{"id":18446,"date":"2016-11-30T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=18446"},"modified":"2019-10-17T16:26:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T20:26:25","slug":"from-biomimicry-to-ecomimicry-reconnecting-cities-and-ourselves-to-earths-balances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2016\/11\/30\/from-biomimicry-to-ecomimicry-reconnecting-cities-and-ourselves-to-earths-balances\/","title":{"rendered":"From Biomimicry to Ecomimicry: Reconnecting Cities\u2014and Ourselves\u2014to Earth\u2019s Balances"},"content":{"rendered":"

One reason we should care about biodiversity is that it might be the solution to our environmental impact: after 3.8 billion years on planet Earth, Nature certainly has some sustainability and resilience lessons to teach us\u2014that is, before it gets driven mostly to extinction. Will we care to listen?<\/p>\n

It is at the city- or territory-level that we can transform cities into life-regenerative ecosystems.<\/blockquote><\/figure>\n

As Janine Benyus said in the late 1990s: \u201cLife creates conditions conducive to more life\u201d. How does Nature do that?<\/p>\n

Life\u2019s principles<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the biomimetic design approach she has developed over the last 20 years, Benyus identifies the first important step in extrapolating from Earth\u2019s operating conditions to living systems strategies and characteristics to innovating within<\/em> the frame of \u201cLife\u2019s Principles\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Life\u2019s Principles, Biomimicry Design Lens \u2013 Biomimicry 3.8 (2013)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Such principles are not new, and other approaches like them have been developed before, such as the 16 Principles of Life compiled by the biologist Mahlon Bush Hoagland\u00a0[I]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His introduction to those principles is even more compelling:<\/p>\n

\"2b_mahlon-bush-hoagland-the-16-patterns-of-life-copie\"
From The Sixteen Patterns of Life, “Exploring the way life works : the science of biologie “, Mahlon Bush Hoagland, Bert Dodson, Judy Hauck (1995 \u2013 2001)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTo see Life as a whole\u2014to observe what all life has in common\u2014requires a shift in the way we normally look at things. We must look beyond the individual insect or tree or flower and seek a more panoramic perspective. We need to think as much about process as we do about structure. From this expanded viewpoint, we can see life in terms of patterns and rules. Using these rules, life builds, organizes, recycles, and re-creates itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bio-inspired innovation and architecture<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thus far, biomimicry has gained recognition via famous inventions such as the nose of the Japanese speed train Sinkansen, which took its shape from the nozzle of the Kingfisher bird\u00a0[ii]<\/a>; or the Lotusan paint that never gets dirty because of its hydrophobic surface, inspired by the nanostructure of the Lotus leaf surface\u00a0[iii]<\/a>; and many more\u00a0[iv]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the field of architecture, bio-inspiration is not new; even the Eiffel Tower (1889) was indirectly inspired by the works of Hermann von Meyer (1801\u20131869), a famous German paleontologist. Von Meyer was studying the structure of bones, particularly the human femur, which can resist a vertical load of 1 ton before breaking. As the story goes, Karl Culmann (1821\u20131881), a Swiss engineer who visited von Meyer in 1866 and was busy inventing a new type of crane for very heavy loads, immediately noticed that the trabecular structure of the femur followed the lines of force and cried out: \u201cHere\u2019s my crane!\u201d He thereafter theorized his findings, which came to be known by Gustave Eiffel (1832\u20131923).<\/p>\n

Many other famous architects, such as Antonio Gaudi (1852\u20131926), Buckminster Fuller (1895\u20131983), and Frei Otto (1925\u20132015) have pioneered the study of natural shapes and geometries to invent new types of buildings, including the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the invention of the geodesic dome, and the M\u00fcnich Olympic Stadium from 1972, respectively.<\/p>\n

In 1957, Frei Otto founded a research center in Berlin, which has since moved to the University of Stuttgart and currently operate as the \u201cInstitut f\u00fcr Leichtbau Entwerfen und Konstruieren\u201d (Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design). This research center has continued research themes that Otto explored in his work from 1984 to 1995 (titled \u201cNatural constructions\u2013Light structures in Architecture and Nature\u201d). Today, the center is part of a collaborative, multi-institutional, multidisciplinary research program called \u201cBiological Design and Integrative Structures\u201d<\/a>, which is conducting impressive scientific and technical work on new bio-inspired materials. Several examples include functionally graded concrete inspired by trabecular structures\u00a0[v]<\/a>, developed under the lead of Werner Sobek; facade components such as the Flectofin louver system\u00a0[vi]<\/a> inspired by the flower, Strelitizia reginae\u00a0<\/em>[vii]<\/a>; and, globally, the analysis of natural movement principles found in the flora world, which also inspired the design of the German Pavilion kinematic fa\u00e7ade in South Korea in 2012\u00a0[viii]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"3b_fig07_julianlienhard-copie\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"4b_fig02_rusloukoorts-copie\"
The The hingeless, flapping louver system Flectofin (top), inspired by the Bird of Paradise Flower (bottom) is now under development.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Likewise, the Institute for Computational Design, headed by Achim Menges, has come up with highly performative and beautiful envelope solutions inspired by natural organisms\u00a0[ix]<\/a>. For example, in Menges\u2019 Hygroskin\u2014Meteorosensitive pavilion\u00a0[x]<\/a>, humidity-responsive wood composites, directly derived from the nanometric analysis of spruce cones, open or close themselves according to the ambient air humidity, without any sensors, engines, actuators, or energy.<\/p>\n

Having poured millions of euros over decades into bio-inspired research and design, Germany is the most advanced country in this field of research: they are already delivering market applications.<\/p>\n

Still, my opinion is that most of these inventions\u2014as scientifically and technically robust as they are; as economically promising\u00a0[xi]<\/a>\u00a0as they appear; and as fascinating and often beautiful as they may be,\u00a0do not seem to tap deeply enough into Life\u2019s Principles<\/em>, as Benyus or Hoagland depicted them. Too often, they miss the main point of biomimicry, which is to invent\u00a0life-compatible<\/em>, and even\u00a0life-regenerative<\/em>, innovations\u2014in the broadest meaning of \u201cLife<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

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ONE OCEAN German Pavilion at Seoul\u2019s World Expo 2012, with fa\u00e7ade components directly inspired by natural movement principles found in the flora world. Image: Soma Architects \/ Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indeed:<\/p>\n