Barbora Vanek - Identified Individual
The urgent need to combat biodiversity decline and climate change has led architects to explore innovative solutions, moving beyond conventional sustainability strategies to embrace regenerative and nature-inspired approaches. Barbora Vanek, the sole sustainability staff member at AHMM's Bristol office and one of five in The Building Performance team across the firm, is at the forefront of this shift.
The Role of Barbora Vanek
Vanek advocates for regenerative architecture as the future framing paradigm of practice. She emphasises the importance of architecture embracing true biodiversity and biomimetic design, believing that buildings should not only minimise harm to ecosystems but actively enhance habitat connectivity, support varied species, and integrate natural processes into the built environment.
AHMM's Approach to Climate Literacy
AHMM has been encouraging climate literacy within the practice and the wider industry through various research publications. The firm's commitment to sustainability is evident in its projects, which often incorporate regenerative strategies, even before regenerative architecture became commonplace.
Strategies for Implementing Biodiversity and Biomimetic Design
Principles and Approaches
Biomimetic design is rooted in learning from and emulating strategies found in nature to solve complex human challenges. In architecture, this can manifest in two primary ways: a bottom-up approach, drawing directly from biological research, and a top-down approach, identifying existing architectural or engineering challenges and seeking inspiration from nature for improvements.
Practical Implementation
Regenerative frameworks, biomimetic facades and building envelopes, 3D printing and advanced materials, habitat creation, and holistic site planning are some practical ways to implement biodiversity and biomimetic design in large-scale projects.
Challenges and Opportunities
The biggest barrier to widespread adoption is making a commercially viable case for biodiversity and biomimetic design in large-scale projects. Architects must craft compelling narratives that demonstrate long-term value, resilience, and regulatory compliance. Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential, with teams that include biologists, ecologists, engineers, and material scientists alongside architects. Performance metrics are needed to evaluate the biodiversity and biomimetic performance of buildings.
Case Examples and Emerging Trends
Speculative and ecological pavilions, responsive facades, renewable material innovation, and large-scale 3D printing with bioplastics are examples of projects pushing the boundaries of what is possible in sustainable, nature-inspired construction.
Conclusion
By adopting regenerative, biomimetic design principles at scale, architects can address biodiversity decline. Prioritising habitat creation, adaptive building systems, advanced material innovation, and holistic site planning can contribute meaningfully to reversing ecological degradation. While significant challenges around cost, scalability, and performance measurement remain, the urgency of the biodiversity crisis demands bold experimentation and collaboration across disciplines. By reimagining buildings as living, responsive systems, the profession can play a pivotal role in addressing the biodiversity crisis.
- In the urgent fight against climate change and biodiversity decline, Barbora Vanek, a champion of regenerative architecture, encourages architects to adopt true biodiversity and biomimetic design principles, believing buildings should not merely minimise harm to ecosystems, but actively enhance them.
- AHMM, a firm at the forefront of sustainability, promotes climate literacy and incorporates regenerative strategies in its projects, sometimes even before they were commonplace, reflecting the company's commitment to environmental-science and health-and-wellness.
- To effectively combat biodiversity decline and climate change through architecture, architects must collaborate with diverse experts such as biologists, ecologists, engineers, and material scientists, adopting regenerative frameworks, biomimetic facades, advanced materials, habitat creation, and holistic site planning, and overcoming commercial barriers by presenting long-term value, resilience, and regulatory compliance.