A research about Bionic Architecture; its

origin, applications and changes over time

Presenters: Amirhosein Darmani, Ali Hassandokht

Supervisor: Prof. Mahmood Golabchi

School of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Spring 2017
 The History of using “Bionics” term

 The term “bionics” was first proposed at a forum held in Ohio, US, in 1960 Bionics,
a discipline of technical science, is the study of the structure, characteristics,
principles, and behavior of biological systems to provide new design ideas, working
principles, and system compositions as well as an interdisciplinary subject that
provides new ideas, principles, and theories for scientific and technological
innovation
 Different Utilization of Bionics

1. Bionic utilization of solar energy

2. Bionic natural ventilation technology
3. Bionic water-condensation technology
4. Bionic natural-lighting technology
5. Bionic metabolism technology
1. Bionic utilization of solar energy

 Researchers have found that plants with phototropic leaves can absorb
at least 30–40% more direct sunlight per day than plants with relatively
fixed leaves

 The most typical example of application of the bionic method is the use of
proactive architectural lighting devices, including a series of light guide techniques,
the most typical of which is the Japanese sunflower fiber-optic light guide system.
This system is programmed to track sunlight automatically so as to absorb as much
of it as possible
1. Bionic utilization of solar energy

 In terms of architectural scale innovations, a typical example of the

application of the bionic method is the Heliotrope in Freiburg
,Germany, which was designed by Rolf Disch Solar Architecture in 1994.
Similar architecture can also be found in Offenburg and Bayern in Germany

 Such design is derived by mimicking a plant's phototropic function.

Due to the cold weather in the respective cities in which they are
situated, these buildings are designed to proactively track the sun, thus
enabling the living rooms and bedrooms to turn to the south in winter
to obtain more sunlight and turn north in hot summer for less sunlight
1. Bionic utilization of solar energy
 Another natural law that has been used in architectural design is
phyllotaxy, which refers to the way in which the leaves of different
plants grow on the stem and which varies between alternate phyllotaxy,
opposite phyllotaxy, and verticillate phyllotaxy.

 One typical bionic design example of shape-state optimization using

bio-light-adaptation is the Urban Cactus in Amsterdam ,a high-rise residential
program designed by UCX Architects and its partners .This 19-story building
features outdoor platforms created by an interlaced rotation with a two-story
distance between the vertical platforms of rooms and a slightly rotated angle so
that the inner spaces can receive as much natural sunlight as possible and
plants in porches optimize their photosynthesis.
1. Bionic utilization of solar energy
2. Bionic natural ventilation technology
 Natural models such as termite mounds and other passive ventilation systems in
nature inspire innovative building technologies, even if these phenomena may not
yet be fully understood

 Termite mounds (Fig. 2), the so-called grandest architecture in the

world, which occur on the highways of Africa and Australia, provide
excellent blueprints for designers .In terms of human proportions,
these 3–8 m high mounds scale up to a 1500 m skyscraper, almost
twice as high as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which, at 828 m, is currently
the highest building in the world

 What is more fascinating to scientists is that the average temperature within

the mound always remains at 28 °C, even with an outside temperature
difference of 50 °C between day and night.
2. Bionic natural ventilation technology
2. Bionic natural ventilation technology

 The application of natural-ventilation technology in the design of

Haikou Tower by Yeang fully demonstrates the concept of the “fin.”
When a breeze enters, the fins open by manual control and the breeze
enters the room; when a strong wind comes, the fins close and the wind
passes by through the exterior surface. When a cross wind comes, one
fin opens and the other closes .In this way, the building can
effectively take advantage of natural wind to promote energy conservation
3. Bionic water-condensation technology
 Tenebrionidae (a species of beetle) can catch the vapor before it evaporates(Fig.
4(a)) by lowering their heads against the wind with their bottoms highly cocked so
that their slanted bodies can catch the fast-movingvapor. They then condense the
moisture on the back shell, the temperature of which is lower than that of the air.
Next, they transfer
the vapor onto the water-proof surface and move it along their backs into their
mouths. According to previous research, the weight of a tenebrionidae increases by
15% after vapor-catching
3. Bionic water-condensation technology
 In the field of architecture, Grimshaw Architects, in cooperation with Charles Paton,
applied their understanding of the tenebrionidae method of catching vapor in their
design of The Las Palmas Water Theatre on the Canary Islands in Spain (Fig. 4(c)), of
which the most distinct feature is its huge fresh-water gathering equipment . With
a constant wind from the sea and sufficient sunshine, the sunlight acts as the first
layer of the net, and when sea wind passes through the net, it becomes warm and
humid.
The air then condenses when it runs into cold pipelines and finally runs into the
recycling facilities reserved for fresh water. During this process, the plate-type net
component optimizes and enhances the efficiency of condensation by dynamically
sensing the wind andchanging angles accordingly. The building not only succeeds
in achieving self-sufficiency, but can also transfer a great deal of excess water to
nearby buildings and landscapes
4. Bionic natural-lighting technology
 The ability to effectively provide daylight within an interior space
with limited access reduces the need for artificial lighting. As a result,
less heat is generated and less cooling necessary, which could in turn
reduce the size of cooling equipment. Overall energy use is reduced,
and the dependence on fossil energy is lessened
 In nature, the pupils in cats’ eyes respond to changes in light
intensity. At noon, pupils are narrowed into a vertical line under
intense sunlight, while at night they are widened to a round shape; for
the remaining time, they are oval shaped. This is very important in
allowing cats to hunt food at night
 The Arab World Institute in Paris designed by Jean Nouve has been
equipped with special equipment that successfully regulates light and
the effect of building elevation. This equipment, which imitates the
theory that human eyes adjust the intensity of light entering their eyes
by constricting their pupils, can adjust according to the light intensity
outside so that the building's energy consumption is well controlled
and its adaptability greatly enhanced
4. Bionic natural-lighting technology
5. Bionic metabolism technology

 From the viewpoint of biological systems, bionic design methods

take architecture as a living organism. They integrate the various parts
of the building into an organic whole just like living organisms by
considering all the factors that affect architectural design

 The concept of metabolism is an architectural creation method

developed in Japan. It was devised by means of theoretical abstraction
regarding the phenomenon of the continuous emergence of new
tissues, and the decline of old organisms in organisms’ process of
growth and development
5. Bionic metabolism technology

 Metabolism emphasizes the growth, change and decline, it

advocates adopting new technology to solve the problem,
and considers the city and building are not static, but is a dynamic
process like the biological metabolism, the time factor should be
introduced in city and building and the cycle of various elements
should be explicit. It inclines to dig out the internal organizational
structure of city and building, uses the growth of organism as a
research model, advocates “growth building” and “process design”,
and employs structural component or prefabricated production organizational unit
and the way of organic repetition.
5. Bionic metabolism technology
 One of the members of the Metabolist group, Kiyonori Kikutake,
designed the self-use Sky House (Fig. 6(a)) in 1958, which was a
landmark of its time [61]. In the Sky House, only the living room and
the bedroom are fixed, all the other service space is mobile, such as
kitchen and bathroom equipment pass for mobile elements. Once
outdated they can be replaced in accordance with the development of
the future way of life or technology.

 During more than 50 years, several changes were made to the

Sky-house (Fig. 6(b)): some improved the building following its own
intrinsic logic, while others irremediably altered the nature of the
house.
5. Bionic metabolism technology
 Structural Systems using Bionics
 The natural rule of “ survival of the fittest” has perfected the
structure and form of organisms to adapt to the changing environment.
The differentiation between material, structure, and surface is no
longer valid when working with nature as a model, which is also
important for biomimetic approaches to the energy efficiency of
facades. Research and development in this respect is occurring on
several scales; thus, the topic of energy efficiency is strongly connected
to the influence of nanotechnology in architecture

 Under the guidance of different mechanical principles, this type of

biomimicry has diverse structures and forms. there are several kinds of bionic
architecture structure ,namely the cable structure, thin-shell structure,
membrane structure ,and cavity structure
Structural Systems using Bionics
1. Cable structure

 Renowned as nature's best structural engineers, spiders make light

and soft cobwebs that are strongly resilient, in a structure that has been
hailed as ingenious.

 The application of the structural principles of cobwebs in architectural design has

resulted in the development of cable structure. For
example, the Olympia Stadion in Munchen, Germany (Fig. 7), designed
by the German architect Frei Otto and used as the main stadium for the
1972 Summer Olympic Games, is famous for its revolutionary tent-like
roof. This 74,800-square-meter roof covers the west stand, stadium,
natatorium, and pedestrian corridor, protecting the spectators from the
sun and rain
1. Cable structure
2. Thin-shell structure
 The thin-shell structure is a spatial thin-walled structure made up
of two curved surfaces at top and bottom. The distance between these
two surfaces is the thickness of a shell, and is called a thin-shell
structure when the distance is much smaller than the shell's other
dimensions, such as its radius of curvature and span.

 In nature, there are many natural elements with thin shells, such as seashells, snails,
eggs, and nutshells (Fig. 8(a)).

 The minor axis of an average egg is approximately 4.5 cm, while the shell
is approximately 0.38 mm, making a ratio of thickness to length of
nearly 1:120. Even more impressive, it is said that an egg can resist a
force of 34 kg .It is the characteristic of thin shell structure that the
strength and stiffness are mainly used for the rationality of its
geometry, and put the pressure evenly dispersed into the shell parts,
and bear a heavy weight with small thickness
2. Thin-shell structure
 The Exhibition Hall of Paris National Industry and Technology
Center (Fig. 8(c)) built in 1905 is a representative of thin-shell structure architecture
.The roof of the building adopts a shell structure of segmentation-prefabricated
double hyperbolic reinforced concrete, and the plane of the shell structure takes
the shape of a white
triangle 128 m in length and 48 m in height.

 The study found that the thin-shell structure with uniform curvature and light
texture, which has such a large bearing capacity, is
associated with its unique external curve shape. The shell has a central
axis of symmetry, and an arch curve with smooth curvature along the
axis in each direction. When the shell and external force are fully
exposed, the stress along the shell is evenly distributed along its
surface, and all types of load are transformed into equal axial pressure
2. Thin-shell structure
3. Membrane structure

 To illustrate membrane structure, let us consider the way in which

cells spread and retain a certain shape under the hydrostatic pressure
of cell sap, while soap bubbles expand into a round shape under the
pressure of internal air.

 These natural phenomena have common

characteristics insofar as the object shapes are maintained by the
pressure of inner fluid or air and the pressure on the surface is
uniformly distributed

 Pneumatic membranes optimize the material's tensile performance and are

materially-economical and lightweight; thus, they are
widely used in temporary buildings or devices
3. Membrane structure

 The surface of The Beijing National Aquatics Center (Fig. 9) used

ETFE (Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene) cushion units and a foaming
space grid structure, the working principle of which is similar to that of
cell swelling .The glass was replaced with ETFE using film technology to form a
large and light structure, which can decrease the use of steel, reduce the overall
weight of the building, and save on building materials for the foundation.

 Built in 1988, the roof of Tokyo Dome Stadium adopted an airsupported inflatable
membrane structure with an oval-shaped plane of
180 m in length and a diagonal line of 201×201 m. The roof comprises
a double-deck membrane airbag made from PTFE fiberglass fabric and
the thickness of the exterior and inner membrane of the airbag are
0.8 mm and 0.35 mm, respectively.
3. Membrane structure
4. Cavity structure

 “Building cavity” refers to the application of natural energy, such as

wind energy, solar energy, and rain, and is a structure similar to the
biological cavity, containing an atrium, patio, pull air outlet, and other
internal spaces that can regulate the micro-climate.

 The Minnaert building (Fig. 10) is part of the Uithof campus

expansion of Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Based on the idea
of tare space, it has an attractive hall that serves as both a transition
space and social meeting place. Furthermore, its designers combined
the concept of green energy-conservation and bold creation to create an
architectural cavity with regulation functions.
4. Cavity structure
 Materials used in Bionic Architecture
 Material bionics refers to the physical characteristics and chemical
composition of biological materials, and research into new building
materials, to meet the needs for increased performance of building
materials and varieties.

 Biological Materials Science is a new and rapidly growing branch of Materials

Science and Engineering, of which bionics materials and design are very
important parts.

 By studying and imitating the organization and ecological functions of an

organism's body, biological materials science aims to design and produce green
building materials that can reduce resource consumption and carbon emissions
during their production and utilization, as well as prolonginga building's life cycle
 Materials used in Bionic Architecture
 Bionic building wall materials
• One of the most important functions of a building by human beings
is to provide thermally comfortable spaces for the users
• The building envelope is what separates
the indoor and outdoor environments of a building. It is the key factor
that determines the quality and controls the indoor conditions irrespective of
transient outdoor conditions
 Type of Materials for Bionic Walls:

1. TIW
2. Double Glass Curtain Wall (DGCW)
3. Trombe wall
1.TIW
 After a thorough observation of polar bear fur system, some scientists
found that the almost clear and hallow fur with foamy tissues forms an
effective insulating layer from the air. Apart from that, the polar bear's
fur (Fig. 11(a)) is white but their skin is dark so that sunlight can be
absorbed by the skin without reflecting much by white fur, and their
dense fur can prevent most of the heat from dissipating from the body

 The surface of buildings can be designed as a transparent thermal

protection system by imitating the polar bear's skin structure. In
architecture, TIW (Fig. 11(b)) usually is compounded of transparent
heat insulation material (THI) or transparent insulated material and
the exterior wall, whose heat insulation function could reduce heat loss
caused by convection .
1.TIW
 In the south-facing building of Plocher residential area in Muchen
which was designed by the German architect Thomas Herzog, THI was
used as exterior walls. When it is 8 °C outside, the temperature inside
the room can stay at 20 °C without central heating.
2. Double Glass Curtain Wall (DGCW)
 The structure of double skin facade includes external, middle and
internal facades and it has been applied to traditional vernacular
architecture for a long time

 In this technology, the “breathable external wall” is mainly used to reconcile the
contradiction among thermal insulation requirements, sunshine requirements and
natural ventilation requirements, and it meets the demand of energy-conservation
by controlling and making full use of
natural ventilation and light.

 The headquarters consisting of 29 floors is 128 m in height and 32 m in diameter,

and its cylindrical structure minimizes surface area to reduce energy consumption
and ensure the absorption of natural lights in every office
2. Double Glass Curtain Wall (DGCW)
 “Double skin” is made up of the external transparent plate glass and the internal
double-deck plate glass, and between the glasses is a 50 cm cavity installed with
rotatable shutters to achieve sun-shade and heat reflection effect. Besides, the
cavity is divided into many independent units, and the wall is equipped with fish-
mouth-like facilities that could create pressure difference in the units to promote
ventilation
3. Trombe wall
 Based on the theory of thermosiphon, Trombe wall conducts
thermal recycle by natural hot air or water so as to decrease the load
of heating system in winter, and the wall itself can absorb the solar
radiation to heat water or air that enters the cavity through the bottom

 The classical Trombe wall system is generally designed to

consist of a south-facing wall painted black, an air duct covered with
glass and two vents which are normally opened on the wall in the high
and low positions to connect the air flow with the indoor air, as shown
in Fig. 13(a).

 In these walls, typically, a 12-in.-thick concrete wall is used as a

south facade to absorb solar radiation. The student apartment in
School of Youth Education designed by Thomas Herzog adopted this
exterior wall system. When it is 8 °C outside in winter, the temperature
inside the room can stay at 20 °C without central heating
3. Trombe wall
Honeycomb-imitated building materials

 The development of lightweight and high strength structures,

especially biologically inspired ones, offers promising alternatives for
addressing many of the engineering grand challenges, most importantly for
developing sustainable and environmentally friendly materials and infrastructure
systems

 The Honeycomb which is positive hexagon is the nest of natural bee, it can
create a largest space with the least amount of material consumption, and the
honeycomb series is stable structure, compressive strength, light weight, heat
preservation, silencing (Fig. 14).
 Honeycomb structures are typically lightweight and high strength composites.
Some scholars found the thermal resistance value of the 1 cm thick hornet's
nest and the 60 cm thick brick wall was the same, but the weight of the former
was only one thousandth of that of the latter
Honeycomb-imitated building materials
Self-cleaning materials
 Self-cleaning and easy-to-clean surfaces are applied in the glass
industry and as coatings for construction materials and products
 In plants (Fig. 15), this self-cleaning phenomenon is widely known as the “Lotus
effect”
Self-healing Materials
 Self-healing, self-repair, and autonomous energy supply are functions that already
require nano-stucturing beyond surface coating.

 The self-organized healing and repair of elements are particularly interesting in

cases where local failure would lead to a total system breakdown, as in airplanes,
space technology, or pneumatic structures, which rely on air pressure to maintain
structural integrity

 Inspired by biological
systems in which damage triggers an autonomic healing response,
researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a synthetic
material that can heal itself when cracked or broken. Once crack has
formed within typical polymeric, the integrity of the structure is
significantly compromised. Often these cracks occur deep within the
structure where detection is difficult and repair is virtually impossible
Self-healing Materials
 In the new material, the repair process begins as soon as a crack forms

 When the material cracks, the microcapsules rupture and release

the heating agent into damaged region through capillary action. Filling the micro-
cracks will also mitigate the harmful effects of environmentally assisted
degradation such as moisture swelling and corrosion
cracks. This technology could increase the lifetime of structural
components, perhaps by as much as two or three times.

 The ability to self-repair and restore structural integrity also could extend the
lifetimes of polymer composite circuit boards, where micro-cracks can
lead to both mechanical and electrical failure.
Self-healing Materials
Reference:
Yanping Yuana, Xiaoping Yua, Xiaojiao Yanga, Yimin Xiaoc, Bo Xianga, Yi Wangd.
Bionic building energy efficiency and bionic green architecture: A review. Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews 74 (2017) 771–787