Clam shell on windy beach. Copyright Doug Paige
A week after Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the United States, I stood on a beach in Massachusetts feeling the brunt of a strong Nor’easter. The wind was so strong that if you jumped in the air, it would blow you inland a foot or two. Joining me were equally well-bundled members of the Biomimicry Specialist course, just hours away from receiving their certificates.
As instructors for the course, Doug Paige and I had promised them a trip to the beach. Cold wind or not, we needed to be outside. But it wasn’t just for fun; we had a biomimicry challenge for them. We asked them to think about designing a residential development in this area that would be attuned to the local conditions, such as strong winds. We also asked them to seek inspiration from nature to foster a sense of community among the development’s residents. Then we all wandered for a few hours.
This group of professionals had been in the Biomimicry Specialist program for eight months. They came from 10 countries and represented a wide variety of disciplines such as architecture, sustainable business, product design, marketing, biology, biochemistry, electrical engineering, farming/ranching, journalism, film production, microbiology, and more. There were no actual plans to build here, but they were used to these types of assignments. Each activity we do builds their understanding of how to apply biomimicry to their own company’s challenges. On the other side of the country in the Arizona desert, another Biomimicry Specialist cohort was studying that biome for its genius designs. Local organisms have adapted to local conditions and are an important source for design ideas.
As we stood on the beach, the wind tried to blow us over and snuck into our layers of clothes, chilling us. Yet, a flock of gulls calmly stood by the water’s edge. Despite their light weight, they weren’t being blown around. Why not? Our group observed that the gulls faced into the wind, creating a streamlined shape. Their feathers lay smoothly, providing lots of overlapping “shingles” to keep the wind out and warmth in. If you were to put buildings into a windy place like this, you could learn a lot from these birds, like the best ways to locate and orient buildings, and buildings that have a stream-lined shape rather having big square shapes facing the wind.
I left the beach and walked through the dunes and into some coastal scrub. Here, it was almost as if the wind had stopped. Later, our group shared their observations—low grasses, lichens, shrubs, and trees had stabilized the dunes and created sheltered conditions. In a way, it was a community effort to create conditions that support life.
Leaves curling in the wind. Copyright Carlos Rego
Several of us climbed a forested hill where earlier we had examined the roots of a large oak tree blown over during the previous storm. How many years had it survived winds and why was it this time that it blew over? Trees are well adapted to winds, adding material to counteract the tension and compression forces placed on them. But those same mechanisms might not work with sudden strong gusts, the types that accompany hurricanes and Nor’easters. We observed that some trees’ limbs and trunks were more flexible than others’, and the leaves on some of the deciduous trees folded to reduce the surface area exposed to the wind and therefore experienced less drag. If our fallen oak had been more flexible, if it had more aerodynamic leaves, if it had deeper roots, would it have survived Hurricane Sandy? Can we apply those strategies to our buildings and other structures?
Dune vegetation holding sand in the wind. Copyright Doug Paige
When we gathered back on the bus, we shared our experiences in the wind. Yes, we could have stayed warm and snug inside and done our research on the Internet. But biomimicry is about reconnecting with nature. It’s about looking to biology for inspiration and solutions, and that day on the beach gave us the perfect opportunity. You have to grab those moments when you can, even if you have to spend the evening getting the sand out of you hair.
See a previous BEN post for a case study about learning from how plants stabilize dunes.
