Biomimetic Modular Architecture: Bird Swarming Dynamics in Disaster Relief Structures

In the face of increasing natural disasters, the need for efficient and adaptable disaster relief shelters has significantly grown. The growing frequency and intensity of these disasters poses significant challenges to communities around the world, often resulting in damaged buildings and displacement of people. Traditional approaches to disaster relief architecture often struggle to provide efficient solutions and meet demand due to their centralised and static nature. Addressing these challenges requires innovative approaches that can respond and adapt to extremely dynamic environmental conditions. This thesis experiments with one such approach: it investigates the integration of biomimicry with modular architecture, focusing on the behavioural principles derived from bird swarming and how this could inform disaster relief shelters.

The research is speculative, and explores how bird swarm dynamics, in bird’s response to immediate threats, can inform a disaster responsive and adaptive architecture. By drawing inspiration from bird swarm principles, the research explores how swarming could benefit modular architecture and inform the development of responsive and adaptive architectural solutions within the context of New Zealand.

The research analyses bird swarm behaviour, identifying key principles that can be adapted in an architectural framework. These principles consist of things such as adaptive responsive cues, self-organisation and decentralised decision-making processes. The research translates the key principles into designs strategies,which are tested throughout the design process stages.

By allowing bird swarm behaviour to inform modular architecture, the thesis aims to propose speculative design ideas that optimise adaptability, flexibility and scalability. This incorporation of biomimicry in design provides opportunities to understand disaster responses in new ways, informing innovative and responsive architectures that benefit disaster prone areas.

A series of literature reviews and case studies were conducted to gain an understanding of how biomimicry can be applied to architecture, focusing on bird swarm methods and how they could inform the overall design process and outcome. Through an iterative design process and digital modelling, the thesis aims to define how bird swarm strategies could be used to inform responsive modular architecture.