Exploring design principles of biological and living building envelopes: what can we learn from plant cell walls?

Xing, Y ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5374-7269, Jones, P, Bosch, M, Donnison, I, Spear, M and Ormondroyd, G, 2018. Exploring design principles of biological and living building envelopes: what can we learn from plant cell walls? Intelligent Buildings International, 10 (2), pp. 78-102. ISSN 1750-8975

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Abstract

A number of innovations in building envelope technologies have been implemented recently, for example, to improve insulation and air tightness to reduce energy consumption. However, growing concern over the embodied energy and carbon as well as resource depletion, is beginning to impact on the design and implementation of existing and novel building envelope technologies. Biomimicry is proposed as one approach to create buildings which are resilient to a changing climate, embedded in wider ecological systems, energy efficient and waste free. However, the diversity of form and function in biological organisms and therefore potential applications for biomimicry, requires a holistic approach spanning biology, materials science and architecture. It is considered timely to re-examine opportunities to learn from nature, including in the light of recent understanding of how plant form and function are determined at the cellular levels. In this article, we call for a systemic approach for the development of innovative biological and living building envelopes. Plant cell walls are compared to building envelopes. Key features of cell walls with the potential to inform the development of design principles of biological and living building envelopes are identified and discussed.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Intelligent Buildings International
Creators:	Xing, Y., Jones, P., Bosch, M., Donnison, I., Spear, M. and Ormondroyd, G.
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Date:	2018
Volume:	10
Number:	2
ISSN:	1750-8975
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/17508975.2017.1394808 DOI 1240226 Other
Rights:	© 2017 the author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	25 Nov 2019 11:31
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2019 09:13
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/38477

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