How bionics could inspire landscape architects?

Abstract

Bionics is an interdisciplinary science investigating the structure of organisms, the ways they function and the possibility to adopt these solutions in engineering (particularly in automation), and to model the structure of technological systems on such organisms. It is used in numerous engineering designs (aircraft, parachute, photovoltaic solar cells). Watching the tricks of nature is highly enlightening and useful. The study discusses the mission of landscape architects, and provides examples of adaptations based on natural solutions; it also involved designing survey questions designed to assess opinions of students of landscape architecture regarding the need to promote sustainable development and biological diversity and to copy solutions observed in nature. It was also emphasized that in order to maintain stability of the existing ecosystems friendly to human beings it is necessary to follow the example of nature and reduce the waste of resources and energy, and to widely accept the upcoming era of scarcity.