Biomimetic adaptive building skins: Energy and environmental regulation in buildings

Both organisms and adaptive building skins (ABS) respond to changing environmental conditions. There have been several systems developed through the synthesis of biomimetics and ABS to reduce energy demand or improve comfort in buildings. This paper presents the definition, characterisation and a comparative analysis of existing applications in the field of biomimetic adaptive building skins (Bio-ABS). We evaluate current uptake in the field, present an overview of the state-of-the-art and undertake a meta-analysis of fifty-two Bio-ABS applications to determine performance trends, opportunities and challenges. We found that current development in the field of Bio-ABS is limited. 53.8% of all published Bio-ABS remain at a conceptual stage of development, resulting in a gap between theoretical and real-world uptake. In addition, there is little quantitative analysis in terms of environmental or energy performance measurements, with only 44.2% of the projects considering these performance metrics. Of those that do, 78.2% demonstrate either thermal or visual comfort analysis while only five, 21.7%, include energy analysis. A further conclusion drawn is that the majority of Bio-ABS are monofunctional, only controlling a single environmental parameter Very little attention is paid to multifunctionality, with only 13.4% of the published projects controlling more than one parameter. Multifunctionality in Bio-ABS needs further study to address multiple contradictory functional requirements of buildings regarding energetic and environmental performance.