Image Credit: JoshuaDavisPhotography | Flickr

Many people purposely seek out nature in order to experience its beauty and learn from it. Of course, for designers, biomimicry involves the understanding of nature as interpreted into design. But I ask, what are other ways that you can learn from nature to really push the way you think about what your occupants do within your buildings? And how can you use nature to find new ways to promote issues like learning and productivity within an office building and its office layout design?

Well, there are ongoing studies which find that typical office buildings are actually not the most conducive of spaces to promote a good work environment that encourages natural productivity, attention, and focus amongst its occupants. However, what has been found, is that by going for a walk in nature (by taking a 20 to 50 minute break from work) can actually improve your memory, attention and focus — thereby making you more productive at work. (2)

Specifically, University of Michigan psychology researchers found that “memory performance and attention spans improved by 20 percent after people spent an hour interacting with nature.” And similarly, a study was done where occupants looked at pictures of nature as compared to urban pictures, and it was found that those that looked at the nature pictures improved their memory and attention scores by approximately 20%. Those that viewed the urban photos did not gain any improvements. (1)

Tips on Integrating Nature into Your Office Layout Design

I think this is quite important information for you as an architect to truly grasp. So often, work environments are equated to more of a machine-like setting, where technology seems to take over — where all of the computers, printers, conference room technologies (and so on), abound throughout the office building. Now, I’m not saying that technology is bad, but rather that you should consider having nature take its appropriate place within your work environment designs.

As an architect, you may want to include nature, not as a last-minute injection into the design space, but as a thoughtful integration which is just as much a part of an employee’s day as the computer on their desk, or that cup of coffee which they often sip throughout their busy work day.

To integrate nature within your design, you can walk yourself through the typical narrative that employees and other occupants within your office building will go through on a daily basis. This would be a good starting point for you to begin to find those in-between moments where nature will really make a difference. Also, a view of nature as might be provided by an office window can be of great help to an employee throughout the day.

Also, providing a place within an office building where occupants can go outside to take that break, as even during winter months, it has been shown that memory and attention can be improved by those that experience that brisk outdoor nature. (1) Another thing to consider as you design, are the findings that the greater variety of nature (different plant/flower species, etc.) that you provide for your occupants, the better its positive effects will be — in increasing their productivity effects (attention, focus and memory). (2)

So, the next time you create an office layout design, do not simply think about “productivity” defined as an employee working within their office at their desk all day, multi-tasking and jumping from one deadlined task to the next without end. Your occupants are not machines, and they will actually perform better if given the freedom and flexibility, through a designed space, by which they can experience a rich and varied nature, whether that means going outside to be within it or by experiencing natural or even virtual views of nature while within the their building or their office.

The key is to design workplaces that lessen employee stress and give them and environment that not only inspires them, but also empowers them to think more clearly, more alertly and with an improved memory — all things that will help a business to grow while keeping its workers healthier and happier.

By the way…this also impacts your own office. How often to you interact with nature during your workday?

Citations:

1) Going Outside — even in cold — Improves Memory, Attention. University of Michigan. Dec. 16, 2008

2) Graham, Laster. Interview: Nature Improves Productivity. Then Environment Report. March 2, 2009.

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Noël Zia Lee | Flickr

How do you begin to model systems and processes that nature teaches? How do you translate your discoveries and breakthroughs to help in your design process, making you a better designer?

Well, I found a pine cone the other day. It was tiny, well formed, delicate at the tips and solid at the base. Yes, that is and of itself quite beautiful and enough to inspire most creative thinkers in their design efforts. However, we live in a day and age where, with nature, we can delve much deeper by changing our perspective and interpretation.

Questions like — Why was that pinecone laying where it was? How did it get there? Where did it come from? What is inside? If I take it apart, what do its elements actually do? How do they function? What is it made of? How does it travel through air? What does it protect? How? Why? And When? You get the idea…

For architects, there is an entire mindset shift going on in our profession. New ways to explore, dissect and draw inspiration from nature are happening every minute of every day. Particularly as Biomimicry is better understood, practiced and, thus, becomes more widespread.

A refined and attuned way of questioning and “seeing” should become part of your mindset shift. Building green will take on whole new meanings as we progress into the future. (It already is today.) We are going beyond learning to harmoniously “live with” nature, to become “part of it” in entirely new ways.

Now, Let’s Go Back to that Pine Cone I Found

During the lifecycle of the pinecone, did you know that it opens and closes during different points of its life, often dependent on the conditions which surround it? For instance, the pinecone scales grow in order to protect its seeds after being fertilized. Then, those scales close to allow for the seeds to develop. Once the seeds are ready, those scales will open to release the seeds — allowing them to fly away as far as possible.

What makes this even more amazing is that when the weather is moist, those same scales remain closed (so the seeds cannot escape). But when the weather is dry, those scales open to ensure that the seeds are leaving at the right time. You see, when the weather is dry those seeds can travel furthest as they are not weighed down. (To read more about these specifics, see Wiki here.)

Now let’s take this through the process of letting this inspire a design. What if a building could grow certain parts of its skin at certain times? Perhaps this building skin could resemble a chameleon which changes much more than its color. Its functions could change dependent on its relative conditions, both inside and out. What wonderful response cycles, giving architectural transience a renewed meaning.

The notion of “growth” is quite intriguing to me. Imagine a “part” that grows, plays its role and then disappears. Would that mean we could have a new kind of “scaffolding” or inner mechanism that serves its purpose during different phases of a building’s life cycle?

In the end, that pinecone was on a mission — to allow for the fertilization of seeds, to protect them and then to disperse them at just the right time.

Your building occupants are your seeds. Protect them. Allow them to flourish, function and grow in the best way possible — and make your design solution for this as beautiful as the pinecone.

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Eduardo Deboni | Flickr

Yes, findings stemming from the worlds of science and technology are painting a new era that we are already beginning.

When cutting-edge paradigm-shifts occur, like new perspectives on nature that make methods like Biomimicry and BioDigital Architecture possible, I still wonder how these, combined with other factors like culture, globalization, personal preferences, lifestyle trends and geographic land characteristics will impact what we, as architectural visionaries, paint for the future.

Well, the future is happening now and as different cultures help to mold, embrace and even reject what design visionaries bring forward, I find it fascinating to uncover how innovative designs emerge into (and from) different regions and respective populations in the world.

What Stories Will Biomimicry Designs Tell?

As architects take on a renewed and forward-looking slant when turning to nature for inspiration, will this “attuned” architecture reflect its contextual surrounding geography and culture? After all, nature found in different parts of the world maintain different forms of life cycle processes and response systems; thus, giving architects a plethora of sources from which to design for more advanced architectural function and beauty.

In looking ahead, I can’t help but envision what Biomimicry and BioDigial Architecture can do for our architectural discipline. On the forefront, I can see that architecture will gain a renewed closeness with nature that it has never consciously had before. I also can see buildings that metaphorically embody a piece of nature (take the simple example of a flower), where an architect studies a particular process or response system from nature and then builds an architecture stemming from this nature inspired “seed”. Thus, a literal flower species can metaphorically plant its “seeds” within an architect’s vision — so then, a bioDigital building becomes a metaphorical flower offspring.

So yes, I do think the emergence of more bioDigital architecture will reflect the very nature which surrounds a building (or at least, the architect). Architectural clues like material, fabrication method and occupant lifestyle preference are already inherent to buildings around the world. Thus, a building is like a time capsule holding within it not just its occupants while it is functional within its own time, but also holding within it an “archeological-type” find that serves as a multi-dimensional “treasure map” telling a story to all those who “read” it long after its occupants are gone.

What story do you think buildings will tell once new technologies and scientific breakthroughs have had a chance to take full effect in architectural advances like Biomimic Design? Will buildings tell a deeper tale about what extinct species and types of nature existed before in a specific region of the world? Furthermore, what story will architecture built using nanotechnology, bioDigital algorithmic design and ubiquitous computing methods?

One thing is for sure, I do think that new biomimcry design methods will implant new layers of information — making the visionary buildings of today, gem-like seeds for tomorrow.

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I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Photomish Dan | Flickr

As the relation between biomimicry, nanotechnology and new computing software evolves, a key design strategy surfaces — and a key aspect to that design strategy is BioDigital Architecture. In this branch of study and research, designers use different computer processes (algorithmic, for example) to grow architectural living systems. And these “living systems” are derived from, what Dennis Dollens describes as, metaphors of nature.

Designers can learn to understand nature in new terms, asking a different line of questions than usual. To design BioDigital Architecture, one must tap into the qualities of nature that motivate its cycles and response systems. And as you will see in the video below, Dennis Dollens lectures on exactly what that can mean for buildings.

I agree with Dollens that we can design and build better buildings by moving beyond our present-day “piece-meal” approach where separate components come together to yield a “sustainable” building. First, the window systems must coordinate with the roof system, then the roof and window systems must coordinate with the lighting systems. In the end, we wind up with separate system components which are later integrated into what we today call a “building system”.

BioDigital Architecture, on the other hand, will look toward nature for its principles. From those, designers can use computation (and other methods) to innovate systems that become much more than their parts. The totality of this livelier system might be marked by aspects of behavior, interaction and structure — where the layers that make up the system are more cyclical and responsive in nature.

It is my thinking that BioDigital Architecture will optimize the architect’s potential, leveraging our methods, talents and ideas to yield more fluid and inherently dynamic built forms. The following is Dennis Dollens’ short lecture. Please note that below the video is a link so you can take a peak at his publication which describes all of this, and more:

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

image: johndisalvo | Flickr

Sustainable Systems Working Together as a Whole

Light, water, temperature, air quality and renewable resources typically come to mind when talking about sustainable design, and to see these innovative green building issues tackled in one building project is wonderful.

In this article I am calling particular attention to the LEED Platinum rated Genzyme Center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Within this building project designed by Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner, sustainable systems work to create not only an energy-efficient environment, but also a healthier workplace for the approximate 900 employees who work there.

As you will see in the online virtual tour (at the end of this article), key building features include heliostats, an intricate prismatic chandelier and reflective ceiling panels that all contribute to providing interior spaces with abundant natural light. In addition, converging building systems serve to control airflow, prismatic louvers, operable windows, water sensors, automated perforated blinds and a loggia.

All in all, the Genzyme Center serves as a leading example of how you, as an architect, can integrate many sustainable building systems to work together within one building.

Harness Control to Yield Comfort

Giving individual employees control over things like lighting and temperature within their office spaces really helps to improve not only their individual environment, but ultimately the overall Genzyme corporate culture as well.

Control of one’s own comfort is critical in office building designs that intend to foster creativity, productivity and collaboration. Also, incorporating variety by fusing systems that can change and adjust over time to variables like outside weather, group gatherings or even daily lunch preferences can go a long way to boosting moral and productivity.

To see a virtual tour of The Genzyme Center you can visit the following link. Once there, you will have access to a series of short videos that show exactly how this building’s systems work.

This is a definite must see.

To take your virtual tour click [here].

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Curbed SF | Flickr

Unleashing Necessity and Your Ingenuity

The need to build green skins that are able to harness energy gives architects incentive to find new ways to use and guide emerging technologies. Essentially, it is necessity coupled with ingenuity that can often spark the best design innovation.

As an architect, it will help you to think about building skin and all of its possibilities in totally new and fresh ways. Instead of using building skin to “shield” or “expose” building occupants to the external environment, think of how building skin can act as a live filter that “flexes” its own boundaries in dynamic ways. As an exercise to get you thinking along these lines try asking yourself the following three questions to get you started:

1. On Selectivity: How can I connect my occupant with nature in completely new ways? Instead of thinking of skin as a barrier, how can I think of it as a dynamic filter — how could I separate different light, air quality or sound properties so the exterior can enhance interior spaces? How many exterior/interior “hybrids” can I think of?
2. On Preconceptions: What qualities of nature do I presently take for granted as a designer? Can I “capture” a particular aspect of nature that is usually “invisible”? How can I “feed” my occupants through a building’skin to let them “touch” it in new ways? (For instance, a clever positioning and use of smart glass.)
3. On Transience: What could my building do if my building skin could change in real-time? Could “windows” move and flex in new ways? Could they magnify or minimize certain qualities of nature? What new “between-states” could I create to bridge interior and exterior environments?

With the advent and evolution of nanotechnology, there will be many new developments for architectural buildings — particularly when it comes to building skins. Already there are newfound ideas on the drawing boards showing how certain nanotechnology integrations could work.

Harnessing the Power of Sun and Wind

One example of this is seen in the Concept Tower designed by Agustin Otegui. Within this tower’s skin, Otegui uses Nano Vent-Skin (NVS) as a way to extract energy from both the sun and wind. Using a system of “sensors, organic photovoltaics and micro-wind turbines”, the Concept Tower’s skin would be able to self repair through a self assembly process.

In the following images you can see, conceptually, how this design would work:

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: justHugo | Flickr

Richard Whitehall is an industrial designer and partner at Smart Design where he works to design what he calls “responsible behavior”. I found this great article, here, where you can see exactly what goes on daily at this industrial designer’s desk.

I like this article because within it are some gems that might help you design places for better occupant interactions. Here are some of his ideas that I think make his designs successful — really promoting green human behavior…

1 — Persuade people through cues. (1)

2 — It’s important to observe people using a product or design. The way they say they use them is often not how they use them. Plus, your view as a designer may be entirely different than their view. You should consider both. (1)

3 — Go for changing “small practices” with your design. All of these will eventually add up and make a big difference. (1)

4 — Use texture, instead of adding more materials to get a “decorative effect” (1)

5 — Aim to “optimize the efficiency” of a user. (1)

6 — An idea is to create a feedback loop so you can encourage a person to continue or stop certain habits. (1)

7 — Focus on “experiences and systems” so you can understand how “people interact with objects and information”. (1)

8 — Don’t just build products that are, themselves, sustainable. Build products that change people’s behaviors. (1)

9 — Discouraging behaviors can also be as important as encouraging them. (1)

10 — Look at what is currently on the market and find ways to make them better. (1)

(1) Whitehall, Richard. Designing Responsible Behavior Workbench. Seedmagazine.com.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: kennymatic | Flickr

This solar and wind project is unique because it takes technology beyond just being “tacked on” to a building. These micro solar panels mimic nature’s ivy, really bringing life to the otherwise redundant ways we typically see energy being stored.

Your building façade will be able to do even more…

The Grow project (still in the prototyping stage) is a solar and wind energy storage system used as cladding for exterior walls. Inspired by nature in form and function, the panels making up the system are laid over the surface like ivy leaves, generating energy even while defining new formal and typological aspects. (1)

It is refreshing to see a solution to the constant challenge of integrating technology with architecture in a way that contributes to the overall experience for the occupant.

This is a step in the right direction.

(1) Ullman, H.F. Grow and Solar Ivy are solar and wind energy storage systems for walls by Smit. Floornature.com.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Architect Tadao Ando | Telstar Logistics | Flickr

BREAKING THE BOUNDARY

Usually, nature is thought of as something “outside”. But what happens when the line between “inside” and “outside” blur? How can we bring nature into architecture?

In his book Natural Architecture, Alessandro Rocca writes about the notion of architecture as “sheltering” us from nature. (1) In fact, his book Natural Architecture explains how nature can be “exposed” through design — to ultimately fight this convention where architecture is only a “shelter”.

While this is very interesting, I can’t help but wonder if there are other novel ways to “expose” nature —- indoors.

You are only limited by your imagination.

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THIS?

Why would it be important for a worker, for instance, to feel nature while in their office? Wouldn’t it hamper productivity?

Actually, the opposite is true.

By integrating nature with all of the other technologies that go into an office building, the actual work areas will be even more effective — by “exposing’ nature in just the right way.

Here’s a very simple example:

Office environments are so predictable. They rarely change. They are not interactive. They don’t have seasons in the same way nature does.

Perhaps an office environment has elements that change color at different points in the year, to complement and expose whatever actual season it happens to be (winter, spring, summer or fall) —- thus, changing occupant moods…

In the winter, colors could be calming and happy; while, in the summer, colors could be cooling and refreshing.

This would serve to unify the office team atmosphere in addition to livening up dreary winter months and “de-stressing” busy summer months.

Also, all of this could be done to complement an overarching corporate culture.

That was just a simple idea — but the key is to not just “shelter” your occupants from nature. When the time is right, you should find novel ways to “expose” them to it.

Blur the boundaries a bit.

(1) Rocca, Alessandro. Natural Architecture. DesignBoom.com.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Holgs | Dreamstime

NATURE AS INSPIRATION

By taking a look around, designers can find inspiration everywhere – particularly in nature. Nature provides us with an amazing array of solutions for many complex problems that we face today – the quest to learn from nature in this way is “biomimicry”, and architecture can benefit from this kind of approach.

At times what may seem as “simple” in nature can translate to better design solutions that are more efficient, sustainable and healthy. Yes, nature is inspirational but it is also a part of our world which we can study more deeply – extracting creative solutions that we can apply today.

WHAT IS BIOMIMICRY?

Most all designers will benefit from studying certain aspects of nature. As buildings now face a whole myriad of problems that need solutions, it may be in nature that architects can find some answers. Here is what Brett Hoverstott who wrote “What Can Architecture Learn from Nature” has to say…

“Life has had millions of years to finely-tune mechanisms and structures (such as photosynthesis, or spider’s silk) that work better than current technologies, require less energy and produce no life-unfriendly waste. The emulation of this technology is the goal of biomimicry, the art of innovation inspired by nature.” (1)

Already, there exist certain biomimetic buildings. Take for instance, the Eastgate Centre which is a shopping centre and office block. This building was “designed to be ventilated and cooled by entirely natural means, it was probably the first building in the world to use natural cooling to this level of sophistication”. (2) The design inspiration for this architecture was the “indigenous Zimbabwean masonry and the self-cooling mounds of African termites”. (3)

SO, WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Nature can teach us about systems, materials, processes, structures and aesthetics (just to name a few). By delving more deeply into how nature solves problems that we experience today, we can extract timely solutions and find new directions for our built environments.

As architects, we can benefit from biomimicry to make buildings better by pushing for more natural, integrated, efficient and healthy solutions. We also need to take a look at the role aesthetics plays in nature – with the way function and form so synergistically merge. Perhaps this is a way for buildings to harmonize with nature in renewed ways – making built environments more environmentally sound and healthy for occupants.

(1) Holverstott, Brett. What Can Architecture Learn From Nature. GreenBizSite. September 7, 2008.

(2) Wikipedia Eastgate Centre, Harare.

(3) Doan, Abigail. Green Building in Zimbabwe Modeled After Termite Mounds. Inhabitat. December 10, 2007.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman