At the beginning of the process of the assignment3, I had to decided to make a spiral tower in the model. I had used the Poly lines in rhino, and move them and get the loft to make the shape of the whole building geometry in Grasshopper. The tutorial I found is I do not floor the way that showed in the tutorial but got the nearly same building in a totally different method that is what I thought is most important in the experimental modeling course.
Throughout the world, every species has unique shape, structure and function. In architectural design perspective, many high-rise buildings are designed by architects who inspired from nature. This is because the application of bionics has positive prospect in architectures, which not only improved the human living condition, but also improved the human living quality. Architectural Bionics is based on the research of functional organization and the shape of living species, and explores the scientific and reasonable construction discipline in architecture, and to enrich and improve the architectural design, building form and structure, and also to promote the functional rooms’ layout more efficient. Architectural bionics is not only an effective method in building forms innovation, but also is a realistic way that makes buildings harmoniously into nature. With the rapid growth of population, the urban construction space is depleted. In order to use the rest existing urban land resources, the tall buildings have been developed rapidly, and the bionics technology has also been widely used in those buildings design. Therefore, it is the future direction of building development. This essay will discuss the detailed examples of these buildings and different prototypes of those building are innovation. Firstly, the importance of their design principles will be illuminated in different perspectives, and secondly, their form, structures, functions and method to build will be explained and compared.
Bionics architecture design principles are that through the form, structure, function and environment, buildings could mimic the characteristics of a biological species in nature, and those could make the buildings more functional, more beautiful, more energy efficient, more ecological and more sustainable. Currently, a number of bionic buildings has built in the world, the bionics theory and its applications could be classified into four main categories, that are form bionic, bionic structure, functional and ecological bionic. The following specific examples will be combined for analysis in those categories.
Form Bionics
Form Bionics is the most common one in architectural uses; it could not only achieve a new innovative building form design, but also play an important role in the new-style structural system to create a remarkable architectural images and cultural effects. One of the most famous innovative architecture-Turning Torso in Malmo was the best examples that creating substantial synergies among bionic and building form. This 54 storey building is about 189 meters high, and it is divided into nine district level layer, every district layer include 5 single floors, and each floor is rotated a little, so that the entire building was rotated 90 degrees. It is believed that the original design of this building inspired by the twist of the human body sculpture, and its rotation form also distorted the vision of human. Therefore, the typical bionic form architecture increasing the readability and resonate of architectural work.
Another typical example is the Urban Cactus in Rotterdam; This 19 storey apartment could provide 98 residential units. At the same time，the curve and patchwork shape design of the balconies not only make the exterior space of each residential unit get enough sunlight, but its unique bionic architectural form makes the building itself become a landmark of Rotterdam. Thus, it can be seen that the bionic theory promotes the development of new high-rise buildings in the future.
Bionics Structure
Bionics Structure is that architects get inspiration from natural physics which include mechanical properties, the relationship of natural structural, the properties of natural material, at the same time, the application of it in building structure design achieves the implementation of functional requirements that the traditional structure cannot fulfill. Architects get the structural inspiration from nature is that with the minimum building material, to create the maximum structural stiffness and the structural bearing capacity, and also the largest use of space. These are the future building structural research direction.
In bionics building structure part, the double spiral structure is designed in widely applications. This is because when two single spiral structure intersect to each other and they could become a double spiral structure. Then, it will improve the bearing capacity and stiffness of building structure rapidly. The application of the double spiral structure in architecture field has achieved the dual effect of building structure aesthetics. The most successful example is the JIN MAO Tower.The main structure of these buildings, such as the steel frame is connected by nodes, and the nodes of structure with the steel frame itself constitute as a whole part of buildings. Both of them coordinate the external pressure points that forced on structure, and participate by the effect of force. The force acting in the opposite direction would produce the same effect when the force works on one node. Therefore, those could reduce the total pressure on the structure, and that could enhance the structural stability. All of those have been widely used in tall buildings, and the majority of them are designed to have a strong structural truss, thereby increasing the overall structural strength of the buildings.
Functional Bionics
The functions of contemporary architecture is not only used to fulfill the basic functional features, but also used to content the overall arrangement of space and the functional requirements of structure, all of these required a higher standard when architects design or arrange the building space. However, bionic building function provides a solution of these problems to the architects. The more comprehensive example is that, the building in Tokyo. Thus, based on those, through of the functional bionic, architects could inspired in the species in nature, so that the overall arrangement of building space could become more innovative.
Ecological Bionics
Ecological Bionics is the creative formation methods that to adapt the new building environment by studying the principle of biological growth and natural ecological discipline, which combined with its own architectural features. The principle of it is to mimic the growth of biological species in nature, while the structure of its spatial design is continuously changing.There are some other economic values in bionic buildings in our society. For example, Turning Torso could create synergies among substantial environment and economic benefits. The short term local tourism revenue arises from the leisure and recreation values of this building. In general, more clear evidence would be the revenue derived from tourists visiting the Malmo in Sweden. Such revenue would far outweigh the costs of establishing this famous landmark building. Based on those, it is clearly that bionic architectures will mainly be a new trend of architectural evolving in creating economic benefits.
In conclusion, Bionic theory in high-rise building has been in use widely, it improved the living conditions and living environment, also it played an important role in improving building space and utilization of natural resources. At the same time, in the building structure part, bionic theory also played an important role in improving building structural strength and the innovation of architectural form. It could be seen that bionic theory affects the building sustainable development and ecological protection. Based on those, It is believed that with the development of building technology and materials technology, the application of architectural bionics will be further developed and research in depth. In the future, more beautiful, more practical, more environmentally friendly and more economical bionics building will become more popular.
