Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Applying Properties of Animals Skins to Inspire Architectural Envelopes

Biology influences design projects in many ways; the related discipline is known as biomimetics or biomimicry. Using the animal kingdom as a source of inspiration, Ilaria Mazzoleni seeks to instill a shift in thinking about the application of biological principles to design and architecture. She focuses on the analysis of how organisms have adapted to different environments and translates the learned principles into the built environment. To illustrate the methodology, Mazzoleni draws inspiration from the diversity of animal coverings, referred to broadly as skin, and applies them to the design of building envelopes through a series of twelve case studies.

Skin is a complex organ that performs a multitude of functions; namely, it serves as a link between the body and the environment. Similarly, building envelopes act as interfaces between their inhabitants and external elements. The resulting architectural designs illustrate an integrative methodology that allows architecture to follow nature.

"Ilaria Mazzoleni, in collaboration with biologist Shauna Price, has developed a profound methodology for architectural and design incentives that anticipates and proposes novel ways to explore undiscovered biological inspirations for various audiences."
--Yoseph Bar-Cohen

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. xi)
• Acknowledgments (p. xiii)
• Project Credits (p. xvii)
• Preface (p. xix)
• Part I
• 1 Theoretical Framework (p. 3)
• Introduction (p. 3)
• How Nature Inspires Architecture (p. 6)
• Historical Interplay of Bio-Inspired Architecture among Science, Art and Design (p. 7)
• Contemporary Challenges and Interests (p. 12)
• Nature and the Built Environment (p. 15)
• Novel Practices in the Built Environment: Dynamic, Atmospheric, and Active (p. 18)
• How Biology Informs Architecture (p. 26)
• Evolving and Adapting to Survive (p. 29)
• Climate and Biomes (p. 32)
• Ecosystems and Biodiversity (p. 36)
• Lessons Learned: Biology to the Built Environment (p. 40)
• Part II
• 2 Applications (p. 47)
• Overview (p. 47)
• Methodology (p. 50)
• Skin Composition and Functions (p. 53)
• The Four Selected Functions (p. 57)
• 3 Communication (p. 61)
• Urania moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus) (p. 66)
• Violet-tailed sylph (Aglaiocents coelestis) (p. 76)
• Lettuce sea slug (Elysia crispata) (p. 86)
• 4 Thermal Regulation (p. 97)
• Side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana) (p. 104)
• Snow leopard (Panthera uncia) (p. 114)
• Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) (p. 124)
• 5 Water Balance (p. 135)
• Banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus) (p. 140)
• Dyeing dart frog (Dendrobates tinctorius) (p. 150)
• Ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus) (p. 160)
• Namib Desert beetles (Onymacris unguicularis, Physasterna cribripes) (p. 170)
• 6 Protection (p. 181)
• Tree pangolin (Manis tricuspis) (p. 186)
• Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) (p. 196)
• Endnotes (p. 207)
• Bibliography (p. 211)
• Author Biographies (p. 229)
• Index (p. 231)