Foreword: Dame Ellen MacArthur

In this remarkable book, Michael Pawlyn makes the case for placing buildings and architecture at the heart of a bio-inspired and biomimetic future. It’s more than this, however. A book of principles and action for the twenty-first century, it’s an example of a new lens: a systemic way of seeing which has the potential to enable transition to a world that is regenerative, accessible to all and abundant.

Michael quotes Buckminster Fuller’s ambition ‘to make the world work for a hundred percent of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone’. This is a bold ambition and a question of design and intention, but these alone do not describe a course of action. Biomimicry in Architecture is replete with examples of the manifestation of changes in the use of materials, structure, energy, function and form which take their cues from living systems to provide real benefits.

We are entering an age in which knowledge is the prime substitute for matter. Biology, to give just a few more intriguing examples from the text, also contrasts ‘hierarchical structure with monolithic structure’; stresses ‘environmentally influenced self-assembly’ against ‘externally imposed form’; and uses a ‘limited subset of non-toxic elements’ against our use of every element in the periodic table!

This sense of exhilaration and possibility pervades the book as the text covers more than the subjects of materials, spaces and connection. Michael puts people at its heart: ‘The biological paradigm, translated into architecture, means putting people at the centre; employing their ingenuity during design, involving them in the richly rewarding act of building and the enjoyment of beauty.’ In this breadth of vision he is surely an heir to the likes of such well-regarded pioneers as Christopher Alexander and Victor Papenek.

This century will surely go down as marking the transition not just of the built environment but of the entire economy. If we are to meet the needs of a population of nine billion elegantly and effectively, then we need a different operating system for our entire economy. The circular economy, an economic model which I am passionate about, is another version or expression of the same energising transition Michael identifies: from the take–make–dispose thinking of the original industrial era, an era of mechanistic thinking, to one where the opportunities increasingly lie with closed-loop, feedback-rich systems. And most importantly one where we can anticipate new forms of prosperity, while decoupling from materials and energy constraints. The new edition of Biomimicry in Architecture is essential reading on our journey together.

DAME ELLEN MACARTHUR