Biomimetic Design in a Cross- Disciplinary Classroom

The Biomimetic Design project at the University of Maryland’s School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation focuses on the general question of how to design a cross-disciplinary curriculum for architecture students around the topic of sustainability. In academic year 2020-21, the project team was represented by the disciplines of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, and health sciences and had the unique opportunity to push innovation in curriculum planning and course implementation with support from a VentureWell Sustainable Design Faculty Grant. Coursework was centered on the design of a “biomimetic wall” and the introduction of new teaching tools employed to support students as they produced designs that mitigated and adapted to the environmental and social challenges of climate change and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG), emissions, pollution, and waste. In this paper, the authors borrow from VentureWell’s definition of environmental and social sustainability as: “Sustainable practices, innovations, products and ventures that mitigate negative impacts, and/or enable increased positive and regenerative impacts on environmental and social systems.”1 The word “biomimetic” was introduced in the curriculum planning to underscore the idea that buildings, like landscapes that photosynthesize and respire, are capable of functioning biologically to do things like mitigate air pollution, achieve net zero carbon goals, and restore ecosystems. In addition to engaging environmental mitigation technologies, buildings that are biomimetic can also inspire eco-centric perspectives of the world and heighten awareness of human impact on the natural world, which is fundamental to social change around climate adaptation.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2021.34

Volume Editors
Jonathan A. Scelsa & Jørgen Johan Tandberg

ISBN
978-1-944214-38-8