Biomimicry in architecture: Michael Pawlyn

Nature does it better – how can the natural world influence design?

At Mix Design Collective 2019 we were joined by Michael Pawlyn, biomimicry pioneer and champion of Architects Declare.

In the last two years we have seen environmental issues shoot up the agenda and, as a country, we’ve declared a climate and biodiversity emergency. But what next? Discussing his recent projects including the Sahara Project, as well as how we can use solutions from nature in design, Michael argued the need to move beyond the paradigm of sustainable design, and on to regenerative design – ways of designing the built environment to repair damage to the environment.

‘What is absolutely certain, in my mind at least, is that we’re not going to achieve that simply by tightening up the knobs on the current ways of doing things, we need to start looking at much bolder thinking,’ he explained.

On his innovative Biomimetic Office project, Michael commented: ‘We brainstormed what the key functional challenges were in an office building. This is one of the clearest ways to use biomimicry – you define a series of functions, and then you look at how those functions have been delivered in biology, and you use that as an inspiration for an innovation that suits human needs.’

So, what did we take away from this fascinating session? At the very least that, by looking to nature, we can create design that is not only effective and efficient, but actively creates a better environment and community – whether that’s in a busy city or in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Listen to our podcast with Michael here