BioInspired! So What? Now What!

Teachers: Michael Pawlyn, Robert Somerville

What should our built environment be like if it is to be genuinely sustainable?

Taking our inspiration from nature to address this question points us towards all that can be learned from the amazing innovations and creative coping strategies that organisms have developed to minimise their use of resources – the world of biomimicry. But looking to nature can also remind us of the value of using local resources that require minimal amounts of processing and energy inputs. Both approaches can have a role in creating healthy, beautiful, and resource-efficient living or working spaces.

This course invites participants to find out more about exciting new and traditional approaches to building and to reflect on their own understanding of what makes for sustainable architecture. Participants will also be involved in developing outline designs for enterprise incubator units (planned as part of new initiatives on the Dartington Hall Estate) which will embody the best of green thinking in architecture.

Course details

Michael Pawlyn will describe a number of design projects that have applied biomimicry to achieve factor 10 or even factor 100 increases in resource efficiency. The schemes will reveal some of the advantages to be gained from studying natural forms, systems and processes and using these to generate new design solutions that transcend conventional approaches to sustainability.
The projects that Michael will describe include the following:

• The Eden Project and other schemes that used inspiration from natural forms to produce transformative solutions
• The ABLE project, EcoRainforest and Community Ecology Centre – applying ideas from ecosystems to create zero waste systems
• The Las Palmas Water Theatre – a radical biomimetic approach to creating fresh water from seawater
• The Sahara Forest Project – moving beyond sustainable design to achieve restorative design and thinking of ‘waste’ as an opportunity.

He will also discuss some examples of overlaps between biomimicry and vernacular building methods and how these can be reinterpreted in contemporary design solutions.

Robert Somerville will inspire participants to look more closely at the environment where they live and work and to recognise the potential for making buildings in the context of origins of materials. This emphasis is on the sources of raw materials, the hands-on processes and our participation within natural environments. Robert’s talk will include building with earth, stone, lime and wood and will focus on the creative use of what is available in nature or in local demolition sites. He will give examples of homes that have been built this way at low cost and discuss how this approach could work on a larger scale to enable communities to create their own sustainable and affordable homes.

Thanks to Mark Wallace for the pointer!