New building designs integrate nature for greater efficiency

May 25, 2016 by Shanna Edberg

Many architects, planners, and designers are taking ideas from nature when constructing new buildings, a concept known as biomimicry. For example, a building in Harare, Zimbabwe, uses air channels and tunnels inspired by anthills to keep the building cool passively, without the need for air conditioning. Other innovations include covering buildings with vegetation to cool and clean the air, using energy-efficient LED lighting and sensors to reduce energy use in empty rooms, and even bringing urban farming into the mix by, for example, using lemon trees as partitions between desks.

Climate Protection: Reduces emissions from lighting and temperature control; greenery sequesters carbon Energy & Mobility: Lowers energy use Food & Water: Expands urban farming Jobs & Assets: Saves money on energy expenses Health, Well-Being, & Safety: Vegetation cleans the air and reduces stress levels Connection: Increases awareness of natural solutions to problems

This post is part of a series on examples of multisolving, or climate-smart policies that simultaneously work to mitigate climate change while providing co-benefits such as the ones described above. The multiple benefits analysis was done using the FLOWER framework.