An Approach to Adaptive Sustainable Facades Inspired by Plants

Abstract

Nowadays, and under the global warming circumstances we are facing, particularly those resulting from the building sectors, many directions for more sustainable and eco-friendly concepts have emerged. From these sustainability approaches is the “Biomimicry” approach. This approach represents the science of imitating and benefiting from nature’s principles. Nature has provided various strategies to adapt to the surrounding conditions. There are several methodologies and tools developed following the biomimicry approach and taking nature as inspiration. However, difficulties arise in collaborating more than one discipline, which consumes a lot of time and effort, consequently cost. Furthermore, the existing methodologies are still too generic for architects. Therefore, this paper aims at developing a platform that integrates different methodologies, approaches, and tools comprehensively.In this paper, the focus would be on plant adaptations. A more focus would be on the building’s envelope specifically due to its valuable contribution to the building’s overall energy consumption. The paper seeks to integrate the plant’s adaptive strategies to the building envelope. The motivation is to tackle solutions for the building envelope environmental problems mainly for heat, water air, and light challenges.