Light management lessons from nature for building applications

The increasing environmental awareness in the building context has raised the demands towards more efficient use of resources and the development of renewable energy solutions. Buildings are exposed to solar radiation at different intensities throughout multiple timescales, which requires efficient management of light. Managing light becomes more challenging when several elements are considered simultaneously, e.g. minimizing heat gain, while maximizing daylight, yet considering glare. Living organisms are equipped with unique strategies to manage light for survival, communication, and energy matters. In this context, developing biomimetic design solutions for buildings have a great potential for innovation. The current work focuses on the initial phase of a biomimetic design process, presenting a structured framework of light managing strategies that facilitates the search for, and the selection of, appropriate strategies from the large database of nature. The framework encapsulates a basic array of strategies for managing light; elaborates on the involved factors; and lists examples of organisms and systems from nature, for the analogical development of biomimetic designs that respond to light. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.