Introduction
Spookfish live deep in the ocean where there is very little light. To compensate, spookfish have specialized eye lenses that work as mirrors. Its eyes are split so that one half points up towards daylight and the other points down to the dark ocean depths. This feature allows the fish to pick up low levels of light and aim it down where possible meals are swimming by.
An architect named Michael Pawlyn applied a similar trick for a building design, using glass and mirrors to distribute natural light. The unique arrangement of glass distributes natural light throughout the large building. He called his design The Biometric Office, and this is an example of biomimicry in building.

Biomimicry, also called biomimetics, involves studying …show more content…
Sponges can pump thousands of gallons of water a day through their skin. The 71-story Pearl River Tower’s south side is porous like a sponge. Wind turbines are housed in four holes, harvesting the wind into energy-producing turbines.

The Eastgate Center in Harare, Zimbabwe was inspired by the building methods of African termites. These termites build gigantic mounds which are heated and cooled during the day and night through an elaborate system of vents. The vents are constructed so that air is brought in from the lower part of the mound, through muddy enclosures where the air is cooler, then up through another channel to the top. The termites regulate the temperature by constantly creating new vents and blocking old ones. Their life quest is to keep their gardens of fungus alive so the colony is well fed and self-sufficient.
Architect Mick Pearce designed a ventilation system for the Eastgate Center that operated in a similar way. Outside air is warmed or cooled and then vented into the floors and offices before it flows out of …show more content…
With nature as inspiration, living buildings generate and conserve energy from nontoxic resources, capture and treat water, and deal with waste. Often called regenerative design, living buildings include houses, workplaces, and even entire communities! The idea is to design living and working spaces that, like a tree, give more to the environment than they take.

The Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington behaves much like a tree. Solar cells on the roof collect sun energy, like leaves in a tree. And like a tree, the building has systems that collect and store rainwater. It has closed-loop heat pumps that mine natural geothermal energy directly from the ground. From there, a heating system transports water through a series of tubes in the cement floors, just as a tree gathers water and nutrients from the soil. Biomimicry was a huge influence in the design and engineering for the commercial living