you should probably learn what there is to learn about kieran timberlake's research and the 'smart wrap' that they showed at cooper-hewitt.

most of herzog demeuron's projects over the past decade have included explorations of skin as a major factor in the design. the book 'natural history' may be a help - or a visit to the exhibit of their work that's touring around. the tables are strewn with their experiments in developing the surface materials. i saw it at the nai in rotterdam in the spring and i think it's at the tate now. (or was recently: see the image gallery.)

also, a lot of the brownell's 'transmaterial' emails that i've gotten have to do with things that happen at the skin of a building: related to temperature, light, pressure, etc. if you can find an archive of those and find the ones that pertain...

thank you steven. i got to discuss the smart wrap with stephen kieran when he spoke here last year and was amazed at the "product" they produced as a result of research done at the university and in his firm.
sheila kennedy of KVA also spoke here and they are doing very interesting work with regards to materials.
on a more formailistic level, greg lynn's work intrigues me with regards to skin, teeth, etc.

herzog demeuron's work is some of the best, but i had not thought about them or their book. this will be a help.

i will search the archives for brownell's emails -- sounds very relevant.

thanks for your time and insight.

At SCI-Arc in the past, Perry Kulper has led an interesting design studio regarding these 'bio'-architectural issues. Maybe he can share some info.

And Marcos Novak recently submitted what seemed to be as much 'bio' as it was 'tech', at the Venice Biennale:
marcos@centrifuge.org

I read a novel about biomimicry that made me think a lot about design following nature. The book was about swarm behavior, like bees, schools of fish, herds. There were inventors developing medical instruments that entered the body and once inside behaved like swarms, doing what surgery or documentation was needed. There was a central remote "brain" or "motivation". The instruments were half alive, half machine.

the book "Why Elephants Have Big Ears" by Chris Lavers is a book that shows the evolution and adaptable ways animals have coped and changed to suit their enviroment...it has nothing to do with architecture directly but may give some insight into new ways buildings/architecture can progressivly mimick nature.

im a little confused by your topic. by biomimicry, do you mean buildings which have components that have characteristics found in the natural world, or buildings that copy organisms that practice mimicry (like a moth with wings that resemble eyes or a walking stick/leaf or a non poisonous animal that looks like a poisonous one, etc?)

i dont know if this will help you or not but i came across this site. you should click on Janine Benyus link.

i appreciate the recommendations -- all new to me. for those of you who may not know about biomimicry:

Biomimicry is a new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf.

~Janine Benyus (1997) Biomimicry: Innoviation Inspired by Nature.
- intriguing book that i highly recommend to anyone interested in this subject

in response to citizen4nr's good question: my focus is on the former -- buildings which have components that have characteristics found in the natural world.

as someone who has a background in both science and architecture, i think this is a really good idea for a thesis, and can see the benefits of using nature as a model for building design. unfortunately i dont know any professionals who are working on this sort of thing, but i would seriously consider talking to some people in the biological sciences (maybe some biology/botany/ecology professors around campus) to get a better understanding of the natural world.

""intrigued by building skins that function as human skin (blushing buildings), animal skins (camo structures)""

ecojy, check out www.basilisk.com it also gives you links to greg lynn`s site.
www.glform.com
hope that was useful.

I've recommended it several times on archinect before, but one of the classic books on the subject is D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's "On Growth and Form" (published 1917), explaining the mathematics behind engineering and cellular growth, and introducing topological transformations as a way to understand the similarity of different species. It is, of course, very mathematic and does not go into zoomorphism, which I think a "blushing building" is. Where blushing might fill a social function for humans, there is neither cause nor effect for a building that imitates this behaviour.

Just as an aside to a-f--

When they were originally designing the Museum of Sex in New York, they planned on having a blushing building. Turns out it was rather expensive (no kidding?), so they gave up on that idea, but I thought it was an interesting idea to blow up human behavior to a monumental size.

I recently started reading Dennis Dollens' "Digital-Botanic Architecture": ISBN 0-930829-54-9 $17 Retail and am thoroughly impressed. The XFrog experiments are not the greatest, but the contents of the book has helped to broaden my first year of core in SCI-Arc's "X" program with Hernan Diaz Alonso, Elena Manferdini, Marcelo Spina and Peter Testa.

Of note was a fantastic plate #2 of Sullivan's "System of Architectural Ornament". Maybe I'm mistaken, but Sullivan was not even talked about in our program and this plate was essentially a duplicate of one of our first exercises in understanding nature as it relates to architecture.

Here's a fascinating (if kooky) architect to consider on this topic:
Eugene Tsui -- http://www.tdrinc.com/
He works out of the SF Bay area.
There's a lot of wacky stuff on his website, but delve into it and you might find something that resonates. I've seen the guy talk, and he's amazingly passionate --and a bit unbelievable (but that makes him visionary, right?). Eugene has written a few books, too...nice illustrations.

hello... i'm an 'almost architect' and and have taken up the topic of 'relating biomimetic systems of thermoregulation and ventillation to architecture...' am searching for buildings which have used the concept of thermoregulation and ventillation from the anthills... also searching for more animals or insects or living organisms which are highly sophisticated and accurate in these systems... any sugesstions?

Look into the research being done in the EmTech program at the AA.

I am currently writing my dissertation for an architecture degree about " Biomimicry and Architecture". I've found the above links quite useful. If anyone can supply me with more info and links it will be very appreciated. Thanks!

i second a-f, "on growth and form" is very, very, very interesting and will take you to new places,,,

also,, look at neri oxman's work. http://www.materialecology.com/, albeit highly formalistic...

_urb_ here on archinect had an interesting piece on geo-mimicry,, it might be helpful to see what he talks about, in terms of "mimicry" and "design".. >> http://archurbanist.blogspot.com/2008/09/geo-mimicry.html

Enjoy :)

I have also just begun my masters thesis and am continuing my research on biomimicry and design. A good book that covers many natural systems is The Web of Life, also the Self-made Tapestry is a fantastic book that covers natural systems and networks of organization.

Also do some reading on "emergent processes"

Lots of people are studying this right now, check out some of the work of Lars Spuybroek, Manual Delanda, and Cecil Balmond.

also if you want some good reads outside of architecture i would recommend steven jay gould's wonderful life

http://www.amazon.com/Wonderful-Life-Burgess-Nature-History/dp/039330700X

The three AD magazines edited by Michael Hensel, Achim Menges, and Mike Weinstock are a good place to start for biomimetics references. It's a bit outside of architecture (just like Thompson or Gould), but if you're interested in referencing biological processes relative to evolution and embryology, I'd recommend Endless Forms Most Beautiful (Sean Carroll).

are there any schools that focus on this topic in particular? (biomimicry in architecture)

Hensel, M., Menges, A. and Weinstock, M. at the AA have been at it for a while.

Steadman, Philip (2008). The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts (New York: Routledge)

..is a good overview.

Also, see this article for some critique/ideas:

Roudavski, Stanislav (2009). 'Towards Morphogenesis in Architecture', International Journal of Architectural Computing, 7, 3, pp. 345-374

http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/5444

Janine Benyus talks...

http://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_shares_nature_s_designs.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action.html

If you haven't seen them. The first one, I can say, is excellent.

Just to add...Achim Menges (mentioned in earlier posts) is now head of the Institute for Computational Design at Stuttgart University, which of course is also home to the Institute for Lightweight Structures (founder Frei Otto was in many ways aligned to the ideas of bio-mimicry, before the concept really had a widely-accepted title).

A critical take on the bio-architecture dialogue.

Recall that even "form follows function" is an architectural idea that has its roots in Darwin's theory of evolution.

This is a great read:

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Evolution-Designs-Biological-Analogy-Architecture/dp/0415447534/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255974557&sr=1-3]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Evolution-Designs-Biological-Analogy-Architecture/dp/0415447534/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255974557&sr=1-3[/url]

let's try that again ....


The Evolution of Designs – Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts

i think biomimicry is just about technical aspects of architecture like structure n all but not about the feel of the space and its affect on human psychology.
please contribute your views about it....