Biomimicry and the Construction Process

Great ideas often burst upon the scene before the world is quite ready for them, only to re-emerge after an incubation phase spent in the company of the innovative early adopters. And so it is with Biomimicry, first introduced by biologist Janine Benyus in 1997 and now organized under the auspices of the Biomimicry Institute . Yet if we look at man’s earliest shelters, which were nothing more than birds’ nests turned upside down, and then consider the Beijing Olmpic’s “Bird’s Nest” stadium, perhaps this movement is really a reconnection to nature.
Biomimicry is the conscious emulation of nature’s genius. Emulation is more than making a copy, rather it is the inspiration and the adoption of the core concepts into our own context. For this to happen, we need to stop, observe, and reflect. This allows us to make the connects which are so often at the basis of discovery. For example, plants use CO2 as a resource for growth. Could humans adapt their processes to consume CO2 instead of generating it? Yes. Enter Brent Constanz, who was inspired by the way corals make reefs from the calcium carbonate in seawaters to invent a process to make cement in a biomimetic fashion, which involves running power-plant exhaust through seawater. This both pre-empts the production of CO2 from Portland cement AND sequesters 90% of the CO2 from the power-plant emissions. A win/win for people and planet.

Or how about the inspiration from the “lotus effect,” the super high water repellence of the leaves of a lotus flower. Seen under a microscope, the shape of the leaf’s surface is such that water stays shaped in droplets, and thus rolls off the leaf, taking any dirt along with it. This discovery has been applied to airplane coatings, safety lighting, and in the StoCoat Lotusan paint for exterior building coatings.

Biomimicry is making some amazing inroads in the discovery of nature-tested forms, like the lotus, and processes like the coral reef. Yet the construction industry might yet have the greatest opportunity to learn from the biomimicry of the whole system. For example, the other aspect of the Calera Company’s CO2 to carbonate process is that is links the waste from one industry (power plants) to a resource within another industry. This is how the ecosystem works.

Myoculture - Phil Ross

This system’s approach might be within one area, such as a hybrid chiller/boiler system which captures the heat from one side of the process for re-use in the other. Or capturing the heat from waste water for incoming water preheat. It could be waste from local food sources (e.g. rice husks), which are grown to create insulation for buildings, and perhaps waste water from the building to feed into wetlands and grow rice. The system could refer the capturing of heat for greenhouses, to produce food for a restaurant, which provides compost for the vermiculture, which provides soil for the plants.

Biomimicry helps us to recognize nature as a model, a mentor, and a measure. It offers an enlightened opportunity to bring together technology and sustainability. Perhaps this time the world is ready.