Introduction
Practicing bionics is learning from nature to improve technology; It is practiced with varying degrees of intensity in the different technical subjects. Of course, it can be interesting or even fascinating for the engineer and architect to peek over the fence at the richness of living nature.
What is Biomimetics?
The idea that “BIONICS” is an artificial word, combined with biology and technology, is inevitable. This description has been around since the 1950s; at that time, it was formulated during attempts to study bat echolocation for a radar technology yet to be developed. A different terminology has recently been found: “BIOMIMICRY” which literally means “imitation of life”.
The term “bionics” implies an understanding of biological structures and processes and their comparable technological applications, methods, or processes. Bionics is not the simple imitation of nature, neither in material and functional terms nor in terms of design, but the grasp of natural principles to understand analog technological questions, which could then be solved through the use of technologies. optimized.
Historical development of Biomimetics
Historically, the biomimetic process has developed from the confrontation of the results of functional morphological research with the requirements of technical constructions. This process was naïve at first, as is customary when a new topic is tentatively opened. Around 1500, Leonardo da Vinci, the closest observer of bird flight in his time, developed flapping wing mechanisms that would have worked on the principle of overlapping flight feathers during bird flight.
One could speak here of a “functional analogy” if the whole structure of the wing had not been designed according to static and aerodynamic principles, so to speak. In this case and with countless other “inventions”, simplified abstractions that extend to the 20th century.
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One example is the invention of reinforced concrete. Parisian Joseph Monier was a “horticulturalist”. Out of anger at the price and fragility of large stone or clay plant pots, and the astute observation that the altered and branched sclerenchyma structures of Opuntia stiffen their leaf masses, the idea of making pots with an outstretched structure several components was born in 1880. A metal basket, corresponding to the sclerenchyma network in plants, gives tensile strength and at the same time maintains the pressure-resistant cement mass, corresponding to the plant parenchyma, in shape. At the same time, the cement stabilizes the shape of the wire basket.
Biomimetics in Architecture and Design
Bionics does not offer any method to implement them directly into our technical processes. “Building bionics” will still not be a method of building houses or designing objects directly. However, the wide array of natural precedents has the potential to generate new ideas.
The difference is that the brainstorming process in this area can think outside the box, come closer to natural patterns, and can also lead to concepts based on synthetic and technical aspects. In the end, the two methods are often confused. Finding a purely “biomimetic” structure will therefore be difficult, and often only parts of structures are of biological inspiration. If the determining elements of a building or part of a building are biologically inspired, then the building as a whole can be qualified as “biomimetic”.
Architects, civil engineers, and designers use the results of bionics research as a design approach. A direct copy never leads to the goal. If, however, a basic idea of nature is captured, for example, an ecologically neutral thermoregulatory ventilation from solar effects, then inspirations can ensure a stronger technical-biological treatment of these aspects and their biomimetic application in engineering. It is enough to understand that nature does not provide models and that its structures and processes are not easy to recognize or even less to implement. However, they exist in large numbers.
By providing technical know-how, natural structures can often be understood much better than from a biological point of view alone. Such better understanding, in turn, provides a more beneficial basis for implementation, and so on.
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Reference-https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-19120-1
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