For our first week back in the new winter term we were asked to both examine the current ecology of our project’s site and what evolution the site has experienced through its life.  We were then asked to explore through biomimetics how the mechanisms and behavior of an organism or natural system might create architectural design solutions.  Click on the following images to view the history of Lents’ ecology and my exploration of how soil function can inform waste recycling within a building.

While I feel like I struggled to find an organism that really inspired some creative solutions as applied to my building it was very valuable to have seen my classmate’s efforts.  The best examples came from those that tried to mimic their sample organism most literally.  The further abstracted from the actual functions from the organism the more dilute the ideas were; I think this would describe my own efforts.  During my next attempt at this exercise I’ll need to find resources that illustrate graphically how soil really is shaped and how it functions.  The trait with the most possibility I’ve seen is soil’s high porosity and its ability to store and buffer large amounts of water.  In exploring how these pores are formed I may uncover some useful principles in designing a building’s water management systems.