91ÊÓƵ

If life imitates art, then art should imitate nature.

That is how Nicole Isle, director of sustainability and planning at , views the world. In fact, she believes the design industry should do the same. For years, Isle, who has a background in watershed ecology and urban planning, has worked to promote the concept of biomimicry – using plant and animal behavior to solve human issues. Architects and engineers can use designs and processes evident in nature to increase sustainability in buildings, she says.

After working as an environmental consultant and a field biologist, Isle became a certified Biologist at the Design Table through the Biomimicry Guild in 2007. She is helping establish the Oregon Biomimicry Network so that workshops can be offered and companies can learn how to use it to solve design issues.

Portland has the potential to become a hub for biomimicry-based design, according to Isle. The 91ÊÓƵ recently asked her about that and how architectural design can benefit from the concept.

91ÊÓƵ: How do you think biomimicry ties into architecture?

Nicole Isle: I think there is a huge potential for biomimicry in architecture as a design tool and as a model for sustainability. One of the key benefits is that it broadens the range of solutions and enables designers to think outside their regular parameters.

You can’t use a simple system like (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) that’s prescriptive in order to achieve high levels of sustainability – you have to go beyond platinum. LEED is very safe in that there’s a menu to choose from, while biomimicry is very fluid and it allows for creativity and innovation in the design process. I think it will help get us to that regenerative state that we need to achieve to actually heal the environment.

Nature’s perspective is what it means to live sustainably on Earth, so why not look to nature as to an approach to solving our design challenges? Nature is our original designer in architecture.

91ÊÓƵ: Can you explain how the architectural design process would be able to incorporate a behavior used by a plant or an animal?

Isle: Just like any typical design process, you start to identify your challenges; you try to find out what the real barriers a team has to overcome on a project. If you can define that challenge and turn that challenge into not what you’re trying to design but what you want your design to do – the function aspect – then that’s your portal into the natural world.

Once a biologist is sitting at the design table, they’re able to examine these natural design examples. The key is to translate natural biological language into design language so architects can say, ‘Oh, I get it. I can see how this might work.’

91ÊÓƵ: Can you give us a specific example?

Isle: The Eastgate Centre in Zimbabwe. They took the mechanism of how termites ventilate their mounds, which is through a series of underground chambers that pre-cool the air. Then the air ventilates through a stack in the mound.

Those termites are constantly opening and closing the chambers to maintain a very specific temperature in the mound, because there’s a fungus – they eat it for food – that grows there that can only survive in a very narrow temperature range. The building adapted the closed-chamber system with the use of flues.

They asked, ‘How does nature ventilate or not ventilate?’ Then they looked for ‘champion’ species that have perfect ventilation strategies in the same climatic conditions that were facing the building.

91ÊÓƵ: In your work with Brightworks, have you and the firm designed any projects based on biomimicry in Portland?

Isle: Not entire projects, no. We’ve done an international one. We did a new town in Goyang, South Korea. We looked at the function of a floodplain – the stormwater infiltration, the water cleansing, the forging area for species.
(But) on projects for Brightworks, we always use biomimicry as a recommended tool for our clients.

91ÊÓƵ: So why do you think Portland is a good setting for biomimicry?

Isle: There’s of course a real grassroots environmental ethic here, and it’s grounded in our beautiful surroundings. As Portlanders, we see nature around us, so I think in helping people understand sustainability, biomimicry creates a great link to people that connect with nature cognitively or passively.

I also think there is some green building fatigue in Portland based around common strategies. And I think people are looking for something more. There is a growing interest in implementation and using the Living Building Challenge and the Regenerative Design (and Nature Awareness Program); biomimicry is a way to help unlock the potential for achieving those goals, which can seem daunting.

With the Oregon Biomimicry Network, which I’m helping to start with Mary Hansel, we’re hoping to get some projects off the ground and work with architects and other designers in a series of workshops. We can look at how to keep buildings dry from moisture and mold. We want to learn from the ‘champion’ species of our area – the beaver, the great blue heron, salmon – that have such significance on our livelihood and see what mechanism they have to further our knowledge to manage water and keep dry.

91ÊÓƵ: From your experience, has there been a fair amount of interest from other architects in biomimicry?

Isle: There’s a huge interest in biomimicry. Once you start talking about nature’s story – how it’s perfected, the way it’s survived in the environment that we are so desperately trying to figure out how to fit in – there is this incredible interest.

But, at the same time, this is a newer concept. There is this apprehension around meaningfully committing to use it. It’s going to take some projects to get off the ground for people to get familiar with it. It’s a reconnection with nature, so there’s a level of comfort that has to be achieved.