January 2012

Many would say that Nature had it right, and that she’d be much better off environmentally speaking, without human interference. However, since we’ve now burned through the industrial revolution and now find ourselves struggling for solutions to house a human population boasting 7-10 billion by 2050, architects, and scientists alike are asking, “Should design imitate nature?”

For the third and final installation of the MOV’s BuiltCity talks (with Architecture Canada), “Nature, Urban Space, & Biomimicry” Thomas Knittel of HOK and Dr. Faisal Moola, Director of Science at the David Suzuki Foundation responded with a resounding “Yes!”

With close to 80% of Canadians living in cities, and largest population booms expected right here in Vancouver (and Montreal/Toronto), it’s clear that our developmental policy needs change. As Faisal emphasized in his talk, “with scarce resources and little guidance, municipal governments are charged with developing and enforcing many of the policies and programs necessary to ensure that urban development doesn’t consume what’s left of the natural world closest to home.”

For Thomas, this means moving away from a model of simply reducing harmful developmental practices, towards a model of positive impact. At HOK, they’re focusing on a few key principles, based on examples from the natural world. Take, for example, the delicate bones of a vulture's wing, which can be mimicked in the structural design of a building’s framework to concentrate material where it is needed most, and reduce waste elsewhere.

As exemplified by this orphanage built in Haiti, whose design mimics the function of a forest canopy, HOK calls this process a Fully Integrated System (FIT).

The evening’s lecture was a unique contrast in perspective, pairing Knittel’s practical experience, with Moola’s policy/natural capital point of view. 

Pointing to another HOK project in Lavasa, India, Thomas spoke to how, recognizing the ecological performance standards of a region are key to the FIT model of development, which aim to create the best social, economic, and environmental capacity of design. For example, if a desert plant grows in a way which provides a degree of self-shading, water storage, and a balance between overheating and sun collection for transpiration during cool nights, why wouldn’t a building in the desert follow similar principles?

Following the presentations from Knittel and Moola, there was an interactive discussion, moderated by Ray Cole. Questions were raised about the ability to distinguish between simply a ‘beautification’ vs. ‘biodiversity’-enhancing project; audience members wondered what the most important area of policy change to push forward to encourage the practice of biomimicry; and some technical discussion emerged around the limits to a biomimicry-styled design process? Is it simply the next trend? Overall, it was agreed that we cannot place the same design demands on all buildings. Warehouses, schools, factories and houses have different requirements and restraints, exactly the same way ecological life has more and less generous players. A sustainable future must recognize that complexity.

Ray Cole, professor at the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and co-founder of the Green Building Challenge, summed up the evening stating that we as humans have been more demanding than nature itself, and that the positive messaging of biomimicry and ideas of nature for enhancing life is the type of powerful point that will sow seeds for the fundamental will to change.

UP NEXT: While the BuiltCity lecture series has wrapped up for now, the MOV has a stellar lineup of architectural and planning-based dialogue planned with the upcoming SALA Speaks series taking place every Sunday in March at the Museum of Vancouver.  

[Photos by Hanna Cho and Gala Milne // Images courtesy Thomas Knittel and Faisal Moola]

If you’re anything like us, this week your social media feeds are full of black and white images of Dr. Martin Luther King II, and segments of the “I have a dream” video. At MOV we’re happy to celebrate the birthday of this influential man with the re-posting of an interview with Vancouver’s Derrick O’Keefe and a colleague of Dr. King’s, Jack O’Dell.

Our own living legend, David Suzuki, keeps the fight for equity alive in a letter to the federal Conservatives regarding the northern pipeline project, being pushed through without proper environmental assessment and community collaboration. A controversial issue in a city heavily populated by both industry workers and environmentalists.

…And arts-&-culture-workers! At the MOV we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the provincial Liberals as the decisions over gaming grants and their allocation to arts groups develops. I wonder… would gaming grants cover the costs for a gondola to the museum? Probably not, but it’s a neat (and expensive) idea for the ever-burgeoning life atop Burnaby Mountain.

Participants of a CUP student journalism conference in Victoria drummed up some good material this past weekend, as many were affected by a norovirus outbreak!

Apples to apples? A great podcast from This American Life this week, exposing the inner-workings of your iphone.

And if you’re looking for a way to get to know the Year of the Dragon, Sun Yat Sen gardens has a special exhibition of water dragon artifacts on now.

At the MOVeum: This week: BuiltCity Lecture Series: Nature, Urban Space & Biomimicry – Thursday January 19 // On the radar: History of the Drive – January 26