•Biomimicry does not just look at the shape and form of nature, but asks a much bigger

question: what function does that form provide?

Related forms:

bi·o·mor·phic, adjective
bi·o·mor·phism, noun

Metamorphism:
Change of the form or transformation of anyform.
Architecture Inspired by Nature.
HOW CAN A BUILDING GROW ITS OWN SKIN?
“The best way to predict the future is to design it.” Buckminster Fuller
 Bio mimicry : Nature in Design and Architecture
Bios: life
Mimesis: imitation
• imitation of nature’s functions and systems.
•Biomimicry is a science that studies nature’s models and then emulates these forms, processes,
systems, and strategies to solve key human problems like energy conservation and recycling.
• we understand how to integrate living and breathing organisms into a design process.
•Biomimicry does not just look at the shape and form of nature, but asks a much bigger
question: what function does that form provide?
 QATAR’S GIANT CACTUS:
•The design, by Bangkok-based firm Aesthetics Architects GO Group,
•cactus plant with it’s ability to thrive in harsh desert climates, very apt for Qatar, a hot country
covered in sand which has an average rainfall of only 3.2 inches.
•energy efficiency in mind; sun shades on the windows can be opened or closed to suit the
prevailing temperature (thus mimicking the activity of the cactus which performs transpiration at
night rather than during the day in order to retain water).
•The dome at the base of the tower will house a botanical garden which for extra green points
could include an edible garden and use plants to clean up waste water.
Sun shad
The Qatar Cacti Building designed by Bangkok-based Aesthetics Architects for the Minister of
Municipal Affairs and Agriculture is a projected building that uses the cactus’s relationship to its
environment as a model for building in the desert. The functional processes silently at work are
inspired by the way cacti sustain themselves in a dry, scorching climate. Sun shades on the
windows open and close in response to heat, just as the cactus undergoes transpiration at night
rather than during the day to retain water.[16] The project reaches out to the ecosystem level in
its adjoining botanical dome whose wastewater management system follows processes that
conserve water and has minimum waste outputs. Incorporating living organisms into the
breakdown stage of the wastewater minimizes the amount of external energy resources needed
to fulfill this task.[16] The dome would create a climate and air controlled space that can be used
for the cultivation of a food source for employees.
The Eastgate Centre 
Mick Pearce & Associates
office and shopping complex in Harare, Zimbabwe.
•To minimize potential costs of regulating the building’s inner temperature Pearce looked to the
self-cooling mounds of African termites.
•The building has no air-conditioning or heating but regulates its temperature with a passive
cooling system inspired by the self-cooling mounds of African termites. \
•The structure, however, does not have to look like a termite mound to function like one and
instead aesthetically draws from indigenous Zimbabwean masonry
ZAHA HADID: PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, ABU DHABI
•In the island of Saadiyat, Zaha Hadid's proposal audaciously craves to join this select "club of
waterfront venues" and does so with a building that looks ready to dive into the water. 
•The architect has been inspired by organic themes or nature for the conception of her work, and
in fact this building might resemble a group of cosmic eels in frantic race, or a branch extending
in several buds. Looking at it in more detail, it is clearly the intention of making
a volumetric  transition from the cultural district to the waterfront. The building thus establishes a
gradual differentiation of domains.
•The facade of the building expresses this allegory with the natural world, where both the
structure and the openings resemble plant elements, such as leaves and branches.
STUNNING LEAF HOUSE IN BRAZIL
Mareines and Patalano
•The roof acts as a big leaf that protects from the hot sun all the enclosed spaces of the house,
•Roof looks like banana giant leaf-shaped.
•There are no corridors and inside and outside are almost fused. Rain water is harvested from the
roof for re-use.
 LEAF HOUSE IN AUSTRALIA BY London-based architects UNDERCURRENT ( Sydney)

•Leaf house, a garden within the home(Leaf House is building that allows users to be inside and
•in-the-garden at the same time)
•The roof looks like fallen leaves, thus it has been dubbed the “Leaf House”. The roof is
supported by winding branch-like steel tubes and the interior is enclosed in glass panels. For
more privacy, some rooms are tucked below a sandstone surround.

•There are those who want a house with a garden to reconnect with nature. Then, there are
those who want an even closer connection and go that bit further by bringing the garden into
their home.

•They haven’t only brought the garden into the house but they have breathed life into a living
structure that is so organic looking, old Mother Nature herself couldn't have done better.

•Overlapping ‘leaves’, made from corrugated iron, provide a canopy over the structure whilst
allowing light to seep in through the gaps.
Santiago Calatrava
L’Hemisfèric (Planetarium)
Valencia, Spain
 BURJ DUBAI

•Burj Khalifa was performed by ADRIAN SMITH and team of 90 designers at Chicago office
•The design of burj dubai is derived from the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture and the
desert flower hymenocallis native to the region.
•The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat
desert base, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky.
•At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire.
•A y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Persian gulf. Viewed from above or from the base, the form
also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture.
2-MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM:
Design Concept
The city of Milwaukee was looking for a “strong architectural statement in an exciting yet
functional building” that would “set an architectural standard for the next millennium”.
Calatrava’s response was to design “a glowing ‘lantern’ on the downtown lakefront, radiating
light in all directions” . He chose to execute this concept through a pavilion featuring a “vast,
glass-enclosed reception hall” with a “transparent, boat-like prow of unique design, facing the
lake” and a “huge, wing-like sunscreen” .
Building Layout
 STRUCTURAL FEATURES

A GLOWING 'LANTERN' ON THE DOWNTOWN LAKEFRONT, RADIATING LIGHT

IN ALL DIRECTIONS.”
•steel-and-glass
•oval-shaped ring beam
•A-frames, ranging in length from 98 feet to about 27 feet
•movable wings (natural light / artificial illumination)
BUILDING COMPONENTS AND SYSTEM
•The functional areas of the main building include the parking garage, the gallery space,
the pavilion (ring beam and A-frames) and the south terrace.
•Except for the A-frames, which are comprised of plate steel and the Burke Brise-Soleil
support, the structural material is reinforced concrete.
BURKE BRISE-SOLEIL

The biggest challenge in the design of the Burke B

was to understand the behavior with wind load on t

•Repetition in nature ...

•Nature often work in nature.
•Represent movement through form/space.
PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE

Gravity Loads