Finding a strategic approach for application of biomimicry in architecture.

Abstract

In the last few decades there has been an increasing interest in bio mimicry worldwide and has led to its emergence as an important theory that looks up to nature as a mentor and model to find out innovative solutions for design. Through the concept of biomimicry, designers realize the organic structures in nature are not only beautiful but also durable, that can be applied to nature-inspired design interventions. As we are heading towards sustainability, biomimicry can be an innovative approach to achieve sustainable design. Here in this paper an attempt has been made to explore the concepts of bio-inspired design and its different methodologies, in order to derive at a systematic approach to design the built environment that mimics the techniques of nature into architecture.

 Biomimicry has three levels: organism, behavior and ecosystem, in order to generate form, selection of material, construction process, and establishing it to function. From the literature, 5 aspects of each level of biomimicry were identified and compared with 5 areas of architectural interventions. Opinions of industry experts and academicians were recorded through questionnaire survey on a 5-point Likert-type scale which were then analyzed using t- test. The aspects of each level of biomimicry were then ranked according to their favorability of applications with respect to the area of architecture. This ranking system clearly explains the best suited aspect for each level of biomimicry in a concerned area of architecture as per the requirement.