The approach to designing based on examples from nature (bio-mimicry) is a topic we’ve heard a lot about this year. The architectural firm IAD proposes rethinking the structure of tall buildings based on how trees grow. Their proposal for a ‘treehouse hotel’ merges living space and vertical gardens in a building that forgoes the traditional glass box.
The building’s structure is composed of a series of branches that support the hotel rooms and the levels for the gardens. IAD proposes that a mix of trees and climbing plants occupy the green space. Over time, the climbing plants would grow around the structure and guests walking through the interior would get the sensation of being inside a tree. The firm intentionally chose hidden support escalators to heighten the sense of vertigo as guests reach the top of the building. The rooms themselves are covered with solar protected dark glass and have supports for climbing plants to grow on.
[via WAN]
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Hmm, I think this is more a rehash of the work OMA did on the Seattle Public Library with lateral forces being carried in the facade.
On the subject of biomimetics, I was at a lecture last year by Peter Cook of Cook and Fox who are designing the new Band of America tower, and when he stared talking about biomimetics he put up a slide of a quartz crystal, which would have been fine if he was talking about geo-mimetics… It seems that it’s being hashed as a buzzword for literally miming the aesthtic end result. Bio-mimicry is supposed to be the process of looking to the systems that have taken millions of years to evolve, and then using that as a basis of design, which thankfully some firms are seriously considering.
But, I suppose if it looks like a duck, and walks like duck, it’s a duck, right?
October 26th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
You’re right Michael, copying structures and functions from biology is what is called biomimicry. This is building doesn’t uses trees as the lead example for their design, they use it aesthetically. Trees place materials there where needed, and not there where it is not needed. Just like how your bones are shaped. Looking at this design, the architects apparently didn’t understand the message from trees.
October 28th, 2009 at 7:50 am