Biomimicry in climate adaptive building skins: relevance of applying principles and strategies

Abstract

There is growing interest in scientific literature and in research projects on climate adaptive building skins -CABS-. A large development of this type of building skins is expected, because of the advantages they offer over other skins, such as th e improvement of environmental quality and energy efficiency, the adaptability to c limate and changing uses of buildi ngs, the ability to use low exergy sources, the potential for integrating architectural design principles with energy efficiency, the possibility of driving the research on new technologies a nd a greater efficiency in the use of materials. However, this development is not taking place in practice, since most projects either remain on experimental prototypes or are im plemented in high budget buildings. This paper examines the relevance of applying a bi omimetic approach to the design of CABS, given the adaptive behaviour of both systems. By studying the correlation between the functi onal requirements of adaptive building skins and adaptive strategies that can be found in natural organisms, we address the possible overcoming of some limits they face in their development – from design, technological, economic and social-. The aim is to further the implementation of biomim etic principles and adaptive strategies to enhance adaptive behaviour, take advantage of the evoluti onary knowledge that nature provides, derive applying principles to achieve best architectural solutions, serve as a driver of innovation in architecture and promote efficiency and sustainabilit y in building skins, using principles such as optimality in resource management, resilience behaviour , exchange of information and energy with the environment, complexity by organization of simple elements, or multifunctionality. Finally, biomimicry has shown to be a suitable approach, which, by putting systematic design processes into practice, yet to achieve, could promot e the widespread developm ent of climate adaptive building skins.