Category: ARCH 502A: Biomimetics in Architecture

The “Sponge Tower”, uses luffa and venus flower basket sponges as biomimetic references to produce a new fiber bundle structure. The biomimetic references have unique properties such as a high-strength-to-weight ratio, flexibility, and porousness. Both sponges’ spicules are arranged in a specific pattern that gives them strength and resilience. During the design process, the Midjourney AI program is utilized to optimize the material’s properties for sustainable and efficient building prototypes. The final design and model, sponge-inspired tower, offers sustainable benefits in terms of architecture, by mimicking the natural properties of the sponge. The generated fiber bundle structure provides enhanced strength and durability, which allowed the creation of a taller and more structurally sound tower without additional materials or resources.

Swarming is a natural phenomenon that describe the collective behavior of animals moving synchronously in a large or dense group without the need of centralized coordination.

Swarm Tectonics speculates on the three-dimensional consequences of self-organizing, multi-agent systems, creating architecture with a multitude of formal and structural possibilities.

Casting Space seeks to create architecture that responds to the human being, using operable design strategies to give choice back to the user in previously static environments. Using a biomimetic lens to look into species such as the tubeworm that have the capacity to create their own unique livable spaces, this idea evolved into a quest for how human beings can create flexible architecture that is able to respond to their own individual needs. The project centers around the concept of human touch shaping spatial experience, placing flexible, operable architecture into dense urban fabrics to highlight user-driven design, engage the public in the built environment, and give agency back to the user through newfound choice in design.

The Permeable Communities project proposes a new urban conception of flooding as it relates to architecture, infrastructure, and community.

This new urban system takes inspiration from the molecular structure of a pomelo peel, citing notions of porosity as it pertains to water control, flood mitigation, and softening neighborhood barriers. The structure is made up of a hollow membrane, connecting and folding itself over one another, creating a porous barrier for the fruit. The layered system allows the movement of water through the skin in a slowed, controlled manner providing sound inspiration for an urban strategy

I am proposing a new method of facade fabrication that promotes community engagement and takes advantage of the thermal properties of terracotta. The facade components are harvested by participants from a hollow textured clay cylinder using thin wire. No two fragments are identical but they are combined into a cohesive system. The form of the initial volume creates fragments with a slight curve, making them ideal for catching rain. Once a
fragment collects enough water it will tip back into the series of pipes that channel it into a collection tank to be reused in the misting system which provides cooling and irrigation.