BIOMIMETIC ARCHITECTURE AS A NEW APROACH FOR ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS THROUGH SMART BUILDING MATERIALS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION As skin wraps our body, building envelopes wraps buildings and therefore acts and performs the functions that the skin performs, especially in thermoregulating the building which results in decreasing the energy consumed. The objective of this paper is to establish a building envelope as a living envelope able to control the heat in buildings the same way that nature does with our skin, without the use of electricity or mechanical elements, and hence decrease energy consumption and its devastating effect on the environment. This objective can be reached by using suitable smart building material and integrating it into the architectural design of the building. The methodology and objectives of this paper are as follows: Review the global warming problem, its consequences, and the role of the building sector in this problem. Study Biomimicry in architecture and its potential to decrease the share of the building sector's role in global warming. Select a smart building material that would allow ...