Naturally innovative: A briefing paper for the construction industry

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The construction industry and its clients are increasingly being challenged to achieve cost savings and better performance of built assets. Biomimetics has already shown its potential to help with these issues.

Biomimetic ideas and products have the potential to help the construction industry and its clients with demands for:
• Reduced embodied energy (CO2) in construction products
• Reduced materials use, better resource efficiency and hence lower cost
• Reduced weight and complexity (lighter structures, response to manual handling regulations, etc)
• Novel designs
• Reduced maintenance burdens (intervals and costs).

Some examples of its usage include:

Project type Commercial examples of biomimetics Biological analogue
Housing Self-cleaning façade paints Lotus leaf structure
Buildings – commercial and industrial Self-cleaning façades paints and glasses,
Architectural features or structures (such as Stuttgart airport) Lotus leaf structure

Branching tree structures
Logistics Delivery logistics software Interactions within ant colonies
Pavements, roads, car-parks, airports etc Catseyes® Optical reflectivity of cats eyes
Civil Engineering structures (e.g. bridges, tunnels) Tensairity® beams Plant cell wall structures

Please follow the link to read this very interesting paper: http://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/cap/Biomimetics.pdf