Construction bionics

Building bionics or architectural bionics or architectural bionics, which is also referred to as "natural building", is a sub-area of bionics .

Bionics is an interdisciplinary science in which, for example, biologists, physicists and other natural scientists work together with engineers, architects and designers. Construction bionics describes the transfer of phenomena from nature to technical functions that can be relevant for the architecture and functions of a building.

In 1970 the special research area “wide-span surface structures” was set up at the University of Stuttgart , followed in 1994 by the special research area “natural constructions”. In school education, teaching architecture is mostly limited to art lessons. Construction bionics could also be dealt with in the subject of biology or in project weeks.

role models

For the bionics winning heard of inspiration from nature that this provides many opportunities. In construction bionics, for example, spider webs serve as a model for rope constructions, leaf overlays as a model for ideal surface coverage or the honeycomb principle for exemplary use of space. Construction engineers have made use of a natural movement mechanism for ventilation blades on buildings, so that they need neither energy nor electronics to move. “The material replaces the machine,” says architect Achim Menges, who teaches in Stuttgart. In Rome, architects presented a high-rise construction analogous to the rosette plant, which nests individual residential units one inside the other, so that the apartments give each other shade in summer while taking away as little sun as possible in winter. Another example is the lotus blossom effect. The surface of the lotus flower consists of the finest hairs that stand close together and protect the flower from dirt. In the building industry, self-cleaning surfaces are used on facades, roofs, glass surfaces and tent structures.

Architects and bionics

Construction bionics offers civil engineers, architects and designers the opportunity to find new ideas. As a result, these professional groups not only fall back on technical concepts, but can also orientate themselves on natural models. However, in the end only parts of the structure are bionic (biologically inspired), as the technical processes are usually combined with knowledge taken from nature. Nevertheless, a building is called bionic, provided that the defining components are biologically inspired. The research results from nature are used as a basis by civil engineers, architects and designers.

Architectural bionics is viewed critically if forms of nature are imitated in buildings and only serve as aesthetic models, such as sea shells, dragonfly wings or wing blades. This artistically oriented bionics is opposed to evolutionary construction bionics, in which bionics refer to the optimizing character of evolution by striving for optimal structural solutions.

Examples

Tree supports in Stuttgart Airport

• Tree supports : The new Terminal 1 at Stuttgart Airport was built in 1986–1991 based on a design by Meinhard von Gerkan with 18 tree supports. The tree supports support the stepped monopitch roof and, in addition to its bionic function, make the building appear filigree and transparent. The tree supports are based on the model of a forest. This constructive element is branched out like real trees and thus carries the surface load of the roof starting from the trunk over the branches to the branches. In addition to their function, which is based on the model of nature, the even distribution of space, they are now also considered a characteristic feature of Stuttgart Airport.

• Eastgate Center : In the Eastgate Center (Harare / Zimbabwe), office buildings with ventilation elements were built based on the principle of termite structures. The building can be kept at a constant internal temperature with almost no heating or ventilation system. This works with the help of air shafts, which form a coherent system, similar to that in termite construction. As soon as heated air rises there, a negative pressure is created, which draws in colder air from the center of the building. Due to these pressures, which draw in either colder or warmer air, the internal temperature remains the same even if the external temperature fluctuates.

literature

• Werner Nachtigall : Building Bionics: Nature - Analogies - Technology . Springer-Vieweg-Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-88994-6 .
• Werner Nachtigall : Biological design . Springer-Vieweg-Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-540-22789-X .
• Werner Nachtigall : Bionics: Learning from nature . CH Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-53636-6 .

Web links

• Bionics Competence Network (BIOKON eV)
• Construction bionics in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ limited preview in the Google book search
2. ↑ Lightweight construction in nature and technology. In: Unikurier No. 100. University of Stuttgart, December 20, 2007, accessed on November 15, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Martina Nadansky: Architecture in cultural education. Federal Agency for Civic Education, June 25, 2012, accessed on November 15, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Frank Kursawe: Nature as a model for ecological technology? (PDF) p. 3 f , accessed on November 15, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Michael Brüggemann: Living in the plant stalk. SZ.de, November 27, 2014, accessed November 15, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Construction bionics. (No longer available online.) Foundation for Bionics, archived from the original on June 26, 2015 ; accessed on November 15, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Technical University of Darmstadt: Building bionics - Buildings move. (php) (No longer available online.) Umweltjournal, October 31, 2008, archived from the original on November 17, 2015 ; accessed on November 15, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Brigitte Schultz: Copying nature is completely pointless. (PDF) Bauwelt, 2011, accessed on November 15, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Ingo Rechenberg: On the nature, value and development of bionics. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: Lecture Bionics I in WS 2000/2001. TU Berlin, p. 2 f , archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; accessed on November 15, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ Terminal 3, Stuttgart Airport. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Max Bögl, 2004, archived from the original on April 4, 2014 ; Retrieved March 3, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ Abigail Doan: BIOMIMETIC ARCHITECTURE: Green Building in Zimbabwe Modeled After Termite Mounds. inhabitat, 2012, accessed March 3, 2016 .