From the Cladding Towards the Skin: A Biomimetic Perspective on the Building Envelope

Abstract

The mind shift brought by biological knowledge and computational thinking, together with the advancements in digital fabrication technologies, signal a shift in architecture’s relationship with nature. In the last 30 years, many of the developed computational theories and methods have been inspired by biological principles. Contemporary architecture is now intensely engaged with these theories and methods. The building envelope is at the heart of these issues, as the first architectural element that is perceived from outside and that interacts and engages with the environment. If architecture is explored since the industrial revolution, the evolution of the outer cover from the facade to the envelope can be observed at different scales, forms, and systems. Thinking the outer cover as an envelope implies approaching it as a whole, rather than the sum of individual components, in a similar manner with nature. This research explores architecture’s changing relationship with nature through the evolution of the building envelope since the industrial revolution. It is claimed that there had been three important benchmarks of this evolution, the first one can be considered as the structures of Antoni Gaudi. Second benchmark is the shell structures of the 1950s, which are profoundly inspired by the structures in nature. Last, the structures of Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto, which were also developed with lessons from nature. Through the review of building envelope’s evolution, this research suggests that building envelopes share much in common with natural skins and can borrow several information from them with the use of biomimetics.