Historically perceived as a place apart from nature, the concrete and iron jungles of cities are now being remodeled with nature in mind. On America’s West coast, architects are transforming bustling Seattle into a lush forest environment by designing buildings that retain moisture like lichen and moss. On the East coast, the Omega Institute in upstate New York filters and naturally reclaims its wastewater through a series of artificial wetlands and lagoons. Across the globe, Tokyo uses slime mold growth patterns to design efficient transportation networks.

These projects signify the growing popularity and use of biomimicry, whereby architects, scientists, and engineers draw inspiration from natural processes to rethink the way the urban landscape can function and interact with all aspects of human life and the surrounding environment. Having had billions of years to evolve into an efficient, integrated, and holistic ‘machine’, the natural world can shed wisdom on how to approach the design of sustainable and resilient solutions for the built environment.

As urban population growth and a changing climate threaten human existence, this boom in biomimetic design comes at a vital time. Over half of the global population currently lives in urban areas, and this figure is expected to increase to 66% by 2050. Not only will officials and planners have to work quickly and efficiently to accommodate larger and denser populations, but they also have the added challenge of doing so during an era of unprecedented environmental variability due to climate change. The good news is that much of the land that will accommodate rising urban population levels has yet to be developed. Therefore, cities are places with potential for sustainable planning and increased efficiencies.

This semester, I aim to investigate how to breathe new life into the artificial structure of urban areas to create cities that function like living organisms. Is nature-inspired design the most effective way to do this? Can it foster holistic, lasting solutions to urban environmental problems, or will it result in quick fixes that lack long-term cultural and environmental impacts? How can we raise public and political awareness to implement biomimetic technology into our urban infrastructure? Hopefully, the biomimetic approach will help humanity transition into an era where dominance over nature is replaced with one of cooperation and symbiotic support.