Design Lessons from Plants for Adaptive Solar Skins

Several systems have been developed to enhance buildings’ environmental performance towards reducing their operational energy demand. However, there is still potential for improving methods for responsively controlling daylight and solar gain while facilitating renewable energy generation. Adaptation is a key aspect of the building envelope’s design. Thus, looking at plants as natural organisms that adapt to different environmental conditions can be a reliable source of inspiration. In this paper, we present a review of climate-specific adaptation strategies found in plants and discuss their potential for application in the design of building skin systems with shading and energy generation functions. Building on field study observations, the work reviews the features and principles of selected plants in response to different climatic conditions to establish a systematic logic of light management strategies with potential for design applications. The paper proposes the groundwork towards establishing a more comprehensive framework of biomimetic strategies inspired by plants, towards facilitating the design of adaptive architectural skins that can manage light more efficiently and potentially generate energy from solar radiation.