Sustainability, through passive solar building envelope design, based on the principles of bioinspiration

Ministry of Education, University of West Attica, department of civil engineering, Athens, Greece.

Abstract

How can architecture respond to sustainability issues where buildings will behave in built environments like living organisms in the natural environment? To answer this question, scientists have turned in recent years to the investigation of living organisms in nature to design models that create new ways to think about adaptation, change, and performance in architecture. At the same time, the development of technologies helps engineers, architects, and designers inspired by bio-mimetics to recreate complex structures that exist in nature, using innovative construction methods and materials, with the aim of energy saving. The building shell is now constructed, not with traditional inert surfaces but with a cladding, which in many cases includes a wide range of technologies based on the behavior of organisms found in nature. The strength of this approach is the identification and evaluation of multiple benefits related to the energy efficiency of biomimetic solutions. The purpose of this article is to create a knowledge transfer between biology and technology and to integrate this knowledge into the development of bio-inspired structures. Thus, three paradigms of kinetic architecture will be presented to understand the importance and impact that the application of bio-inspiration in Architecture can have on the energy debate.