Can Biomimicry Be a Useful Tool for Design for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation? - Biotechnologies and Biomimetics for Civil Engineering - page 83

2. Creating or maintaining urban forest and green space;
3. Design for energy conservation;
4. Provision of renewable energy sources; and
5. Carbon storage or sequestration.

The first two strategies relate to urban planning and represent long-term climate
change adaptation strategies. This section therefore will deal with the latter three,
and most common (Steemers 2003 ), categories. The first category examined in this
chapter is biomimetic examples that mimic the energy efficiency or effectiveness
of living organisms and systems. The impetus is that by being more energy effi-
cient, less fossil fuel is burnt and therefore fewer GHGs are emitted. The second
approach is to devise new ways of producing energy to reduce human dependence
on fossil fuels and their associated GHGs. Various biomimetic technologies and
products have been developed for the purposes of improving energy efficiency and
exploring new energy generation possibilities. A third biomimetic approach to
mitigating GHG emissions is investigating organisms or ecosystems for examples
of processes within them that can sequester and store carbon. This is to prevent
emission of GHGs through human activities causing additional climate change.
Brief case studies are presented in the following sections.

4.3.1 Biomimicry for Energy Efficiency

There are numerous examples of living organisms and systems that are highly
energy effective and that may yield an understanding of how humans could carry
out their activities without a dependence on fossil fuels (Allen 2010 , p. 169,
Pawlyn, pp. 91-101). Some well-known examples of biomimicry fit into this
category, such as DaimlerChrysler's prototype Bionic car 2 (2005) (Fig. 4.1 ) and
Mick Pearce's Eastgate building in Harare, Zimbabwe (1996) (Fig. 4.2 ).
The large volume, small wheel base concept Bionic Car, was based on the
hydrodynamic and strength characteristics of the boxfish (Ostracion meleagris).
This resulted in the design of a more fuel efficient car with the low drag coefficient
of 0.19, and panels with 40 % more rigidity than a standard car (Anon 2005 ). The
chassis and structure of the car were also biomimetic, having been designed using
a computer modelling method designed by Claus Mattheck that mimics how trees
are able to grow in a way that minimises stress concentrations (Pawlyn 2011 , p. 21,
Mattheck 1998 , Mattheck et al. 1996 ). The resulting car structure looks almost
skeletal (Fig. 4.1 ). Total car weight was reduced by at least a third because
material was allocated only to the places where it is most needed (Vincent et al.
2006 ). This process was abandoned because according to the car manufacturers it
was too time intensive (Vincent 2010 ).

2

The Bionic Car is also referred to as the 'Mercedes Bionic Car' (Pawlyn 2011 , p. 5). Mercedes
Benz is part of the DaimlerChrysler group.