Please add to our community thinking by posting a few inspirational analogies of your own between the systems that you typically find in biological organisms and similar systems that we often (or should) find in buildings.
Think creatively about all the systems and features that allow creatures to survive, thrive, and adapt to their environments!
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I completely agree with all of the analogies others have written, so I decided to think more outside of the box in regards to sustainability and what buildings should be striving to do.
The first analogy that thought of was photosynthesis. I think photosynthesis is an incredible superpower of plants- they are able to take what the earth gives them to grow and also as a product of growing, they give back to the earth to make it better. They take in sun, water, and carbon dioxide to create energy (sugars in the form of glucose) to grow while releasing oxygen as a byproduct which helps out Earth be livable for animals (pretty incredible). I think all future buildings and remodels should be built with this in mind. A good ‘sustainable’ building should use the natural environment to be built and to run while also improving the livability of our planet in the process. For example, a building should use the sun’s energy in forms of passive design (heating, cooling, lighting, etc) and for energy via solar panels. A good building should also be conscious of water, using strategies like reclaimed water and heat pumps. Buildings should also act as a carbon sink, whether that be by using natural materials like wood from the surrounding environment, or using local construction methods like rammed earth, or having green roofs and lots of vegetation. The building should aim to soak up more carbon than it uses. This can also be achieved through independent energy creation which can then be used to power other buildings or sold back to the grid- leaving the environment better than before.
The other analogy that I thought of that is definitely a little more abstract is survival of the fittest. In the environment, only the species that are most capable of adapting to the environment will survive natural selection and live and reproduce. A good building should ‘survive’ because it is the fittest. It should be designed for a limitless lifetime. Most projects have a life span of 60 years or so, but I believe in terms of sustainability, this mindset should be tossed behind. We need to start designing buildings that will never need to be destroyed or rebuilt. They should be completely self-sufficient, have good design that can be manipulated for multiple generations of users and uses, and they should inspire more design like it. Worst case, the building should be built from materials designed to be reused in the future, allowing for the building to get a new life in a new project.