Has Biomimicry in Architecture Arrived in France? Diversity of Challenges and Opportunities for a Paradigm Shift

Abstract

Biomimicry is a growing field of developing environmental innovations for materials, facade systems, buildings, and urban planning. In France, we observe an extensive diversity of initiatives in biomimicry for the development of regenerative cities. These initiatives blossom in a large range of areas, from education to urban policies, to achieve a major environmental, social and economic paradigm shift. To provide a comprehensive understanding of this development at the national scale, this paper presents and discusses the diversity of the developed initiatives over the last 10 years in six main fields-education, urban policies, fundamental and applied research, design demonstrators, arts, and communication. This research is an opportunistic study based on the analysis of these initiatives enriched by the feedback of the stakeholders collected by the authors working in the field of biomimicry over the last seven years. We identify that biomimicry in France has mainly extended through individual initiatives of teachers, territorial authorities, architectural studios, or researchers rather than through the support of public policies. Putting into perspective developments in biomimicry by other countries, this cross-discipline analysis provides recommendations for the extensive development of regenerative architecture and urbanism at the national scale.

Applications of Biomimicry in Architecture, Construction and Civil Engineering

“…Success stories of biomimetic designs have emerged on a global level since the seventies, as a result of the global oil crises in 1973 and 1979 and the need for global awareness, which has led discoveries such as self-cleaning hydrophobic surfaces relying on the Lotus Effect in 1976, and the development of the self-ventilation system of the Eastgate Building in 1996. However, in most of those cases, a biological push-up approach was adopted, where a certain property is observed or investigated as a natural resource from a scientific point of view and transferred to solve a technical problem [ 21 ]. On the other hand, the technology pull is considered a top-down approach where problems are solved by applying a biological concept or function, where it involves finding customized features and characteristics based on biomimicry [ 22 ].…”

“…On the other hand, the technology pull is considered a top-down approach where problems are solved by applying a biological concept or function, where it involves finding customized features and characteristics based on biomimicry [ 22 ]. Overall, the interests of architects, designers, and researchers did not have a proper understanding of the required tools or methods to apply the technology pull approach, but with the development of standards and methodologies aiding in the transfer of biomimetic features, the road was mapped for introducing environmental innovations in materials, facade systems, and buildings in addition to aiding in the development of urban and architectural regenerative projects that provide a positive impact on social, economic, and ecological systems [ 21 ].…”

Biomimicry in Architecture: A Review of Definitions, Case Studies, and Design Methods

“…As for the previous classification, a collaboration with a biologist is beneficial for identifying the biological principles. The list, however, is mainly developed for architects through the use of understandable terminology [ 28 , 57 ]. Presenting this as a method for classification, the link to biology and targeted performance, for example, can be combined, as depicted in Table 5 .…”

“…Biomimetics solves practical problems using an interdisciplinary approach to transform natural processes into new solutions for human systems. The sustainability impact and innovation are often also considered [ 14 , 15 , 18 , 28 , 40 , 41 ]. Bionics involves the word ‘nics’, derived from technique or technology, which together refer to copying or representing a function of a living creature to efficiently design technological or mechanically-driven systems [ 14 , 15 , 30 , 42 ].…”