Ashton Harrell
Arch2220
Paper 1: Abstract
Moore
2.11.15

Humans have always looked for solutions to our problems or the restrictions that limit us. We thrive at finding elaborate and inventive ways to over come our landscape, our mobility and even our ailments. Some innovations, we soon learned, came with a price, immense ecological and social impacts on their surrounding areas, like dams and or the utilization of non-renewable resources as sustainable energy. With that same note, many humans have also looked to nature and the natural world for inspiration for the very same problems. Inventors like Leonardo da Vinci studied the use of natural design in the development of human flight by closely observed the anatomy of birds to conceive is rendering for his proposed “flying machines”. His ideals led the way for the other innovators who also were influenced by nature. Like the wright Brothers, who observed pigeons and in combination with Da Vinci’s plans successfully created human flight. This use of natural design as a precedent for design is categorized as Biomimicry. The Biomimicry Institute describes biomimicry “ as an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies.” The idea being that solutions to many of our sustainability issues are all around us – nature has already solve many of them. As our world population expands and urban areas continue to grow to suite their needs, the implementation of a sustainable means to feed and house the increased numbers become dyer. Biomimicry encourages learning and imitating natural structure, processes, as well as ecosystems to construct more sustainable technologies and designs. Biomimicry proposes that we look at nature as "model, measure, and mentor." In 1997, when Janine Benyus, a biologist, published her book, Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by Nature, biomimicry came to the forefront of conceptual urban design and architecture. She defines biomimicry as “the new science that studies nature’s models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problem. An idea of a constructed natural world, in which the constructed world acts and responds as the natural world does. There are many representations of biomimicry that are observable in our society today. One of the earliest examples biomimicry architecture is that of the Crystal Palace in London. The iron, wood and glass structure was built in 1851 by a gardener, Joseph Paxton. He designed the Crystal Palace from as species of lily pad known as Victoria amazonica. Their structure is what captivated him, seemingly delicate leaves rising out of the water could actually support immense loads. He replicated this support system with cast iron with small repeating ribs, based on the ribbing and stem of the giant lily pad. These and many other sites like this are freckled amongst cities but are still extremely rare. When their implications can lead to drastic innovations in human design and structural capabilities.