Design Lessons from Nature

Life's Principles
Life’s Principles can provide parameters that help guide the design and construction of buildings and communities that abide by the laws of nature and, therefore, function more sustainably

Life’s Principles

1) Evolve to survive
- Replicate Strategies that work
- Reshuffle Information
- Integrate the Unexpected

2) Be Resource (Material and Energy) Efficient
- Recycle all Materials
- Fit Form to Function
- Use Multi-functional Design
- Use low Energy Processes

3) Integrate Development with Growth
- Combine modular and nested Components
- Build from bottom up
- Self Organize

4) Adapt to changing Conditions
- Embody resilience through variation redundancy and decentralization
- Incorporate Diversity
- Use Feedback Loops
- Maintain Integrity through Self Renewal

5) Be locally Attuned and Responsive
- Use readily available energy and resources
- Cultivate cooperative relationships
- Leverage cyclic processes

6) Use life-friendly chemistry
- Do Chemistry in Water
- Build selectively with a small subset of Elements
- Break down Products into Benign Constituents