Hundertwasser house, Vienna
Living roof with solar panels
Vertical landscape by Patrick Blanc
Biomembranes is a term I'm borrowing from biology (the structure bounding a cell) to describe the outer skin of future self-sustaining buildings. I have stated elsewhere that I believe that for the built environment - and therefore our societies - to become sustainable, every building and community must deal with its own wastes, generate its own energy and provide nourishment - both physical and spiritual - for the occupiers. Only by the creation of truly in dependant, carbon neutral buildings can we achieve this.
This would be a subtle and far reaching art, not easy to achieve but I believe that the rewards will be many, not to mention necessary. In this respect, the science of biomimicry will play an important part, for example, in developing paint-on polymers that photosynthesize energy, or tensioned fabric five times stronger than steel or kelvar, made with no heat or pollution, just like a spider's thread. Whilst we haven't got those answers yet, let me list some of the benefits we can look to achieve in the near future:
- horizontal and vertical skins of living plants that insulate, filter the air of dust and pollution, dampen noise and attract wildlife.
- composting and filtration systems that clean the building's waste and return nutrients and water to the biomembrane and surrounding landscape
- interior landscapes that provide internal cleansing and beauty
- blurring of internal/external space
- energy generation as integral with the building fabric as passive solar/pv/wind
- streets as wooded valleys or urban forest gardens
- SUDS drainage to filter excess water straight back to the local water table
- pedestrian/bike/electric vehicle shared surfaces removing car domination
- increase of social space by good design
Some of these ideas are becoming well established, such as green (or living) roofs, others are being played with by a few, but as yet, no one is trying to pull all these things together into a cohesive whole system. I am experimenting with the concept of combining vertical greening (see bottom right pic) with greywater filtration and hope to add further information on this at a later date.
There is a lot to do but the future will need autonomous, bio-buildings that take care of themselves without external input, other than sunlight and a bit of human labour. Those we will still have when fossil fuels run become unaffordable within the next decade or so. The main challenge is then to retrofit these systems to existing buildings, something I hope to be working on soon.
Meanwhile, take inspiration from the work of Hundertwasser (top right), the application of green technology, low-tech water filtration and the use of every surface to create living, breathing buildings and cities that show than humanity can and will one day grow up and see beyond the profit line which so dominates and limits current thinking. Let's hope we do it before it's too late.