Shelter-Biomimicry design

Yesterday I attend to a workshop about biomimicry and my group and I focused on the concept of shelter. I would like to show what we developed.

At first, we had to think about what we wanted to design and to determine the main functions. We decided to do something self-sustainable, that fit whit the enviorament, that creates cleanliness, durability, security and comfortablity. Morever it should protect from the elements, especially climatological ones. This last one is what connect directly with biology.

We locate the problem in a specific climate. Its characteristics were humidity, high temperatures, sun, lack of rain and proximity to the sea. Some little animals such as the snail, the lizard or the tick give us ideas. Also cactus give us "advise" to resolve the lack of rain.

I think it was the lizard who gave me more inspiration. The lizards in the desert have multicolor scales that defend them from the sunlight and the heat. They also changes their position depending on the sun direction. So we can apply this to a shelter by putting something similar to these scales in the walls. These scales could be pannels which were able to repel the sunlight. We can imitate the changes of positions by facing the shelter to the north where is supposed to suffer less solar radiations or making the shelter rotating.

Jesús Lloredo Fernández