A rendering of HOK’s Safe Harbor orphanage that will be built in 2013. The architects drew inspiration from nature in the design of the building. Image: HOK

There was a great online article in the New York Times yesterday (1/4/13), “Will Biomimicry Offer a Way Forward, Post-Sandy?” about the relationship between resilience and biomimicry. This is an issue I’ve thought about quite a bit recently: the idea that nature can provide models of how to incorporate resilience into our buildings and communities. HOK architect Thomas Knittel used the Caribbean kapok tree as a model for the Haiti orphanage being built this year. The trees store water during the rainy season and shed their leaves during the dry season. Coastal mangrove trees have served as design inspiration for other buildings.

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