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.
- The outer shell of a building functions like our skin — it is the first defense from outside threats. We want the building surface to be as complete as possible, such as the waterproof layer, heat insulation, noise insulation, etc. Just like how we don't want to have scratches or wounds on our body, we want to prevent the building envelop from breaking down.
- There are not only rooms, but also systems in a building. The HVAC system behaves like the respiratory system and the lung. The water pipes are like blood vessels. Even the electrical system is like our nerves. Coming into the digital age, we are trying to read and control endpoints through metadata schema and the Internet of Things (IoT), which essentially adds the “brain” to a building.
- Buildings break down over time and need maintenance just like how people have metabolism and get hurt from time to time. This is unavoidable, but we use caution and run annual checks of the building and our bodies, we can detect problems at an early stage and fix them in time.
- Buildings might share their sensor data with one another in a smart city, create their own social networks (like Facebook for buildings). They can cooperate to perform tasks like scheduling their energy consumption and reducing peak energy demand.
- Bionic buildings mimicking natural structures is not a new thing. Ancient Greeks and Romans incorporated leaf motifs into the friezes of their structures. I live close to Beijing National Stadium, which is literally called the Bird’s Nest because it just looks like a giant bird’s nest made out of steel. Another pretty cool example is the Singapore Arts Center’s spiky exterior, which was inspired by polar bears. Though polar bears are well known for their white, soft fur, they actually have black skin and are covered in nearly transparent bristles. The bristles can lie flat against the skin, reflecting as much sunlight and heat as possible, or raise to allow heat to be absorbed. The Singapore Arts Center uses the same principle — the building is covered in aluminum panels and light sensors, which raise and lower the panels accordingly to dissipate heat but allow light to penetrate into the building. (While this system is effective, it wastes electricity because the panels have to be moved by motors.)
Singapore Arts Center (Although I first thought it’s inspired by a durian):
