BIONIC ARCHITECTURE learning from nature for the sake of technology
Biomimetics means learning from nature, investigating methodology and translating this into technical solutions. It might sound very fascinating for architects and engineers to examine the variety of the natural world, but one has to keep in mind: The research-design process has to maintain abstraction, direct interpretation will not work out. Thus we´re talking about a three step process: research - abstraction - implementation (Nachtigall 2010). The term BIONICS exists since the 50´s, formed by studies of bats which were used for the development of the radar technology. BIONICS consists of two fields BIOlogy and techNICS. The later developed term BIOMIMICRY - the imitation of life - doesn´t harmonize with our process described above. BIOMIMETICS - which describes the understanding of biological structures and processes and their technological applications and methods, became more accepted and was used as a synonym for bionics. 105
