Nature offers new ideas

What can termites teach us about the construction of buildings for modern cities? A lot, according to Zimbabwe-based Mick Pearce, the architect behind Melbourne’s Council House 2 (CH2). Opened in 2006, the offiffice block was Australia’s fifirst Green Star-certifified building to achieve a 6 Star rating. A collaboration between the City of Melbourne and DesignInc, the awardwinning structure is striking, effifficient... and inspired by termite mounds.

Pearce studied the insects and found ways to incorporate their air-cooling techniques into his buildings. It’s all about ventilation for termites, which construct chimney structures to circulate air and control temperature. In CH2, thermal-store materials in the basement use the cool night air to lower the building’s temperature during the day.

Known as biomimicry, these innovations inspired by nature have the potential to transform our built environment. Pearce’s Eastgate shopping centre in Harare, for example, not only borrows airflflow secrets from termites but also uses an exterior “skin” modelled on the rocks and cactuses of the African wilderness. “Horizontal protruding ledges are interrupted by columns of steel rings supporting green vines to bring nature back into the city,” he writes of Eastgate. “The model used was the termitary; an ecosystem, not a ‘machine for living in’.”