Buildings designed by termites
Some of the world鈥檚 best sustainable designers are termites. That鈥檚 the gist of recent talk by Zimbabwean-born architect Mick Pearce. He foresees a 鈥渂iological age鈥� of future construction projects that鈥檚 now within reach.
This next step in ecoarchitecture looks to nature for clues on how to build more energy-efficient buildings. 鈥淟ike blood circulating in our veins, inside the termites nest it is air that鈥檚 moved by external temperature and pressures,鈥� says Mr. Pearce, who now works in Melbourne, Australia. 鈥淭he nest is a system like our bodies. It鈥檚 self-regulating temperature-wise, and that, in a way, is an excellent model for a building.鈥�
Pearce points to a recent project he finished in Harare, Zimbabwe, that employs vertical ventilation tunnels to cool the building 鈥� consuming a tenth of the energy used to air-condition similarly sized buildings. He also designed Council House Two, one of Melbourne鈥檚 most energy-efficient offices, to rely on the sun, wind, and thermodynamics for heat and AC. It uses 15 percent of the energy and 30 percent of the water used by normal buildings.