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Architectural design firm HOK and the Biomimicry Guild have forged an alliance aimed at linking the natural world and built environment. This exclusive relationship between St. Louis, MO-based HOK and the Biomimicry Guild of Helena, MT–the only bio-inspired innovation company–will integrate nature’s innovations in the planning and design of buildings, communities, and cities. The first projects under this alliance are underway in India.

Established by biologists Janine Benyus and Dr. Dayna Baumeister in 1998, Biomimicry is a science that studies nature’s best ideas and imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Biomimicry has inspired numerous commercial products and individual building projects.

To read TFM’s November 2007 coverage of Biomimicry, “Nature’s Best Ideas For Buildings,” visit this link.

“Given the size, breadth and diversity of HOK’s design practice, our firm can significantly influence the future generation of architecture, planning and interior design projects around the world,” says HOK president Bill Hellmuth.

The built environment is the most fertile ground for biomimicry, according to Dayna Baumeister, PhD, co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild. “Buildings account for about 50% of total U.S. energy use, and our greatest collective impact will come from applying biomimicry to the planning and design of buildings, communities and cities – at every scale and in every region,” she says.

“We believe biomimicry will not only help us significantly reduce the environmental impact of our projects, but also has the potential to help define a whole new sustainable standard for our profession,” says HOK sustainable design director Mary Ann Lazarus. “Because biomimicry addresses critical environmental issues at the habitat scale, it gives us lessons on how to achieve significant results – even restorative outcomes – at all scales.”

Projects Past, Present, and Future

The alliance represents a progression in the relationship between HOK and the Biomimicry Guild, which began in 2004. Both organizations have collaborated on several projects, including HOK’s participation in the 2008 “City of the Future” competition, sponsored by The History Channel, to design the city of Atlanta in 2108.

The organizations are currently working together to integrate biomimicry into the Lavasa hill station community under development near Pune, India, and are exploring potential project collaborations in Saudi Arabia and North America.

“Together with HOK, we are looking at what it means to be a bio-inspired company in the architecture space,” says Biomimicry Guild Co-Founder Janine Benyus. ”And I think the answer to that question is really going to be something new in the world. Because making a bio-inspired product is one thing; making a bio-inspired city begins to change the world.”

The Wrigley Global Innovation Center serves as an office and research facility for the confectionery industry. One notable element of the facility is the atrium in the center of the building, which provides meeting areas in a garden setting, featuring 25 plant species from four continents under 540 glass panels. While the rest of the building was only three stories, the four story high atrium reclassified the building, requiring high rise consideration under the Chicago Building Code (CBC).

Rolf Jensen and Associates (RJA), the fire/life safety and building code consultants for the project, worked closely with architects, Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK) to achieve code compliance and retain the building’s design elegance and functionality. “We recommended using a sprinkler protected glass wall to separate the atrium from the rest of the building,” said
RJA Senior Vice President Dick Evenson. “The sprinkler system would spray water on the glass to keep it cool. Because occupied spaces facing the atrium would not have to be included as part of the atrium volume once the glass sprinklers were installed, we demonstrated that the glass sprinkler concept met the high rise code requirements of the CBC and the City of Chicago.”

“The Wrigley project brought out RJA’s performance based design skills,” Evenson said. “It was another great collaborative effort between the architects and RJA to achieve design excellence and safety.”