Application of Biomimetics to Architectural and Urban Design: A Review across Scales

Ryo Kohsaka,Eduardo Blanco,Yuta Uchiyama

doi:10.3390/su12239813

Ryo Kohsaka, Eduardo Blanco + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239813

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Abstract

Application of biomimetics has expanded progressively to other fields in recent years, including urban and architectural design, scaling up from materials to a larger scale. Besides its contribution to design and functionality through a long evolutionary process, the philosophy of biomimetics contributes to a sustainable society at the conceptual level. The aim of this review is to shed light on trends in the application of biomimetics to architectural and urban design, in order to identify potential issues and successes resulting from implementation. In the application of biomimetics to architectural design, parts of individual “organisms”, including their form and surface structure, are frequently mimicked, whereas in urban design, on a larger scale, biomimetics is applied to mimic whole ecosystems. The overall trends of the reviewed research indicate future research necessity in the field of on biomimetic application in architectural and urban design, including Biophilia and Material. As for the scale of the applications, the urban-scale research is limited and it is a promising research which can facilitate the social implementation of biomimetics. As for facilitating methods of applications, it is instrumental to utilize different types of knowledge, such as traditional knowledge, and providing scientific clarification of functions and systems based on reviews. Thus, interdisciplinary research is required additionally to reach such goals.

Highlights

Biomimetics is defined as “the interdisciplinary cooperation of biology and technology or other fields of innovation to solve practical problems through the functional analysis of biological systems, their abstraction into models, and the transfer into and application of these models to the solution” [1]
Biomimetics is increasingly applied to design in architecture and urban areas, at the meter or kilometer scales [5] (Figure 1)
At the urban design level, we can observe a trend of mimicking nature at the ecosystem level

Summary

Introduction

Biomimetics is defined as “the interdisciplinary cooperation of biology and technology or other fields of innovation to solve practical problems through the functional analysis of biological systems, their abstraction into models, and the transfer into and application of these models to the solution” [1]. Biomimetics is an approach that develops solutions based on living systems, such as organisms or ecosystems. The range of applications of biomimetics is wide and promises to foster innovation [3]. Since 2000, biomimetics has been progressively applied beyond conventional chemistry and expanded into material science and engineering, mostly at the centimeter scale [4]. Biomimetics is increasingly applied to design in architecture and urban areas, at the meter or kilometer scales [5] (Figure 1).

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