Ros, Joseph Benedict R.

Prof Prac 4 | Arch. C. Miraflor

2.Sustainability
 When you hear the word “sustainability”, what comes to
mind?
 Oftentimes, the connotation is negative, or it is about
1.Biomimicry: Emulating mitigating the negative effects of human development. It
seems to be dissatisfactory, just bearable, just “good
Nature’s Brilliance through enough”.
 In recent years, there has been a strong trend toward
Architecture sustainable design.
 We humans think we are pretty clever. To an extent, we
By Joseph Benedict R. Ros are. We have created things like rocketships, space
stations, airplanes, cars, computers, solar panels,
Seminar on Environmental Adaptive Design
 But one problem remains unsolved… how do we continue
to live in harmony with other humans, other species, and
our planet?
 4.Biomimicry
 Biomimicry is using the genius of nature in our own
innovations. There are 3 main things that we need to learn
from biomimicry in order to achieve sustainability:
 1. Radical increases in resource efficiency
 2. Linear to closed loop
 3. Fossil fuel economy to solar economy
 Today, I am here to share some of the latest breakthroughs
in biomimicry related to our field of architecture.

3.Nature
 It turns out the answer has been staring us in the face all
along… Nature. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, it is easy
to see that nature has it all figured out. And it only took us
clever humans thousands of years to realize this.

5.Slime mold
 And we start of with this guy… The humble slime mold. It is
extremely effective and efficient at finding and maximizing
nutrient sources.
 naturally organizes itself into a network of tube-like
structures that quickly and efficiently connect its disparate
food sources
 maximizes its ability to find food by ‘remembering’ and
strengthening the portions of it cytoplasm that connect to
active food sources
 uses the least amount of resources and energy possible

7.Tokyo
 The result was amazing. The slime mold recreated the
Tokyo railway network almost exactly. And the scientists
confirmed that the mold network is even more efficient
6.Slime feed than the existing Tokyo rail network.
 Scientists in Tokyo spread oats around as food and let the  How did a brainless, single-celled slime mold recreate
slime mold do its thing. something that took city planners, engineers, and architects
 They knew what it would do… but the amazing part is what years to plan?
happened after the slime mold found its food sources.  Today, the slime mold is being used to help in the planning
 It turns out the oats were arranged on a map of the Tokyo and design of more efficient and adaptable networks,
region, with each oat representing a nearby city. including transportation systems, sensor systems, and even
battlefield applications.
 9.Turbine
 Researcher John Dabiri studied these principles and applied
them to the positioning of vertical wind turbines. The
positioning allows each turbine to direct wind to nearby
turbines, in effect increasing the amount of energy each
turbine generates.
 This approach solves two dilemmas in wind farms:
 It takes up less space than traditional propeller turbines
 It generates more energy per turbine

8.Fish
 When fish swim, they create a tiny vortex. In a school of
fish, this effect is increased and individuals transfer energy
to each other with these vortices, reducing energy costs of
swimming.

10. Whale
 As for traditional wind turbines, nature has another solution
up its sleeves. The fin of the humpback whale has evolved
to reduce drag and improve mobility underwater.
 By applying this property to the wind turbine propeller,
designers have been able to come up with more efficient
turbines.

12. Eden
 It is called the Eden Project because it houses a wide variety
of plants collected from around the world.
11. Eden
 A multiple greenhouse complex that houses a different
biome, including tropical, Mediterranean, and outdoors.
13. Eden
 It features a wide array of sustainable features including
water harvesting, geothermal technology, solar energy
harvesting and more.

15. ETFE
 Transparent foil less than 1% weight of glass and 7x size
 Less weight = less steel = more light = less heating = less
overall weight = more savings in foundation

14. Bees
 Challenge: Varying ground levels because it was built on a
previous quarry site
 Solution: Pollen, soap bubbles, and carbon molecule
structures
 Challenge: Strong structure with large openings
 Solution: bee hive hexagonal pattern
16. Skeleton
 Hollow members
 Follows the bending moment and shear stress diagrams
 Improved strength and flexibility against earthquake and
wind loads

18. Lotus
 Most people think leaves don’t get very dirty because they
are smooth

17. Bone
 This study is being taken further by designers and scientists
around the world who are creating structural members that
are hollow and porous
 The design allows for insulation and cooling through the
hollow members of the structure
19. Lotus Effect
 The truth is, many leaves, like those of the lotus have
microscopic bumps that make it hydrophobic. Water
doesn’t stick to the leaf, and instead water forms into
droplets and rolls off the leaf, taking dust and other
contaminants with it.

21. Termite
 Allows for excellent passive cooling by pulling out hot air as
wind blows over surfaces

20. Natural Cleaning

24. Tree
 In an ideal world, every bit of architecture, every building,
would be designed like a tree:
 It is self sustaining
 It uses energy from the sun
 It harvests and stores water
23. Namibian Beetle  It cools itself by creating convection currents over its bark
 It breaks of branches when in danger of collapse in strong
 Water harvesting from humidity
winds
 It releases nutrients to surrounding areas to encourage
growth and diversity
25. Forest 26. Genius
 Imagine if we had a whole forest of these buildings… Cities  So here’s a clever idea, why don’t we use nature’s genius in
would be self-sustaining, resilient habitats for mankind, design? Bring biologists and horticulturalists into design
flora, and fauna alike. Instead of damaging the earth, cities teams and really diversify the way that we conceptualize,
would give back to it, enhancing it in the way that nature design, and make things.
does.
 8. http://www.asknature.org/
27. End 9. http://biomimicry.net/
 Oftentimes, it is said that sustainable design is about taking 10. https://www.edenproject.com/
care of the planet. In truth, however, even if we continue
polluting the planet to the point that the human race goes
extinct, the planet will move forward. Nature, in fact, will
thrive, just as it has for the past 4 billion years, much longer
than we humans have been around.
 So why not take our queue from nature and build a better
future for man, for the planet, and for nature itself.

References
1. Benyus, Janine. Biomimicry in Action. TEDGlobal 2009. July
2009.
2. Benyus, Janine. Biomimicry's surprising lessons from
nature's engineers. TED2005. Filmed Feb 2005.
3. Miller, Jamie. Biomimicry. TEDxEmbryRiddle. Published on
Feb 7, 2013.
4. Pawlyn, Michael. Biomimicry in Architectural Design. The
VELUX Group. Published on Aug 15, 2013.
5. UC Berkley Events. Biomimicry in the Built World:
Consulting Nature as Model, Measure, and Mentor.
Uploaded on Feb 24, 2010.
6. Aizenberg, Joanna. Extreme Biomimetics. TEDxBigApple.
Published on Mar 2, 2012.
7. Sykes, Nicholas. Biomimicry 2.0. TEDxDubai. Uploaded on
Feb 11, 2011.