Nature’s genius

Prior to development, Kuala Lumpur was a lowland rainforest supporting the same species richness such as that currently found in Taman Negara in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Today, Kuala Lumpur teems with completely different diversity and richness – those associated with human systems. However, fundamental to both systems is the need to effectively respond to the challenges of living here, in this place.

In Kuala Lumpur and other cities in Southeast Asia, environmental challenges are rooted in two primary operating conditions- constant warm temperatures and abundant rainfall. However, comparison of lowland tropical rainforest and Kuala Lumpur ecosystems tell two very different stories of success in dealing with challenges posed by these operating conditions.

As seen in the table above and repeatedly throughout the stories of our modern cities, our approach to solving for these challenges in human systems often differs significantly from the strategies employed by native ecosystems. Our species’ future is dependent upon the successful continuation of these fundamental ecosystem functions, but the evidence indicates our human systems are failing us. Fortunately, city leaders and built environment experts are attempting to disrupt the stories of cities toward regenerative, resilient outcomes. The big question is, how?

The Forest Way

The lowland forests of Malaysia are some of the most productive ecosystems on earth. As the forests breathe in carbon dioxide to convert sunlight to sugars, they store an overabundance of carbon in forest vegetation which fuels rich biodiversity. As the forests breathe out, they release water vapor that helps to create their own weather patterns. Fallen vegetation, captured by massive buttressed tree roots and tiny fungal networks in the upper layers of the soil, is broken down rapidly in the constantly warm humid environment. These resources are stored in forms easily (and quickly) taken up again by living plants. In this way, the vast wealth of this complex ecosystem is held in the biomass, not in the shallow soil. Thus, the abundance of vegetation and the biodiversity it fuels are the living embodiment of a generous system in Malaysia. In biomimicry, we recognize this as genius.

The Biomimicry Solution

Biomimicry is the multi-disciplinary innovation practice of learning from and emulating solutions found in nature to solve human design challenges. Species have evolved over millennia to survive in their local environment. Those that didn’t adapt and evolve have gone extinct. Thus, the species and systems we find today can provide examples of proven long-term solutions – they are inherently sustainable and resilient. By applying the lessons learned – the design principles – to our own designs, we can begin to create solutions that are better adapted to life on this planet.

In biomimicry we also look at the deepest patterns found across all species that define the rulebook for sustainable and resilient living on Earth, such as using life-friendly chemistry, being material and energy efficient, and adapting to changing conditions. We use these deep patterns both as an additional innovation tool during brainstorming and as an evaluation tool throughout the design process. Use of these deep patterns helps to engage a design team in systems thinking to understand and improve upon the broader impact of a design.

Cities are Ecosystems

When using biomimicry to find solutions to address built environment design challenges in a specific place, our research looks into the local context. Plants and animals in a desert look and function in fundamentally different ways than those in lowland forests. Conducting a deep dive into why and how local species deal with local operating conditions in place, including identifying deep patterns found across species in a geography, can provide invaluable insight into innovative and locally-attuned solutions that improve our management of the resources and risks associated with a challenge. We call this knowledge embodied in local species and systems “Genius of Place.”

Fundamental to the idea of biomimicry as it applies to the built environment is the recognition that cities are inextricably linked to the ecosystems that support them – they both impact and are impacted by native ecosystems. Both native and human systems have overlapping energy and resource inputs and outputs, and rely upon as well as impact activities that occur beyond their borders. They are also constantly responding to dynamic conditions that come from both within and outside the systems. Our cities are biological systems – ecosystems – that are bound by the same rules as all other life systems.

Before every city was built, a native ecosystem was in place for millennia, if not longer (in Malaysia they estimate the forests are 130 million years old!), performing myriad services for its inhabitants. If our cities fail to meet the same net system metrics achieved by the native ecosystems they replace, the water, energy and resource cycles that sustain an abundance of life, including our own, are disrupted and begin to degrade, often rapidly. The degradation results in challenges that plague our cities – polluted water, higher temperatures, changes in weather patterns that affect rainfall, and large volumes of waste.

Rethinking Infrastructure to Achieve Ecosystem Functions

So how do we improve functionality of our built environment? How do we begin to rethink our approach to solving for the energy, food, transportation, and water infrastructure challenges plaguing our cities? Since our cities will not return to lowland forests, how can we re-engineer them to function like native ecosystems such that we improve the sustainability and resiliency of our cities? What will we learn from lowland forests about carbon cycling, energy use, soil management, water management and creating opportunities for biodiversity in Kuala Lumpur?

Fortunately we do not need to begin from scratch when looking for novel solutions – we can learn from innovative, proven sustainable and resilient solutions that are literally on the doorstep of our cities if we make the conscious decision to step outside, learn and emulate.

Biomimicry in Action

A popular example of biomimicry in infrastructure is Tokyo’s Shinkansen Bullet Train, the front of which was redesigned to mimic the shape of a kingfisher’s beak to eliminate a sonic boom generated upon exiting a tunnel. The redesign also happened to reduce electrical consumption of the train by around 15%.

When looking to biomimicry in systems, architects are rethinking how buildings can mimic the upper canopy’s impact on slowing down precipitation and evaporation rates to contribute to sustaining local water cycles. Other examples include the application of swarm intelligence to design logistics software to determine the most efficient delivery routes, prevent collisions and improve traffic signal timing, and use of the algorithms of slime mold in choosing the best paths from point A to point B to design our highway systems.