BioInspired! So What? Now What!

"Upon journeying to Jackson Hole, WY, and back from a recent Education Summit hosted by the Biomimicry Institute, a university professor and student united to create an open-source blog full of biomimicry/biomimetic ideas for art, design, science and engineering. The focus is form, function, style, subtlety, flow, intelligence and systems. The objective of this project is to inspire and inform others about things that have been done with, and can be done with, biomimicry.

2012/02/23 added Additional Readings

This website contains a fascinating set of papers exploring how natural forces (sun, gravity, wind), rhythms and rituals can be creative elements in architectural design.  Although designing to a context is becoming increasingly popular, it is rare to see a body of work that is as well grounded on an understanding of natural forces and how they interact.   The papers suggest a number of different patterns that would be useful additions to an architect's toolkit. 

Air Quality Solutions (http://www.naturaire.com) has commercialised "green wall" technology through their 'Naturaire' system for both corporate and personal installations.  An example of bio-engineering, it uses a combination of microbes and plants to remove and break down contaminants in the air.  Research is ongoing to identify the conditions that optimize efficiency and effectiveness of the system.