The Zero Emissions Building design team is using use life’s principles as one filter for potential solutions. During the July 31 charrette, HOK Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus described sustainable design ideas from nature generated in a session that included her and Tim Gaidis from HOK and Dr. Dayna Baumeister and Tim McGee from the Biomimicry Guild.

Their suggestions for the larger design team included:

• Consider solutions that are locally attuned and responsive — derived from the local climate and place in St. Louis.

• Use cyclical processes and closed loops (waste = food, for example).

• Optimize rather than maximize. Get the most benefits possible out of every design decision.

• Leverage interdependencies in developing multifunctional solutions.

• Think about resilience – long-term building cost, value, viability and adaptability – as part of every design decision.

Specific suggestions for “biologizing” the building’s functions were:

• Find opportunities for illuminating without energy. Think about a plant with a leaf pattern that spirals up in response to a Fibonacci series to maximize sun exposure — each leaf is maximally exposed to sunlight. Said Gaidis: “This influences how we might place building masses around a site so each element gets good light exposure.”

• Think about a plant with exposed tips that funnel light. “Ideas like this that have started developing in the industry are LED lights and solar tubes,” said Lazarus. “We need to think about focusing, bouncing and reflecting light.”

• Recognizing seasonal changes by designing a building that responds differently by season. A rabbit, for example, changes colors seasonally. The building cladding could change color by light angle.

• Consider face change. Beijing’s Olympic Aquatic Center featured exterior “pillows” made of ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene). “Our building could use ETFE like shades on a roller,” said Gaidis. “We would perforate them in a 0, 10, 20 and 80 percent dot pattern and then roll this clear shade across enclosed courtyard areas that would allow air to flow through.”

• Take advantage of the well-defined seasons in St. Louis to design for seasonality. This could include everything from including operable windows to finding opportunities to expose occupants to the temperature changes. “Think about a sleeping porch,” said Lazarus. “I have one in my house.”

• Find ways to buffer temperature. Honey bees, for example, can maintain their temperature at the individual bee level in beehives. “Their system is easily scalable and it adjusts quickly at a molecular level, rather than turning on a zone and heating the whole hive,” said Lazarus. Herman Miller has a new integrated energy management platform called Convia that can adapt to the changing needs of individual users.

• Explore humidification thermal exchanges similar to those used by whale or tuna. “We would create opportunities to gather condensation,” explained Gaidis.

The team was most intrigued by the idea of finding a way for this building to respond seasonally, both in massing and at the envelope level. This could drive down energy use while also providing visual cues that reflect the current climate. “The building itself could do this in a low-tech way because we are keeping this affordable,” said Lazarus.

So…the biomimicry-driven design ideas are on the table. “Now we need to make it happen in design,” said Lazarus.

Previous ZEB posts:

Onward to Zero Emissions

Onward to Zero Emissions – Part 2

Weidt Light

Zero Emissions Building Charrette #2 — The Paradigm Shift

Passing Virtual Notes