “model, measure and mentor.” By studying natures best ideas then imitating these designs and processes we are able to solve human problems.” 

Discussing with both scholars of the subject and to those in the practical field, these findings amalgamate with a balanced and concise overtone, appealing to those in both areas of the subject. Investigating the role of natural design through both artistic and mathematical perspectives, this research initially identifies the conveyances of nature and the geometries, patterns and formulas the natural world has developed over time. By analysing texts from leading scholars and also practitioners in the field see’s a foundation of knowledge before delving into how we use such design in the world, as we know it. Looking to identify structures in nature that are used in architecture and examine how, in the twenty-first century, developments in architecture are learning from the natural world by considering space, form and other components such as environment and landscape. By assessing at supportive material from scholars and design theorists alike, an insightful and variable angle around this subject field has been acquired allowing an appreciation of the different paradigms they all view this subject area. By mathematically addressing natural design, through number series and distinctive ratios in the natural world, I will be able to balance and give an informative angle. Through the discipline of architecture, nature provides and inspires engineers and designers with a basic model that can serve well both functionally and aesthetically. From the catenary curve we see from a spider’s web that, “the shape taken up by a chain or string when not pulled tight, is a simple and satisfying form that suggests the line of least resistance, forming the basis of the suspension bridge principle” (Powers, A. 1999 Nature In Design Conran Octopus Ltd.) as ingeniously displayed in the masterfully constructed Brooklyn Bridge, New York. In architecture today, we see examples of a unity between landscape and building, ideas exploring the link between man-made design and nature.

Integrating ourselves with the natural world around us, by thinking in an ecologically viable way, taking inspiration and design methods in the world around us, we can potentially live in a more sustainable way. As design regulations and requirements increase in the next twenty to thirty years, governing bodies need to be more accountable and meaningful ways of creating sustainable and “organically” crafted design methods. Focusing throughout this research has been to the bare bones of nature concerning structure, form and geometry in ancient and contemporary architecture and to do so in depth. In an almost fashionable way of considering design, architecture somehow is still finding its way in the confused world of design. This text investigates the relationship of nature and architecture as the potential for a new grand narrative of architecture arrives.

Chapters:

(Available on request, alexander.peters@live.co.uk)

Chapter One: Tradition

Lessons from Cultures and Civilisations
Defining Design
Leonardo Da Vinci: Innovating design before his time   
Overseas Influence: A Korean Perspective 
Form, Space and Culture (Religion and Environment) 

Chapter Two: Biomimicry in Relation to Environment

The City, Architecture and Science 
Modern minds: The Eden Project

Chapter Three: Biomimicry as a Future for Architecture

Architecture beyond the twenty-first century 
The Spanish Pavilion, Shanghai 
The Deep, Hull