Organic architecture
The first examples of bionics in architecture. The Eiffel Tower as a striking example of bionic architecture of the twentieth century. Gustav Eiffel drew a drawing in 1889 Eiffel Tower. This structure is considered one of the earliest clear examples of the use of bionics in engineering.
The design of the Eiffel Tower is based on the scientific work of Swiss anatomy professor Hermann Von Meyer. 40 years before the construction of the Parisian engineering miracle, the professor examined the bone structure of the head of the femur in the place where it bends and enters the joint at an angle. And yet for some reason the bone does not break under the weight of the body. Von Meyer discovered that the head of the bone is covered with an intricate network of miniature bones, thanks to which the load is amazingly redistributed throughout the bone. This network had a strict geometric structure, which the professor documented.
In 1866, Swiss engineer Carl Cullman failed theoretical basis under the discovery of von Meyer, and 20 years later, natural load distribution using curved supports was used by Eiffel (Fig. 9).
Architectural-bionic practice has given rise to new, unusual architectural forms, practical in functional and utilitarian terms and original in their aesthetic qualities. This could not but arouse interest in them from architects and engineers.
Architectural bionics is similar to technical bionics; however, it is so specific that it forms an independent branch and solves not only technical, but mainly architectural problems.
The scientific foundations of architectural bionics began to be created in the Soviet Union, especially the work of architects V.V. Zefeld and Yu.S. Lebedev.
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Rice. 9. Designing the Eiffel Tower:
a) analysis of the structure of the human femur; b) construction of the Eiffel Tower
In the Soviet Union, bionic ideas received great attention from architects and engineers ( MAI, TsNIISK Gosstroy USSR, Len-ZNIIEP and etc.). In Fig. 10 presented project of a six-story rotating building for the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper, developed by architect Konstantin Melnikov.
Rice. 10. Project of a six-story rotating building for the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper. Architect Konstantin Melnikov (1924)
Organic architecture. Organic architecture is a trend in 20th century architecture that was first formulated in the 1890s. American architect Louis Henry Sullivan(Sullivan, Louis Henry,1856-1924). He denoted by this term the correspondence of function and form; he used it in his works on architecture in order to dissociate himself from the eclecticism that was dominant at that time. The concept of organic architecture is very ambiguous and can hardly be precisely defined, but it has nothing to do with imitation of organic forms.
F. L. Wright. L. Sullivan's ideas were developed by his student Frank Lloyd Wright(Frank Lloyd Wright, 06/08/1867 - 04/09/1959). The basis of Wright's concept was the idea of continuity of architectural space, as opposed to the emphasized isolation of its individual parts in classicist architecture.
A building inscribed in nature, its external appearance resulting from its internal content, the rejection of traditional laws of form - these are the characteristic features of its characteristic architectural language, which can be defined by the concept of “organic architecture” (Fig. 11). This idea was first implemented by him in the so-called “prairie houses” (Robie House in Chicago, 1909, etc.).
Rice. 11. F. L. Wright. Robie House in Chicago, 1909
Polemicizing with the extremes of functionalism, opposing it with the desire to take into account the individual needs and psychology of people, organic architecture in the mid-30s. is becoming one of the leading trends. Under the influence of her ideas, regional architectural schools emerged in the Scandinavian countries (for example, creativity Alvar Aalto(Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto, 1898 – 1976).
Alvar Aalto.« WITH Modern architecture is rational only from a technical point of view, and its main drawback is that rationalism has not penetrated architecture deeply enough. It must be functional, first of all from a human point of view, and not from a technical point of view,” he believedAlvar Aalto.
The rigor of lines and spatial compositions was combined in his buildings with the poetic wit of key designs and images, subtly taking into account the specifics of the local landscape. Basic principles: freedom of internal spaces, unfolding mainly in the horizontal plane; a constant combination of reinforced concrete and glass with more traditional materials: wood, stone, brick.
At the same time, Aalto came to the important conclusion that each building material has its own specific area of application. Thanks to all this, Aalto's functional architecture became fully organic architecture, representing a restrained European analogue of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright (Fig. 12 – 14).
Rice. 12. Aalto A. Town Hall in Säinätsalo
Figure 13. Aalto A. Theater in Essen
Fig 14. Aalto A. Concert Hall “Finlandia” in Helsinki.
In the USA, the principles of organic architecture were used by the California school led by Richard Neutra(Neutra, Richard,1892-1970). In the second half of the 1940s. the theory of organic architecture was picked up in Italy by the architect B. Zevi. In 1945, the ARAO group was created in Rome ( Associazione per I"Archittetura Organica, Association of Organic Architecture), which emphasized in its program the humanistic orientation of the main provisions of organic architecture.
The idea of a perfect, ideal city, formulated by Neutra in 1923 - 1935, has been applied in modern urban planning projects (Fig. 15, 16). He carried out port projects and contributed to the development of aviation transport by creating mobile air terminals.
People first started talking about Neutra in 1927. Fame came to him with the creation of " Hanging House" in California, which was collected in just two days. His hanging house was caught in a forest fire. The entire surrounding area was destroyed, only this house survived the fire, thanks to high quality concrete and steel.
Figure 15. R. Neutra."Mansion in the Desert" USA
Rice. 16. Home Ford in Aurora (Illinois, USA). 1950. R.Neutra
Some general principles of shape formation, individual techniques developed by organic architecture, are widely used in architecture and design. Throughout the history of architecture, there have been two different trends: one developing towards the rational, the other towards the emotional and organic perception of the environment. Since the beginning of civilization, there have been cities that were planned according to a well-designed pattern, and others that grew organically, like trees. Even in modern painting and architecture there is a difference between organic and geometric perception.
Bionic principles in architectural practice. Let us consider the general principles of shape formation in organic architecture using the example of projects by F.L. Wright. From the very beginning, F. L. Wright's perception was organic. Even when Wright was alone as an architect and had little public support, when America turned its back on him, he built his houses in the folds of the relief so that they seemed to be one with surrounding nature. This tendency is already evident in his early works, as in the Coonley House, with its cantilevered roof and plants growing on the parapet, where there is a tendency to merge so completely with the surroundings that it is often impossible to understand where the house actually begins. This desire for an organic solution may partly explain Wright's preference for natural, raw materials: rough stone blocks, rough granite floors, heavy, rough-hewn logs. The desire for an organic solution explains his commitment to flexible layouts and huge fireplaces in the age of central heating.
The walls of the house now started from the ground; they were placed on a concrete or stone horizontal platform, something like a low platform on which the building stood. The walls ended at the level of the window sills of the second floor, and above them, under the wide overhangs of the roof, which had a slight slope, there were rows of continuous windows (klerestoriums), through which the interior spaces opened up to external space. Thus, the walls became screens surrounding the interior space.
The house was given a wide roof - shelter, protection. The undersides of the roof overhangs were flat and painted light color to create a glow of diffused light in this place, which made the upper rooms charming.
Then Wright, in contrast to the diversity of wall materials, introduced one material into a single plane from the blind area to the roof overhang or to the level of the second floor window sills, in the form of a simple enclosing screen or in the form of a ribbon running around the building above the windows and passing into the ceiling, reaching the level of the cornices. This ribbon screen was made from the same material as down side roof overhangs (soffits).
Planes in the building parallel to the ground were emphasized to connect the whole to the ground. Sometimes it was possible to do outer wall under the ribbon of second floor windows, from the level of the second floor window sills to the ground, in the form of a heavy panel - beautiful stonework, which rested on a concrete or stone platform. The interiors of dwellings of this period typically consisted of boxes placed within boxes, or next to other boxes; they were called rooms. Boxes inside a complicated box. Each housing function was divided into boxes. This cellular confinement evoked associations with prison cells, or, at best, with the comfort of bedrooms on top floor. And Wright began to make the entire first floor in the form of one room, highlighting only the kitchen. The large room is divided into parts with various purposes, for example, for eating or reading or for receiving visitors. There were no such plans at that time. The endless doors and partitions have disappeared. The house became freer as a space and more suitable for living in it. The spatiality of the interior spaces began to appear.
Basic principles of F. L. Wright:
1. Reduce to a minimum the number of necessary parts of the building and the number of separate rooms in the house, forming the whole as an enclosed space, subdivided in such a way that the whole is permeated with air and freely visible, giving a feeling of unity.
2. Connect the building as a whole with its site by giving it horizontal extension and emphasizing planes parallel to the ground, but not occupying the best part of the site with the building, thus leaving this best part for use, for functions related to the life of the house ; it is a continuation of the horizontal planes of the floors of the house, extending beyond its boundaries.
3. Do not make a room into a box, and the house into another box; for this purpose, turn the walls into screens enclosing the space; ceilings, floors and enclosing screens should flow into each other, forming one common enclosure of a space with a minimum of divisions. To make all the proportions of the house closer to human, a constructive solution with the least volume consumption and the most appropriate for the materials used, and the whole, thus, the most suitable for living in it. Use straight lines and streamlined shapes.
4. Remove the foundation of the house, containing the unhygienic basement, from the ground, place it completely above the ground, turning it into a low plinth for the living part of the house, making the foundation in the form of a low stone platform on which the house should stand.
5. All necessary openings leading out or in should be brought into line with human proportions and placed naturally in the scheme of the entire building: either individually or in groups. Usually they appear in the form of transparent screens instead of walls, because the entire so-called “architecture” of the house is expressed mainly in the way these openings in the walls are grouped throughout the rooms as enclosing screens. The interior as such now takes on a significant architectural expression and there should be no holes cut into the walls like holes cut into the sides of a box. “Breaking holes in walls is violence.”
6. Avoid combining different materials and, whenever possible, strive to use the same material in construction; not to use decorations that do not follow from the nature of the material, so that the building more clearly expresses the place in which they live, and so that the general character of the building clearly indicates this. Straight lines and geometric shapes correspond to the work of the machine in construction, so that the interior naturally takes on the character of machine production.
7. Combine heating, lighting, water supply with building structures so that these systems become integral part the building itself. Elements of equipment thereby acquire an architectural quality: the development of the ideal of organic architecture is also evident here.
8. Combine with the elements of the building, as far as possible, furnishings, like elements of organic architecture, making them one with the building and giving them simple shapes, corresponding to the operation of the machine. Straight lines and rectangular shapes again.
9. Eliminate the work of a decorator. If he doesn’t use styles to help, he will definitely use “curls and flowers.”
It was all rational - to the extent that the development of thought in the field of organic architecture has reached. The specific forms that the feeling gave on the basis of this thought could only be individual.
Wright had the idea that the planes of the building, parallel earth's surface, are identified with the earth, making buildings belong to the earth. The idea arose that a house in a flat area should start on the ground, and not in it, as is the case when damp basements are built. And the idea arose that the house should look like it was starting from the ground, as a result of which a protruding strip of foundation was made around the house in the form of a platform on which the house stands. And the idea that shelter should be an essential feature of a home gave rise to a wide roof with a large overhang. Wright saw the building not as a cave, but as a shelter in the open.
The free layout and the elimination of useless height in the new home worked wonders. The feeling of proper freedom completely changed his appearance. The whole became more suitable for human habitation and more natural to its place. A completely new sense of the value of space in architecture emerged. It has now entered the architecture of the modern world.
If form truly follows function, then what is forced upon the post-and-beam system must be completely cast aside. So that there are no beams, no columns, no cornices and other details, no pilasters and entablatures. Instead of two things - one thing. Let the walls, ceilings, floors become parts of each other, flowing into one another, giving or receiving continuity in all this while eliminating any attached detail, eliminating any attached or superimposed details at all.
So the expression is "form and function are one" – is the core of organic architecture. It directs our actions along a single path with nature and gives us the opportunity to work consciously.
Already in his early buildings, Wright purposefully “eliminated excess,” that is, he eliminated the clutter of decorative details outside and inside the building, considering “simple, strong forms and pure, bright colors” as the artistic ideal.
Opposing the fragmentation of form, he was among those who laid the foundation for one of the basic principles of shape formation in modern architecture and design. This principle can be called the method of exclusion and enlargement; its result is simplification. Wright put it this way: “One thing instead of many; a big thing instead of a collection of small ones.”
Wright understood the principle of simplification not in a superficial aesthetic sense: “False simplicity—simplicity as a pretense, that is, simplicity constructed by the decorator as an appearance behind which a complex structure replete with excesses is hidden—is not enough for simplicity. This is not simplicity at all. But this is what passes for simplicity now that the stunning effects of simplicity have become fashionable.”
He fundamentally strove to make the building simple, starting with its structure (volume-spatial composition and structural basis) and ending with details: « It is necessary to get rid of complications in designs and use the advantages of factory production, eliminating, as far as possible, work on the construction site, which is always expensive; it is necessary to enlarge and simplify the installation of engineering equipment for heating, lighting, and plumbing».
In the composition of a one-story residential building, Wright makes radical simplifications: he eliminates the traditional complexity of roofs with internal and external fractures; eliminates the attic, arranging a combined covering; eliminates the basement and even foundations, without which a one-story house can exist. It consolidates and simplifies the building form in the area of equipment, for example by removing traditional lighting fixtures and making lighting sources hidden, eliminating radiators and placing heating devices under the floor, thus turning equipment from an addition to the building into an integral part of it. If possible, furniture is built-in, and everything unnecessary is removed from the interior: what is needed is hidden, what is unnecessary is eliminated. Of course, “decorations” are also eliminated inside and outside.
It's not just about eliminating decorative details. The principle is to simplify forms, to move from fragmentation of form to laconicism, expressing modern look on things: “the main thing is the essence of the matter.”
When developing a new type of single-family residential building, Wright used the following practical techniques:
1. The foundations were not built. Indeed, if you perform drainage, the soil will not deform when it freezes. Instead of a foundation, it is easier to make a base for the walls in the form of a concrete slab over a gravel underlying layer. This design also includes the wiring of the heating system. The basement was also not installed, as it complicates the design, increases the cost of construction and cools the living quarters. The construction site was drained through trenches filled with crushed stone. A crushed stone base 5-6 inches (12...15 cm) thick was laid across the entire building area, in which heating coils were placed. A concrete underlying layer 10 cm thick was laid on top. The walls of the house were installed on this platform. The core of the house was formed by brick or natural stone walls in the kitchen and bathroom areas and in some other places. These masses contribute to the stability of the structure – actual and visual. The remaining walls were wooden, consisting of three layers of boards lined with glassine. Thin wooden walls, as Wright argued, have sufficient bearing capacity thanks to their breaks in plan. The laminated timber walls and glazing elements were prepared in the form of on-site panels and blocks.
2. The height of the premises was usually kept to a minimum. Roofs, which in traditional buildings are complex in configuration, with numerous roof fractures and intersections of slopes, were simplified as much as possible. In houses built according to Wright's designs, the roof is gable or flat, with a free drainage, without downpipes and gutters. Both pitched and flat roofs have wide overhangs. Significant eaves removal is installed in most of Wright's residential buildings. As he puts it, “the roof is a symbol of the house.” Overhangs protect walls from precipitation and glazing from the sun. Often the canopy over the glazing was not made solid, but in the form of a lattice - a cantilever pergola, complemented by climbing greenery, which creates protection from the sun in the summer, when the plants are covered with foliage, and allows for better illumination of the premises in the winter. Moreover, if climbing plants are not provided, the width and frequency of the lattice slats are calculated so as to create a barrier to direct rays of the sun in the hot season.
3. In all cases, including pitched ones, the roof was made without a roof, and the ceiling was lined with finishing plywood or planed boards, and the ceiling liner was not only not plastered, but also not painted (it was covered with clear varnish). In addition to simplifying and reducing the cost of the design, the roofless device pitched roof creates interesting spatial effects in the interior. In general, in Wright's buildings, plaster and painting are kept to a minimum. Structural building materials - stone, brick, wood, concrete - are not masked by other, specially finishing materials. In addition to the fact that exposing the natural texture of the construction material produces a unique decorative effect, this technique achieves the impression of integrity and naturalness of the architecture.
The idea of wholeness (integrality, as Wright said) has great importance in the concept of organic architecture. He strove to ensure that the structure gave the impression of being made from one piece, and not assembled from numerous parts and details. Thus, he introduced underfloor heating not only because of its efficiency and hygiene, but also because it made it possible to make the system not an addition to the building, not equipment in the form of pipes and radiators attached to the walls, but an integral part of the building. There were no chandeliers or pendants in the house: source artificial lighting was made built-in (and very often hidden). The furniture was, as far as possible (with the possible exception of chairs), built-in: tables, beds, sofas, wardrobes, bookshelves were elements of architecture, provided for in the drawings and completed during the construction process as parts of the building.
Wright’s approach to the design of light openings is completely original (unless, of course, we compare them not with what has become common in architecture today, but with what was done 40–50 years ago). A window in the form of a rectangular cutout in the wall can be found in Wright only as an exception. In his buildings, the glazing is either strip, or the entire height of the room, or in the ceiling. In one-story residential buildings, the rooms have different heights, and in places where the roof differs (between its different levels) openings are made for top-side lighting and for ventilation. In this case, the roof of the lower level can continue inward in the form of a shelf (light shelf), behind which sources of artificial lighting are sometimes placed. In hot weather, the upper windows (klerestorium) contribute to good ventilation.
Wright was one of the first to introduce extensive glazing into architecture. He said: “Light gives beauty to buildings.” But this tendency is combined with the opposite: to reduce glazing to give the house more comfort, isolation, a sense of protection, shelter. As a result, in some interiors of “prairie houses” there is not enough natural light. In the 30s, Wright introduced the following solution: the walls facing the street and to the north are blank, with only a narrow strip of glazing under the ceiling, and the walls facing the garden, the courtyard, to the south are entirely glass from the floor to ceiling.
Despite large light openings and entire glass walls, Wright's houses inspire a sense of protection, shelter; the interiors of the residential buildings he built are homely. This is facilitated, in particular, by the widespread use of wood in the decoration of premises, the abundance of carpets and fabrics in them (including, for example, for covering floors), the overall soft, warm tone of the interior, the presence of blank walls, and the use of large projection cornices.
Wright sought to express the feeling of shelter, shelter, and protection in his houses by the fact that the building has a massive core of masonry around which the rooms are grouped: the core, visible from the outside, towering above other parts of the building and representing, as it were, a symbol of peace - the external expression of home hearth. This array includes chimney fireplace and kitchen volume with overhead light.
Wright's residential buildings are divided into three zones: bedroom and bathrooms, kitchen and dining area, and common room. Doors between them have been eliminated, if possible, to provide more freedom of movement, as well as to create the impression of unity of the internal space.
The central part of the house is a family room with wide views outside. Usually it communicates directly with the garden: its floor continues outward, turning into a terrace, which thus belongs simultaneously to both the garden and the house, being separated from the room by a glass wall (and this wall is also not solid, but consists of doors, which, if they are open at the same time, combining the space of the premises with the external space).
Formally, free plan house plans with a flat roof Le Corbusier And Wright coincide, but their implementation follows different paths and leads to different aesthetic results (Fig. 17). To ensure freedom of planning, Le Corbusier used a frame with a regular grid of columns. Wright abandoned the frame, but achieved great freedom of layout, linking the location of vertical load-bearing structures with the space-planning solutions of the buildings. As load-bearing supports, he uses walls or individual pylons made of brick or natural stone blocks, and leaves the masonry unplastered both on the facades and in the interiors. He places the stone walls along the contours of the sanitary rooms and kitchens, and coordinates the placement of the remaining walls and pylons with the layout of the house and the requirements of its overall stability.
With all the compositional diversity of Wright's mansions, harmony with the surrounding landscape or modest garden plot. At the same time, Wright’s rejection of the urban environment, into which they fundamentally do not fit in and to which they are usually faced with blank walls, remains just as constant. Wright came to this decision at the time of his creative maturity in the 1930s - 1950s. His mansions from the 1900s to the 1910s are equally open to courtyard and street space.
Rice. 17. F.L. Wright. Kaufman House
Equally original was F. L. Wright's approach to the design of large public buildings. In 1904, he was the first to use an atrium space-planning structure for a 5-story building Larkin office in Buffalo, abandoning the traditional corridor layout of offices. At Larkin's office, he grouped all the workspaces around a single, full-height, covered atrium space so that they receive overhead and side natural light. In the history of architecture, this building is also notable for the fact that air conditioning was installed there for the first time, there was built-in furniture, and glass doors.
However, the most striking example from the field of projects of large public buildings of Wright is Guggenheim Museum in New York(1944–1956). With this project, Wright broke the age-old stereotype of the enfilade planning structure of museum buildings. The art exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum is built along a descending spiral ramp that wraps around a central atrium space illuminated by overhead lighting through a glass dome (Figs. 18, 19).
Rice. 18. S. R. Guggenheim Museum in New York(1944 – 1956)
Museum visitors take an elevator to the top of the ramp and, gradually descending along it and examining the exhibition, come below to the service rooms, lecture halls, etc. The exhibition lighting is combined: top - through the dome and side - through a narrow ribbon opening stretched along the ramp under its base. The compositional and functional feature of the museum's interior is the combination of the large green space of the atrium and relatively limited spaces along the ramp facing the atrium.
Rice. 19. S. R. Guggenheim Museum in New York(1944 - 1956): interior
The ability to switch visitors’ attention from the exhibition to the atrium space prevents the traditional “museum fatigue” from occurring in viewers. The functionally determined scheme for constructing the museum space also determined the construction of its external volume in the form of a kind of snail. Its unique, closed, “self-sufficient” volume is integrated into the building, regardless of the structure of the latter. Wright is equally original and organic in solving the trivial theme of a multi-story office. Built in 1956 " Price Tower» (Bartlesville, Oklahoma) according to the instructions, office space and apartments were to be located. Traditionally, in such cases, offices are located below and apartments above. Wright broke the tradition: he placed offices and apartments on all 15 floors of the tower, but tightly separated from each other by a cross (in plan) of mutually perpendicular internal walls. Thus, the constructive stereotype of designing such buildings as frames is also broken. The internal wall load-bearing system is exposed at the ends and at the crown of the building, which ensured the tectonic nature of the composition of the tower volume.
Wright's innovations were at one time perceived as eccentricities, but now almost any modern house in America I took something from them.
The expediency and use of natural forms in construction. Bioforms are surprisingly useful, which is why architects strive to use them in building design: solutions to many architectural problems have already been found in nature. The only question is to see and apply them within the framework of the materials and technologies available today, as well as in accordance with the goals set for the architect. With all its technological and scientific achievements, humanity does not have materials and technologies of such a level of perfection as those found in nature, which is why we are talking specifically about attempts to use natural structures in architecture.
The first attempts to use natural forms in construction were made by Antonio Gaudi. Park Güell, or as they used to say “Nature frozen in stone”, Casa Batlo, Casa Mila - Europe, spoiled by architectural delights, and the whole world have never seen anything like it. These masterpieces of the great master gave impetus to the development of architecture in the bionic style. In 1921, bionic ideas were reflected in the construction of Rudolf Steiner's Goetheanum, and from that moment on, architects all over the world adopted bionics.
From the time of the Goetheanum to the present day, it has been built in the bionic style a large number of both individual buildings and entire cities. Today, the modern embodiment of organic architecture can be seen in Shanghai - the Cypress House, in the Netherlands - the NMB Bank board building, Australia - the Sydney Opera House, Montreal - the World Exhibition Complex building, Japan - the SONY skyscraper and the Fruit Museum.
Recently, bionic architecture can be seen in Russia. In 2003, in St. Petersburg, according to the designs of the architect Boris Levinzon, the “Dolphin House” (Fig. 20) was built and the hall of the famous Medi-Aesthetic clinic was decorated.
Rice. 20. "House of Dolphin." St. Petersburg, 2003
What is a bionic style building? If we recall the design of hobbit houses in the film “The Lord of the Rings,” we can say that these houses were built according to all the laws of bionics, but the director of the film only limited himself to elements of an organic idea.
The first impression of a building in the bionic style is that the buildings are out of the correct geometry. The natural shapes of the object awaken the imagination. In bionics, walls are like living membranes. Plastic and extended walls and windows reveal the load force directed from top to bottom and the resistance force of the materials counteracting it. Thanks to the rhythmic play of the changing concave and convex surfaces of the walls of the buildings, it seems that the building is breathing. Here the wall is no longer just a partition; it lives like an organism.
The great Antonio Gaudi was right when he said that “an architect should not abandon colors, but, on the contrary, use them to give life to shapes and volumes. Color is the complement of form and the most vibrant manifestation of life.” In a bionic building, you feel immersed in a wonderful world filled with transparent light. Color creates a special world of the interior, reviving and revealing materials that are visible under a layer of paint. Color lives and moves according to its own laws. It seems that it influences the strengthening or weakening of the functions of the building and space.
In the bionic structure, thanks to the constantly changing balance of the interaction of desires and spatial possibilities, a person experiences a feeling of movement - in rest, and rest - in the movement of space. The slightest movement shifts the balance of forces, which changes the perception of space. Constancy and change, symmetry and asymmetry, protected intimacy and wide openness exist in a delicate balance. Both in movement and at rest, there is always a sense of balance. In other words, the building is perceived as if it were a living creature with its own “space”, amazing, like a small Universe!
Bionics as an architectural style allows you to create such spatial environment, which with its entire atmosphere would stimulate exactly the function of the building or room for which the latter are intended. In a bionic house, the bedroom will be a bedroom, the living room will be a living room, and the kitchen will be a kitchen.
Rudolf Steiner said: “The spiritual aspect of creating bionic forms is associated with an attempt to understand the purpose of man. In accordance with this, architecture is interpreted as a “place” where the meaning of human existence is revealed.”
Architectural Engineering
The interaction of architectural form and nature is manifested in several aspects:
- constructive-tectonic (study structural systems and principles of structure of living organisms and plants);
- climatic (the study of the reaction of natural forms to climate and their use in architecture);
- aesthetic (the study of the aesthetic properties of natural and architectural forms) and others.
Even the ancient Egyptians and Greeks used natural forms in their buildings. The representative of the famous philosophical school of the Stoics considered man a part of nature, and the comprehension of its laws and their use in artistic creativity- necessity.
IN ancient Greece sculpture with its cult of the human body was very closely connected with architecture. The great theoretician of antiquity Vitruvius wrote: “If, therefore, nature arranged the human body in such a way that its members in their proportions correspond to its general outline, then, it seems to me, the ancients quite thoroughly established the rule that when erecting buildings, the proportions of individual parts of the building exactly corresponded general appearance of the structure."
Scientific awareness and in-depth study of the functions and structures of living nature became possible only in the middle of the 20th century. Bionic principles are used in the design of structures, buildings, architectural complexes and cities. Many structural tectonic systems: beams, columns, slabs, frames, folds, shells resemble roots, branches, trunks and leaves of plants, skeletons and shells of animals, the structure of the human body.
Thus, a column is similar to a tree trunk, a console is like its leaves, an egg shell, a human or animal skull is similar to a shell, the spine of animals resembles a beam, leaf veins are like ribbed frame trusses, and some leaves (Victoria Regia) are like a slab.
The principle of the structure of a tree leaf was used by L. Nervi in several structures; covering the main hall of the exhibition in Turin, covering the building of the Gatti factory in Rome. Other authors also addressed the structure of the sheet.
Studying the response of plants to climatic influences (temperature, solar reaction, humidity) helps to solve a series of problems related to taking into account these factors for architectural objects. The shape of plants reacts very sensitively to the presence or absence of heat and moisture. Thus, in a humid environment, plants strive to increase the ability to absorb air and therefore branch heavily; in desert conditions, the evaporation surface is reduced in every possible way, and the volume of the plant becomes compact - moisture reserves are saved.
Based on the study of the principle of the structure of plant skins, a proposal arose to create insulating materials and enclosing structures. The given examples of the bionic approach in architecture only partially illustrate its promise. In the future, people will turn many more times to the study of models created by nature and to their creative application.
From time immemorial, architects turned to nature for inspiration and introduced its image into individual elements, such as acanthus leaves in a Corinthian capital, a rose window in a Gothic temple, and in any other style there was almost always a floral ornament.
From the second half of the twentieth century, new trends and directions began to emerge, where natural forms dominated the overall design of the building. Metabolism, as a concept that came from biology, has become a new word in architecture. Externally, the building could not be compared with any object of living nature, but the architects created its internal structure according to the type of a living organism consisting of cells, that is, of individual blocks in which a person can live. In the process of life, cells die and are born, and in the case of architecture, it was meant to easily replace old parts with new ones. Appearing in the 1950s in Japan, metabolism left the main architectural monument - the Nakagin Tower in Tokyo. Subsequently, many architects took the cellular structure as a basis, but not all ideas were brought to life. Now this style has faded into the background, but such properties as replacement of parts and complexity in the repetition of residential blocks are still found in modern projects.
Nakagin Tower in Tokyo, Japan
A. Isozaki. CityVair, 1961
HouseVBobruisk, Belarus
ProjectFilene's Eco Pods, Höweller + Yoon,Boston, USA
The next style - organicism - like metabolism, was developed in opposition to functionalism. In addition to the use of natural materials and the desire to fit the building into the surrounding natural environment, a distinctive feature of organic architecture is also the imitation of natural forms, but not at the “cellular” level, but in a broader concept. Asymmetry, curvilinearity, bends bring the building design closer to biomorphic objects. The buildings resemble elements such as tree leaves, sea waves, etc.
In the 21st century, organics have grown into bionics, which is not just an imitation of individual elements, but rather the borrowing of natural forms.
Like the previous styles mentioned, bionics are in opposition. Contemporary high-tech with its straight, unnatural urban structures is recognized as “inanimate” architecture. Many authors are beginning to move from the style in which they previously worked to bionic. They are increasingly collaborating with biologists and engineers to bring their project as close as possible to the desired result. The most famous architects include Santiago Calatrava, Nicholas Grimshaw, and Vincent Callebaut.
ProjectThe Coral Reef,Vincent Callebaut
City of Sciences and Arts, Santiago Calatrava
ProjectThe Eden,Nicholas Grimshaw
Appeal not only to biomorphic forms, but also to the way life works in nature is also becoming a popular theme in architecture. Designed for overcrowded Tokyo, the Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City pyramid is the equivalent of an anthill. Such a building with developed infrastructure allows residents not to leave the boundaries of the pyramid.
In 2006, according to a project developed by the Mexican architect Javier Senosyan, a building was built, shaped exactly like a nautilus shell. The uniqueness of this project was the spiral internal structure, corresponding to the natural one.
The project by Spanish architects Mozas Aguirre arquitectos in a sense returns to the theme of metabolism, since the building's plan resembles the interweaving of chromosomes that divide the building's exterior into cells, and refers to the theme of cellular structure.
New projects are increasingly surprising in their closeness to living nature, not only by borrowing forms, but also by developing concepts according to which a particular structure will exist as a separate organism.
To summarize, we can say that the main similarity in the development of architecture and biology is evolution - from metabolism to bionics through cellular structure to the forms of an integral single organism. All three styles opposed the unnatural, rigid geometry of functionalism, and later hi-tech. Today, the distinctive features of metabolism, organics and bionics are often combined together. Modern architects do not stop there, improving their ideas both in terms of visual similarity and design.
Bionic forms are distinguished by their complexity of designs and non-linear shapes.
The emergence of the term.
The concept of “bionics” (from the Greek “bios” - life) appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century. In a global sense, it denotes the area scientific knowledge, based on the discovery and use of patterns of construction of natural forms to solve technical, technological and artistic problems based on the analysis of the structure, morphology and vital activity of biological organisms. The name was proposed by the American researcher J. Steele at a 1960 symposium in Daytona - “Living prototypes of artificial systems - the key to new technology” - during which the emergence of a new, unexplored field of knowledge was consolidated. From this moment on, architects, designers, constructors and engineers are faced with a number of tasks aimed at finding new means of shaping.
In the USSR, by the beginning of the 1980s, thanks to the many years of efforts of a team of specialists from the TsNIELAB laboratory, which existed until the beginning of the 1990s, architectural bionics finally emerged as a new direction in architecture. At this time, the final monograph of a large international team of authors and employees of this laboratory, under the general editorship of Yu. S. Lebedev, “Architectural Bionics” (1990) was published.
Thus, the period from the middle of the twentieth century. to the beginning of the 21st century. in architecture was marked by an increase in interest in complex curvilinear forms, a revival, already at a new level, of the concept of “organic architecture,” which has its roots in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, in the work of L. Sullivan and F. L. Wright. They believed that the architectural form, as in living nature, should be functional and develop, as it were, “from the inside out.”
The problem of harmonious symbiosis of the architectural and natural environment.
The technocratic development of recent decades has long subjugated the human way of life. Step by step, humanity has emerged from its ecological niche on the planet. In fact, we have become inhabitants of an artificial “nature” created from glass, concrete and plastic, the compatibility of which with the life of the natural ecosystem is steadily approaching zero. And the more artificial nature takes over living nature, the more obvious the human need for natural harmony becomes. The most likely way to return humanity “to the bosom of nature” and restore balance between the two worlds is the development of modern bionics.
Cypress skyscraper in Shanghai. Architects: Maria Rosa Cervera & Javier Pioz.
Sydney Opera House. Architect: Jørn Utzon.
Rolex Training Center. Architects: Japanese architectural bureau SANAA.
Architectural bionics is an innovative style that takes the best from nature: reliefs, contours, principles of shape formation and interaction with the outside world. All over the world, the ideas of bionic architecture have been successfully implemented by famous architects: the cypress skyscraper in Shanghai, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the board building of NMB Bank - the Netherlands, The educational center Rolex and the fruit museum - in Japan.
Fruit Museum. Architect: Itsuko Hasegawa.
Interior of the fruit museum.
At all times, there has been a continuity of natural forms in architecture created by man. But, unlike the formalist approach of yesteryear, when the architect simply copied natural forms, modern bionics is based on the functional and fundamental features of living organisms - the ability to self-regulate, photosynthesis, the principle of harmonious coexistence, etc. Bionic architecture involves the creation of houses that are a natural continuation of nature and do not come into conflict with it. Further development of bionics involves the development and creation of eco-houses - energy-efficient and comfortable buildings with independent life support systems. The design of such a building includes a complex of engineering equipment. Used during construction environmentally friendly materials And building construction. Ideally, the house of the future is an autonomous, self-sustaining system that fits seamlessly into the natural landscape and exists in harmony with nature. Modern architectural bionics has practically merged with the concept of “eco-architecture” and is directly related to ecology.
Shape formation passing from living nature into architecture.
Every living creature on the planet is a perfect working system adapted to its environment. The viability of such systems is the result of evolution over many millions of years. By revealing the secrets of the structure of living organisms, one can gain new opportunities in the architecture of buildings.
Shape formation in living nature is characterized by plasticity and combinatoriality, a variety of both regular geometric shapes and figures - circles, ovals, rhombuses, cubes, triangles, squares, various kinds of polygons, and an endless variety of extremely complex and amazingly beautiful, lightweight, durable and economical structures created by combining these elements. Such structures reflect the complexity and multi-stage evolution of the development of living organisms.
The main positions for studying nature from the perspective of architectural bionics are biomaterials science and biotectonics.
The object of study in biomaterials science is various amazing properties of natural structures and their “derivatives” - tissues of animal organisms, stems and leaves of plants, spider web threads, pumpkin antennae, butterfly wings, etc.
With biotectonics everything is more complicated. In this area of knowledge, researchers are interested not so much in the properties of natural materials as in the very principles of the existence of living organisms. The main problems of biotectonics are the creation of new structures based on the principles and methods of action of biostructures in living nature, the implementation of adaptation and growth of flexible tectonic systems based on the adaptation and growth of living organisms.
In architectural and construction bionics, much attention is paid to new construction technologies. So in the field of development of efficient and waste-free construction technologies A promising direction is the creation of layered structures. The idea is borrowed from deep-sea mollusks. Their durable shells consist of alternating hard and soft plates. When a hard plate cracks, the deformation is absorbed by the soft layer and the crack does not go further.
Technologies of architectural bionics.
Let us give an example of several of the most common modern trends in the development of bionic buildings.
1. Energy Efficient House- a building with low energy consumption or zero energy consumption from standard sources (Energy Efficient Building).
2. Passive House (Passive Building) - a structure with passive thermoregulation (cooling and heating by using environmental energy). Such houses use energy-saving building materials and structures and practically do not have a traditional heating system.
3. Bioclimatic Architecture. One of the trends in hi-tech style. Main principle bioclimatic architecture - harmony with nature: "... so that a bird, flying into the office, does not notice that it is inside it." Basically, numerous bioclimatic skyscrapers are known, in which, along with barrier systems, multilayer glazing (double skin technology) is actively used to provide sound insulation and microclimate support, coupled with ventilation.
4. Smart House(Intellectual Building) - a building in which, with the help of computer technology and automation, the flow of light and heat in rooms and enclosing structures is optimized.
5. Healthy Building - a building in which, along with the use of energy-saving technologies and alternative energy sources, priority is given to natural building materials (mixtures of earth and clay, wood, stone, sand, etc.) Technologies " healthy" homes include air purification systems from harmful fumes, gases, radioactive substances, etc.
History of the use of architectural forms in architectural practice.
Architectural bionics did not arise by chance. It was the result of previous experience of using in one form or another (most often associative and imitative) certain properties or characteristics of forms of living nature in architecture - for example, in the hypostyle halls of Egyptian temples in Luxor and Karnak, capitals and columns of ancient orders, Gothic interiors cathedrals, etc.
Columns of the hypostyle hall of the Temple of Edfu.
Bionic architecture often includes buildings and architectural complexes that organically fit into the natural landscape, being, as it were, a continuation of it. For example, these can be called the buildings of the modern Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. On par with natural ones building materials, it works with existing natural elements- mountains, hills, lawns, trees, practically without modifying them. His structures seem to grow from the ground, and sometimes they blend so much with the surrounding nature that they cannot be immediately detected. For example, the thermal baths in Switzerland from the outside seem like just a green area.
Baths in Vals. Architect: Peter Zumthor.
From the point of view of one of the concepts of bionics - the image of an eco-house - even village houses familiar to us can be classified as bionic architecture. They are created from natural materials, and the structures of rural villages have always been harmoniously integrated into the surrounding landscape (the highest point of the village is the church, the lowland is residential buildings, etc.)
Dome of the Florence Cathedral. Architect: Filippo Brunelleschi.
The emergence of this area in the history of architecture is always associated with some kind of technical innovation: for example, the Italian Renaissance architect F. Brunelleschi took an egg shell as a prototype for constructing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, and Leonardo da Vinci copied the forms of living nature when depicting and designing construction and military buildings. and even aircraft. It is generally accepted that the first who began to study the mechanics of flight of living models “from a bionic position” was Leonardo da Vinci, who tried to develop aircraft with a flapping wing (ornithopter).
Gallery in Park Güell. Architect: Antonio Gaudi.
Portal of the Passion of Christ of the Cathedral of the Holy Family (Sagrada Familia).
Advances in construction technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. gave rise to new technical possibilities for interpreting the architecture of living nature. This is reflected in the works of many architects, among whom, of course, Antoni Gaudi stands out - the pioneer of the widespread use of bioforms in the architecture of the twentieth century. Residential buildings designed and built by A. Gaudí, the Güell Monastery, the famous “Sagrada Familia” (Cathedral of the Holy Family, height 170 m) in Barcelona still remain unsurpassed architectural masterpieces and, at the same time, the most talented and characteristic example of the assimilation of architectural natural forms - their application and development.
Casa Mila attic floor. Architect: Antonio Gaudi.
Arched vault of the gallery in Casa Batlló. Architect: Antonio Gaudi.
A. Gaudi believed that in architecture, as in nature, there is no place for copying. As a result, his structures are striking in their complexity - you will not find two identical parts in his buildings. Its columns depict palm trunks with bark and leaves, staircase handrails imitate curling plant stems, and vaulted ceilings reproduce tree crowns. In his creations, Gaudi used parabolic arches, hyper-spirals, inclined columns, etc., creating an architecture whose geometry surpassed the architectural fantasies of both architects and engineers. A. Gaudí was one of the first to use the bio-morphological design properties of a spatially curved form, which he embodied in the form of a hyperbolic paraboloid of a small flight of brick stairs. At the same time, Gaudi did not simply copy natural objects, but creatively interpreted natural forms, modifying proportions and large-scale rhythmic characteristics.
Despite the fact that the semantic range of protobionic buildings looks quite impressive and justified, some experts consider architectural bionics only those buildings that do not simply repeat natural forms or are created from natural materials, but contain in their designs the structures and principles of living nature.
Construction of the Eiffel Tower. Engineer: Gustave Eiffel.
Bridge project. Architect: Paolo Soleri.
These scientists would rather call protobionics such buildings as the 300-meter Eiffel Tower by bridge engineer A. G. Eiffel, which exactly replicates the structure of the human tibia, and the bridge project by architect P. Soleri, reminiscent of a rolled-up leaf of cereal and developed on the principle of load redistribution in plant stems, etc.
Cycling track in Krylatskoye. Architects: N. I. Voronina and A. G. Ospennikov.
In Russia, the laws of living nature were also borrowed to create some architectural objects of the “pre-perestroika” period. Examples include the Ostankino radio and television tower in Moscow, Olympic facilities - a cycling track in Krylatskoye, membrane coverings of an indoor stadium on Mira Avenue and a universal sports and entertainment hall in Leningrad, a restaurant in the Primorsky Park of Baku and its connection in the city of Frunze - the Bermet restaurant and etc.
Among the names of modern architects working in the direction of architectural bionics, Norman Foster (http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/ByType/Default.aspx), Santiago Calatrava (http://www.calatrava.com/#/Selected) stand out %20works/Architecture?mode=english), Nicholas Grimshaw (http://grimshaw-architects.com/sectors/), Ken Young (http://www.trhamzahyeang.com/project/main.html), Vincent Calebo ( http://vincent.callebaut.org/projets-groupe-tout.htm l), etc.
If any aspect of bionics interests you, write to us and we will tell you about it in more detail!
Architectural bureau "Inttera".