BIOMIMICRY FRONTIERS & TRIDEL’s FORM BUILDING
How biomimicry could influence the condo experience, using foresight, design fiction, and systems-level biomimicry
Background
Biomimicry Frontiers partnered with TRIDEL, OCAD University, and ESRI Canada to develop sustainable strategies for Tridel’s FORM building. This project began in a classroom, where students led by Biomimicry Frontiers’s President Jamie Miller were able to develop their creative design thinking skills by formulating various ways in which the building could emulate nature while reducing its environmental footprint.
The Goal
How can we envision our buildings as an extension of our ecosystems? The first phase of this collaboration included mapping the FORM building environment and leveraging existing biomimicry courses and OCAD biomimicry experts to re-imagine city buildings through an ecological lens. Biomimicry Frontiers focused on two key ecological concepts - patch dynamics and niche construction - to explore ways that the building could be locally-attended and could harness “wasted opportunities".
Patch Dynamics | The simplest definition of patch dynamics is that it represents the diversity of subsystems nested within a larger ecosystem. It invites us to imagine nature as a tapestry of diverse microbiomes that each contributes to a larger piece of the environment, but that can behave semi-independently. In other words, it is a conceptual approach to studying ecosystems in which the emphasis is on dynamic, semi-autonomous, and diverse “patches”; a mosaic of small ‘sub-ecosystems’ that showcases its patterns, processes, and scales.
Niche construction | Niche Construction is the process by which an organism alters its own environment.
Making the invisible available
Biomimicry was a part of the design concept from the very beginning. Working with design students from Canada’s OCAD students, we reimagined the FORM building using our Design Fiction methodology.
Design Fiction | The development of believable ideas that may not yet be possible but that provoke a conversation around what could or should be possible.
Students were involved in the mapping and development of 3D models of Form and its adjacent buildings at multiple scales, integrating sensors into the building to connect it to its internal and external environment. These models offered a context to explore the concept design and creative prototyping between OCAS University and the University of Guelph to make the building data accessible to develop new strategies to build and leverage environmental information. Thus, they offered strategic entry points for future design innovations that were technically feasible and that can bring in unique partnerships from other institutions.
Resources
Tridel FORM https://www.tridel.com/form/
ESRI Canada https://www.esri.ca/en-ca/home