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Access Type
Open Access
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Architecture
Degree Type
Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
Year Degree Awarded
2011
Month Degree Awarded
May
Keywords
Sustainability, Biomimicry, Architecture, Tree, Systems, Infrastructure
Abstract
Biomimicry comes from bios, life, and mimesis, to imitate. Biomimicry is becoming an increasingly well-known topic in the field of architecture, imitating nature’s designs and processes to solve human problems. This project uses the oak tree as a model, measure, and mentor to derive sustainable architecture. Biomimicry is examined as a holistic methodology with six steps: identify, interpret, discover, abstract, emulate, and evaluate. Using this methodology, this project investigates oak tree’s closed-loop systems including water, oxygen, and food. The synergies that exist within these systems are emulated to develop a complex green infrastructure of building and landscape systems. This project provides an illustrated process using the biomimicry methodology to generate sustainable architecture.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/2004221
First Advisor
Kathleen R. Lugosch
Second Advisor
Sigrid Miller Pollin