There is a new language and lexicon emerging within the world of built environment sustainability, from circular economy to biophilia, indicating a maturing of construction’s approach, moving from better waste management to circular economy thinking, from biodiversity management to biophilia.
I participated in a brilliant tweetchat yesterday evening, under the hashtag of #CityofLife, hosted by Melissa Sterry (http://melissasterry.com) and others with some very knowledgeable contributors from Northern Europe and elsewhere, exploring the concepts of Biomimetics in buildings and cities. There will be a transcript soon and more debates, so watch this #CityofLife space.
It did strike me though, whilst being comfortable with these new terms in sustainability, many readers and subscribers to this blog may not be, so here is a quick primer.
Biomimetics – learning from nature as models for building design and construction. See Building a Bionic City (Intriguingly George Mokhtar (@GeorgeMokhtar) tweeted yesterday before the chat “biomimetics, basically the reason I started using 3D models” proving, maybe, a foundation link with BIM?)
Biomimcry, imitation of nature for the purpose of solving complex problems. Perhaps the best source of information can be found at Biomimicry38 and the Janine Benyus Biomimicry TED talk
Biophillia, exploring the intrinsic bond between humans and nature, most commonly from a health and well being perspective of building users and occupants.
Biophllic thinking is core philosophy for the Living Building Challenge and suggests the adoption of Richard Kellert’s Six Biophilic Design Elements, (roughly 70 design attributes, from egg-shaped buildings a historical connection to place)
Suggested reading:
E.O. Wilson, Biophilia 1984 (There is a very useful primer on Ecology, based around E.O Wilson work, within the iBooks (ipad) series from the Open University, with texts, videos and workbooks)
Last Child in the Woods: Richard Louv
Building for Life: Richard Kellert
Case Study Cities: Melissa Sterry, Sustain Magazine
Suggested people to follow on twitter
@melissasterry @thefuturemakers @StefanoSerafi11
@amandasturgeon @livingbuilding @livingbldgUK
@JanineBenyus @RichLouv @biomimicry_uk @AskNatureTweets
Other Links:
Fairsnape 
Sounds really interesting Martin. Biomimicry is certainly becoming a buzz word in the built environment and the ideas behind it are throwing up some really innovative building designs. The recent Designing with Nature exhibition at the Architecture Foundation was fascinating – I found myself getting totally absorbed by some of the creations!
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