A Biological Approach to City Building

Architecture and biomimicry are joining forces. A new city being planned in a flood-prone region of India is using the concept of mimicking nature to build a city that better responds to its environmental conditions.

1 minute read

August 27, 2009, 7:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg

The city is being built by HOK in partnership with the Biomimicry Guild.

"Recently, the company formed an exclusive alliance with the Biomimicry Guild, a Montana-based consulting organization that pairs consulting biologists with designers, seating architects and ecologists together at the drawing table. When HOK is involved early in a project, an interdisciplinary team of Guild and HOK professionals visits the site to better understand the "genius of place" in order to aid the design team's architectural approach. Faced with constructing a hypothetical building in a desert setting, for example, HOK designers drew inspiration from the barrel cactus, whose vertical ridges work as a self-shading device-something that would cut down artificial cooling loads in the finished structure."

FULL STORY: Architecture That Imitates Life

Tuesday, September 1, 2009 in Harvard Magazine

Architecture Environment Land Use Landscape Architecture India Design Flooding Biomimicry View More

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