Biomimicry

"When urban infrastructure meets nature’s designers, amazing things can happen. More and more, biomimicry is being thought of as a way to reconsider the ways we build and operate cities. Today, these lessons are being actively applied in the realm of urban infrastructure and design in an effort to make places that are more sustainable, more livable, more intuitively designed and, at their core, more natural."

"HOK’s 2035 master plan for Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei looks to the city’s original water-driven form for future inspiration. [...] The city rests at the intersection of three rivers, and is surrounded by the Borneo rainforest, but has suffered from a lack of cohesive direction."

"Trees naturally filter and clean our air, but in today’s heavily polluted world, it’s just too huge of a task to expect Mother Nature to take care of herself. Taking this into account, designers Mario Caceres and Cristian Canonico have designed a set of beautiful air-filtering trees for the SHIFTboston urban intervention contest. Called TREEPODS, the designs harnesses biomimicry to efficiently emulate the carbon filtration qualities of trees."

Biological systems offer design strategies for successfully adapting to an age of climate change and resource depletion. Insights from nature will be essential in creating a green and sustainable future for humankind.