Image: fdecomite | Flickr

In a world where buildings today are primarily static, not very responsive and not very well optimized, it will be intriguing to see what algorithm design for architecture can do — particularly when coupled with other fields like nanotechnology, biomimicry and neuroscience.

As an occupant, I know I would want to have a building that can adapt to meet my needs as I need them. And while it does this, I would want it to look as beautiful as ever. As a building owner, I would want a building that could adapt to not only my business needs, but also be able to adapt to the changes that arise during my building’s lifespan.

Instead of reinventing the wheel by designing built forms that make their occupants adapt to them, it is my hope that algorithmic architecture combined nanotechnology, biomimicry and neuroscience can yield buildings that adapt to their occupants.

This new wave of building design can really make buildings more fluid, flexible and adaptively optimized to not only meet today’s rapidly evolving needs, but to also yield built space that is ultimately healthier, happier, less stressful and more resilient.

An algorithmic architecture will be a big part of the architecture field’s ability to open up new channels, unleashing new ways for buildings to flex with their occupants — and best of all, it will be able to do this at varying speeds, with great material variations and with an infinite array of stimuli during just about any stage of a building’s lifecycle.

Stimuli which can impact the many variations and rules applied to an algorithmic architecture and its computer language can range from triggers like environmental cues as well as occupant behavioral cues. It can also be beauty-oriented in its own right. Furthermore, algorithmic architecture doesn’t just have to stop at being goal-oriented.

In the video below you can see the algorithmic sculpting of a simple cube. I watched this little clip a few times and started to get some interesting ideas about what even this simple demonstration can mean for architectural design in the future. Take a look:

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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.

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: 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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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

So often, as a designer, you must think about how your design vision will impact your occupants — planning for a not-to-distant future where your vision will be realized and used. For this, you may rely heavily on your own experience of what you think works and what does not, and you may probe into your occupant’s life to understand their likes, dislikes and so on.

Still, there is so much left to simply “hoping” you made the right design decisions for your occupant; and it is time that will tell the success or failure of your built work. Yet, there are new and arising fields that can and will help your architectural design process, as you strive to make informed and talented decisions with your building designs — helping you to stand apart from the rest.

These fields include neuroscience, biomimicry and nanotechnology.

Image: Manky Maxblack | Flickr

Sharpen Your Innovative Edge

Eventually, new findings in neuroscience will meet head on with other rising fields like nanotechnology and biomimicry, and this meeting will certainly yield some new techniques for you, as an architect, to greatly expand upon (and in some cases completely revamp) what goes into your building design stages.

As it is, architects already must “predict” the future to some extent, but the best way to increase your probability of creating a successful design that works well is to learn more about those for whom you design. I know this sounds obvious, but on many levels architects can fall short of truly doing this — and then their designs suffer greatly.

So, get to know those that will experience your building, study how their communities and cultures work and what drives their collective and individual thoughts, behaviors, emotions and spirit. To connect with occupants on all of these levels and to best position yourself to use the breakthroughs that both biomimicry and nanotechnology bring, a solid and direct place to lay a foundation for understanding is with neuroscience.

Neuroscience will be evermore important for architects to grasp as new nano scales, material behaviors and nature-inspired systems integrate themselves into our built environments. With such new behavioral qualities, wouldn’t you want to understand how your “designed behaviors” will impact those “human behaviors” that experience your buildings?

I challenge you to get to know your occupants on a whole new level.

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

When You Think of “Skin”…What’s the First Thing You Think Of?

Have you ever compared building skin to human skin? Well, with new developments like nanotechnology, smart materials and ubiquitous computing the time is ripe to revisit the inner-workings of the human body’s largest organ. After all, there is much to learn by taking a closer look at what lies beneath its surface — particularly as it relates to architecture.

What do you typically think of when you think of “building skin”? Does it primarily function to keep the exterior outside and the interior inside? Or do you use it to bring the outside in within certain parts like windows, ducts and doors? Perhaps you have a more avant-garde way of working with “skin” — using it as part of your architectural language that allows your building to communicate with both its interior and exterior at the same time.

Wherever you may be in your ideas and way of designing building skin, I’m sure that the human skin can help to reinforce and spark new ideas for your architectural designs. You might be surprised to discover that there are many similarities between these two “skins”, and in essence, they are both there to protect and to communicate.

Can Human Skin Inspire Your Designs?

For starters, I want to show you this simple video that clearly shows how the human skin operates physiologically. Now is a good time to watch this sneak peek:

Notice any similarities between what human skin needs to do and what your building skin needs to do? Well, there are many similarities, particularly as building skin evolves into the future by continuing to integrate sensing technologies into its “surface”.

With such technological advancements (and with ongoing movements like sustainability and biomimicry) building skins will take on renewed ways to “breath” where its systems and surfaces will be capable of things like self-assembly, self-repair and self-regulation.

Of course, these are also some of the characteristics of human skin, and to take matters further, there are many more potential similarities when you consider the pieces and parts to make all of this work — for example, did you see the sensory receptors in the latter skin video? Beneath those layers are sensory receptors which basically allow the skin, and thus the body, to extract the most pertinent and helpful information from the exterior.

Just to get You Thinking…

Really, as the architect, it is you who embeds “rules” into your building skin, and it is your building skin that will hold, process, actuate and communicate to the rest of your building’s “body”. Just as human skin maintains a systematic structure, so too does your building skin — in real-time.
Thus, you should rethink the potential of what your building “skin” can become. As it is indeed a barrier, it is simultaneously a flexible filter. Just think, your skin can become a “bridge” that pulls from the exterior to feed the inside, and visa versa.

Upon finding this right balance and optimization, architectural skin can be quite beautiful.

The following is a simple, abstraction and interpretation of a “breathing” architectural skin. What ideas does this give you? And how can you use building skin to improve your architectural environments for your occupant?

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

image: phoosh | Flickr

As new emerging technologies surface, the idea of “transition” will take on entirely new form. Not only will “transition” continue to exist between building materials (like you see in buildings today), but “transition” will also be present within a material’s properties — changing the very nature of how a particular material behaves at any given time.

For instance, smart materials will be able to change in real time as certain variables like temperature, light or stress trigger them. Similarly, new sensing technologies will come together to yield smart environments where ubiquitous computing is tuned to give occupants a more personalized experience.

Furthermore, as nanotechnology and biomimetic systems rise into the forefront, you as an architect will need to consistently rethink how building materials typically function — by building for them from the bottom up.

The “rules” behind designing for material behavior are changing and new smart material systems will give you a new kind of flexibility which you can optimize by taking both function and form to entirely new levels.

A key to doing this is to rethink your notion of design “transition”.

A Systems Approach to Designing with Building Materials

The biomimicry expert, Janine Benyus, says it best as she states that “The material is the system“. You see, it is within materials that we as designers can unleash new forms and functions to optimize our buildings — making them more sustainable, healthy, meaningful and beautiful.

By thinking of building materials down to the nano- scale, your design decisions as an architect will involve more of a “systems” way of thinking as opposed to the, as I have heard Janine Benyus call it, more typical “layered” approach to solving design problems.

Use “transition” as a way to unlock problems within an existing design system and as a way to capture inspiration from external forces that will trigger and react to your built environment. Think of how your occupant will experience your space, in all of its dimensions, and then ask yourself to rethink “transition” as you design.

To get you started, here are three questions to ask yourself:

1. If materials within your building’s design could “move” in real-time, how would you want them to move and why? Think aesthetics, function, efficiency, sustainability and human comfort. (As if your materials could gain “super-powers”, think beyond what materials today can do.)
2. What would be the resulting effect of such transient material “movements”? What new forms and functions would they allow? How could they help or hurt your occupant’s experience or the surrounding natural environment?
3. Is there a way to incorporate new transient materials to not only strengthen your building’s weak spots (design challenges) — but to ultimately strengthen the building as a whole (design opportunities)? What would your materials need to be able to “move” in the way you want? Think self-actuating, kinetics, weathering, interactivity, adaptation and so on.

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: 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