Tag Archives: Pier Luigi Nervi

Regenerative architecture and Michael Pawlyn (a keynote speaker at Vancouver’s [Canada] Zero Waste Conference)

Michael Pawlyn who founded Exploration Architecture, an architectural practice with a focus on regenerative design will be in Vancouver during the Zero Waste Conference, September 28 -29, 2022. A keynote speaker (from his speaker’s page),

Michael Pawlyn has been described as an expert in regenerative design and biomimicry. He established his firm Exploration Architecture in 2007 to focus on high performance buildings and solutions for the circular economy.

Prior to setting up Exploration, he worked with Grimshaw for ten years and was central to the team that designed the Eden Project.

Michael jointly initiated the widely acclaimed Sahara Forest Project. In 2019, he co-initiated ‘Architects Declare a Climate & Biodiversity Emergency’ which has spread internationally with over 7,000 companies signed up to addressing the planetary crisis.

Since 2018 he has been increasingly providing advice to national governments and large companies on transformative change. He is the author of two books, Biomimicry in Architecture and Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, co-authored with Sarah Ichioka.

You can find out more about Pawlyn and biomimicry in a November 17, 2011 interviewe by Karissa Rosenfield for archdaily,

Why were you drawn to biomimicry? As a teenager I was torn between studying architecture and biology and eventually chose the former. I was also quite politicized about environmental issues in my early teens after a relative gave me a copy of the Club of Rome’s “Blueprint for Survival”. When I joined Grimshaw to work on the Eden Project, I realized that there was a way to bring these strands together in pursuit of sustainable architecture inspired by nature.

What are some of the most interesting examples, apart from the Eden Project, of existing architecture that uses biomimicry as its guiding principle? Pier Luigi Nervi’s Palazzetto dello Sport, an indoor arena in Rome, is a masterpiece of efficiency inspired by giant Amazon water lilies. Many of Nervi’s projects were won in competitions and the secret to his success was his ability to produce the most cost-effective schemes. In a satisfying parallel with the refining process of evolution, the combination of ingenuity and biomimicry led to a remarkable efficiency of resources.

The Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe by Mick Pearce, is based on termite mounds. It manages to create comfortable conditions for the people inside without air-conditioning in a tropical environment.

If you’re curious about the conference, it’s the 2022 Zero Waste Conference—A Future Without Waste: Regenerative and waste-free by design on September 28 & 29 in Vancouver, BC.