Resilience through Biomimicry and Biophilia

In the article “Coastal Geomorphology into the twenty-first century,” authors Wayne Stephenson and Robert Brander explain that in order to create a resilient plan of action, it is important to understand the features that make up a coast. They argue that before we determine “Where we go from here?” it is necessary to evaluate where we are now. Many coastal areas are typically known for their sandy shore beaches between high and low watermarks. They include dunes, which serve an importance purpose by protecting island areas from coastal water intrusion. They can absorb the impact and act as a resilient barrier to the destructive forces of wind and waves. Other factors include estuaries regularly known as the nurseries of the sea for they provide vital nesting and feeding habitat for many aquatic plants and animals. Like estuaries, coral reefs, protect coastlines from the damaging effects of wave action and tropical storms while providing habitat and shelter for many marine organisms. Many other Coastal features arise from what is known as Erosion, a process explained by Stephenson where large storms, flooding, strong wave action, sea level rise, and human activities wear away beaches along coast lines. Shore platforms and cliffs are in effect, the outcome of erosion.

Erosion, many times is considered as a complication and a reaction from nature to our own man-made decisions. Jag Cooper and J. Mckenne, pioneers of a study in England titled “Working with natural processes: The challenge for coastal protection strategies” explain that a fundamental change must be made from the prevailing view of coastal erosion as a problem, and instead it must be depicted as a process to be protected. However, I ask myself what are the impacts of erosion on coastal areas, and why are these risks reoccurring and escalating over the years? Copper explains that human infrastructure located within the zone of dynamic variability of the coast is a problem waiting to happen for beaches because it compromises their ability to adjust to changed conditions. He further presents three different types of impacts in result to coastal erosion. Loss of land with economical, societal or ecological value being one of them; the destruction of natural sea protection and the undermining of artificial sea defenses, potentially also leading to flood risk. Bad built decisions have started to cause the need for harder defense measures and has accelerated the process of erosion.

Rossnowlagh, County Donegal a 2km long beach described in “Working with natural processes,” provides an illustration of these negative aspects, and presents the need and the bad outcomes of hard defenses. This beach is composed of fine sand backed by narrow gravel ridge backed by vegetated sand dunes. As described, Rossnowlagh is known to be a major holiday resort with numerous holiday homes, and has experienced large-scale development since the 1970’s. This continuous development has initiated the loss of the intact dune to roads, houses, hotel and shops. By 2000 the dune front was 50% artificially defended. This has accelerated the erosion and the outcome is likely to be an ever-increasing construction of defenses. This case study shows the risks presented by humans and the dangers to the natural environment due to our own decision. It portrays the screaming need of nature asking for help. If we keep treating the natural environment with hard defenses, it will start to loose its ability to adapt to change. As stated by Cooper, “Working with coastal protection means protection of coastal ecosystems rather than protection of property of amenity. ” It is our task today to begin to consider natural based features for the enhancement of coastal systems. Leaving hard defenses behind and integrating natural process in coastal geomorphologies, we can begin to protect nature. However, the implementation of systems that enable natural processes to operate in a path to a resilient future will require a changed approach to infrastructure.

Timothy Beatley, author of “Planning for Coastal Resilience,” defines resilience thinking as a way of thinking that acknowledges that we are embedded in interconnected “socio-ecological systems,” that these systems are complex and adaptive, and that resilience is the capacity to undergo some changes without crossing a threshold to a different system regime. He further argues that it is all about a complex adaptive system that’s constantly changing and adapting to a changing world. This system is to absorb change and still retain its basic structure and function, its identity. If resilience thinking portrays the idea of adaptability just like nature, how can the physical/built environment adapt to climate change hand in hand with nature rather than invading the natural environment creating a new habitat for coastal life?

Biomimicry presents the availability to explore the wider potential of nature and nature-based features as a primary component, using nature as a design partner. Defined by Michael Pawlyn in his book “Biomimicry in Architecture,” Biomimicry is mimicking the functional basis of biological forms, processes and systems to produce sustainable solutions. He argues that many conventional architects have frequently used nature as a source for unconventional forms and symbolic association, but that is not what we are looking for in Biomimicry. Instead, the design must engage with the function delivered by a particular natural adaptation, using nature in a purely technical approach. The goal is to design, learning from and with nature that has been accumulating wisdom for 3. 8 billion years, and it has been very apparent that as the years pass by, we are distancing ourselves more and more from it, creating an astonishing disconnection.

Opposed to the idea of learning from and with nature, Joe Kaplinsky science writer and researcher calls in his article “Biomimicry versus Humanism,” for a humanist sense of what architecture and engineering mean in the world. He tries to convince that although we are in an era of constant evolution we have given all the power to nature and taking away the human innovation. Kaplinsky states that today it seems that the human has become tainted, that synthetic materials are widely reviled as toxic and that design is for “the planet” and not for “the people” anymore. He argues that this idolization of nature is seeking to cut humanity and human achievement down to size. In total disagreement with Kaplinsky, biomimicry is trying to learn how certain species adapt and how we can use this in our everyday infrastructures. It is not about trying to re-invent the wheel, but about trying to remember that nature is part of us. Proven by our current hazardous events, man-made systems are less efficient than natural systems. Everything in nature has a function that is what we are trying to learn from it. It’s not about a competition trying to conquer the natural world, but instead is collaboration between nature and the human.

Pawlyn states in his book “Biomimicry in Architecture,” that we can integrate architecture with the natural world. He argues that for virtually every problem that we currently face weather it is producing energy, finding fresh water or manufacturing materials, there will be numerous examples in nature that we could benefit from studying. We can go further than mitigation; cities can start to be regenerative. The intention is to transcend the mimicking of natural forms and attempt to understand the principles that lie behind those forms and systems. Pawlyn presents various examples of how we can start to build more efficient, resilient and nature partnered structures. Birds, for example, inspire skeletons structures not by mimicking their form, but as Pawlyn explained birds have evolved in response to intense selective pressure on reducing weight. The bird’s skulls, is an engineering miracle. The effective thickness of it is increased while creating multiple surfaces connected by a matrix of ties decreases weight. This is integrated for buildings increasing material efficiency while producing more elegant and structurally legible forms. On the other hand, trees, also explained by Pawlyn, demonstrate stress uniformity and the idea of optimized joined shapes that avoid stress concentration and can adapt over time. Over the course of a tree’s life it is able to adapt constantly to reoccurring conditions. This can be applied to architecture in the form of structural elements that can be self-adapting, self-responsive and self repairable. These examples explain how we can start to integrate nature in the design approach. With access to ever improving scientific knowledge designers will be able to draw on the many examples of nature and the processes of nature that lead to a level of refinement in order to create structures that are efficient, resilient and nature partnered.

Terri Peters and Janine Benyus, biologist and innovation consultant propose in their article “Nature as Measure: The biomimicry Guild,” various principles that designs should begin to not only respond to, and integrate to natural ecosystems, but should also begin to create a surplus of ecosystem services. These principles include: evolve to survive, be resource efficient, adapt to changing conditions, integrate development with growth, be locally attuned responsive and use life-friendly chemistry. Peters argues, that by following these principles, biomimicry can be achieved in architecture proposing resiliency. Peters and Benyus reinforce the importance of exploring the ecology of the specific site as the main requirement to process to the principles. Understanding the specific site allows to study the geomorphological needs, the actual features and the specific needs of the site in order to become nature partnered. However, resilience must transcend the natural forms and the man made environment. It must create a bond between human beings, nature and other organisms.

Biophilia presents an opportunity to study the natural world with the relationship to the humans that interact with it promoting coexistence. Defined by Timothy Beatley author of “Handbook of Biophilic city planning and design,” Biophilia is the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms. Evidence of the healing power of nature shows the ways exposure to nature helps us by creating a wide range of positive mental and physical benefits. Biophilic research suggests water as highly valued preferred and health strongly related to proximity to coastal environments. This allows for the opportunity to create a development of an amphibious habitat suited for both land and water. We must start to act aligned with nature integrating not only the physical environment, but also the human interaction with nature and its surroundings influencing social and economic resilience. Beatley explains how studies have proven that people are more creative and more cooperative when nature is around, incentivizing a collaborative community atmosphere. Nature comprises all the life and living systems in and around coastal developments. Beatley focuses on explaining the importance of sight in the contact to nature with the human beings. However, a study called “A review of the benefits of Nature experiences: More than meets the eye,” by Lara S. Franco, Danielle Shanahan and Richard Fuller explain the importance of a multisensory experience with nature on human beings. Franco argues that because of the domination of the visual sense in humans, most research has focused in the visual aspects of nature experiences. Anyhow, the studies show that many human benefits are delivered through the non-visual senses, and these senses are crucial because monotony of stimulation can be a source of stress and multimodal sensory input can drive positive mental states such as tranquility. The article reviews the ways in which we experience nature through each of our senses and how these are beneficial to our well-being.

Franco explains sight in nature as an anxiety reducer and is proven to increase directed attention. Sound is proven to induce a component of place attachment and are felt as a link to the environment, both of which could be associated with positive feelings about one’s environment. Smell on the other hand can have profound effects on our moods, behavior and cognition through the reminder of the outdoors, triggering any positive feelings we have about nature. As studied, smell as well serves to portray the health of an environment, where a nature exteriorizes good health through the smells is emits. Natural odors from plants and animals such as floral fragrance and musk discussed by Franco, are indicative of metabolism and physiological functions, so smells can tell us about the state of possible food. Taste then explained, tells us about what we put in our mouths applicable to food, which is, crucial to our survival. Therefore, taste is fundamental to our over all health and ties us inextricably to nature. Lastly explained, touch is crucial to love and social bonding, through tactile stimulation. Touch in nature, weather is through animals, or natural elements are proven to help with confidence, social skills, communication, knowledge and understanding. The integration of Biophilia, through the use of all the senses, gives an opportunity to create strong social and economic urban developments through collaboration, integration, connection and direct needs from the natural world.

Urban developments in coastal areas need to start taking a new road in design; we need to propose a whole new system. Richard Buckminster Fuller states “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. ” This review has shown how, coastal areas are experiencing a cycle, where coastal features are being jeopardized through bad coastal development, leading to the need of hard defenses, and incentivizing vulnerable physical, social and economic environments. In order to begin the healing process of nature, as Fuller states, we need to make the existing model obsolete. Starting by creating biomimic coastal developments to conquer physical vulnerabilities, integrating Biophilia to create strong social and economic developments and using natural processes to maintain and preserve the existing coastal geomorphologies we can start to build a new model for resilient coastal areas. The key lies in the observation and integration of nature as a design partner with the purpose of considering natural based features for the enhancement of the coastal systems. It is how we begin to integrate the resilient aspects of nature in the design process through biomimicry, Biophilia and natural processes, while protecting the fragile components of the natural world.