By Georges Dyer, Partner, Aedi Group
The latest newsletter from the Biomimicry Institute includes a great, brief piece entitled “Biomimicry in Community Planning – Ecological Performance Standards“ by Janine Benyus, Tim McGee, and Sherry Ritter.
The key message is about how we can design cities (and buildings and infrastructure within those cities) in ways that fit in with the ecosystems, of which they are a part. In doing so, they have can have a positive impact on the natural world, as opposed to simply designing buildings and communities that are “less bad.”
The Biomimicry Institute defines biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) as a new science that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example of this “innovation inspired by nature.”
The Biomimicry Design Spiral
This practice can be applied to any product or process, and has a whole lot of leverage in accelerating progress towards sustainability when applied to the built environment.
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[...] can a building emulate nature?” giving some solid, mainstream attention to the concepts of biomimicry and regenerative design as well as the Living Building Challenge. Omega Institute for Holistic [...]