Bionic relations as features of the author’s original concept of biomorphic plastic forms that belong to a place 115
Bionic relationships
– research and creative background
Bionics as a science, as a point of reference or a source
of a design method is becoming increasingly common;
it is enriched with unusual trends by successive creative
and research paths. Bionic analogies have long been ac-
companying art and architecture. The 19
th
century oers
abundant examples of natural references, interest in the
evolutionary approach to form development, botany as
a science, the use of methods of morphology and com-
parative anatomy in the history, as well as the philosophy
of architecture. Both the internal and external features of
the building were analyzed, just as is the case in natural
sciences (more in: [11, pp. 68, 69]). Biomimicry, in turn,
may be broadly understood as drawing inspiration from
nature, searching for similarities, and mapping or trans-
posing forms and processes. These terms, namely bionics,
biomimicry, and even biomimetics, are often used inter-
changeably in order to describe architectural activities,
which proves the interpenetration of natural sciences with
ne and applied arts (more in: [11, p. 69]).
Moreover, habitation and home may be seen as impor-
tant terms from the point of view of the presented project.
These two concepts were also extensively discussed and
thoroughly analyzed by the author in her monograph (more
in: [12]). In short, it can be stated here that habita tion
should be understood as a complex process. Its necessary
subjects include the human and the home; it is associated
with specic activities; it results from individual and social
needs and requirements; it satises the need for various
values related to the physical and metaphysical dimensions
of human existence. In other words, the author sees the
house as a special architectural object erected in response
to the multifaceted need to inhabit and be sheltered.
Nowadays, bionic analogies are of interest to various
artists, including architects such as Juhani Pallasmaa (see:
[13]), who studies structures created and inhabited by an-
imals, or Zbigniew Oksiuta (see: [14], [15]), a sculptor
and architect who creates bionic structures with residen-
tial building features. Luis Sullivan, an American architect
(see: [16]) who created in the early 1990s, believed that,
due to compositional activities, works of art possess the
vital force appurtenant to live organisms. Also, the current
projects of Denis Dollens provide an important reference
here (see: [17], [18]), as the author focused his work on bio-
logical evolution and its digital analogy. The provided ex-
amples seem typical of contemporary architectural trends.
However, the sole fact of acting within in the eld of
bionics is not the only important aspect here; the role of
bionics in the philosophy of a given project matters as
well. As noted by John Frazer, it is imperative to distin-
guish between inspiration and explanation, because when
science is used to explain and illustrate a phenomenon,
analogies must remain consistent and relevant. In the case
of inspiration, such an approach is of lesser importance
[19, p. 12], [20, p. 50]. Architecture refers not only to the
form of a building or the artistic search thereof. In fact,
it is also related to understanding the processes that the
living world, i.e., humans themselves and the surround-
ing natural environment are subject to. In the described
original project, bionics supports the search for forms (the
study of biological forms, the observation of their struc-
ture and behavior, e.g., in changing weather conditions),
understanding their structure and changes they undergo.
It is also an element of work methodology; bionics refers
to juxtaposing cultural and biological objects; it involves
searching for dependencies and evaluating a set of fea-
tures that determine attunement and the experienced sense
of compatibility (which could then result in support for
the multifaceted experience of belonging). Furthermore,
it is supposed to provide a research path that outlines the
purposefulness of action. The eects of work throughout
the entire project may be applied directly or indirectly to
architectural design, based on prior attempts of an artis-
tic and study character. Original attempts at the source of
creative inspiration are far from innovative in the use of
bionic analogies (see, e.g., F. Otto, O. Candela, P.L. Nervi,
B. Fuller, R. Erskine). However, what is unique, is the ex-
ceptional view of a specic place and the natural forms
present in it, a specic change of scale, and unconvention-
al case studies that benet from many possible forms and
their attunement with various contexts. Such a review of
study forms may introduce a broader picture to the discus-
sion on the advisability of this type of individual approach
to the designing process, not only with regards to the
housing forms in Pomerania, or specically in Kashubia.
It shows the presumptive potential and provides a starting
point for further studies, where the methodology of work
will probably also require reaching for research tools spe-
cic to biology, such as creating typologies, comparing
the features of sculptural objects with natural forms, etc.
The creative process in the project
– the author’s original method
The creative process, which resulted in the creation of
original plastic biomorphic forms, in each case proceeded
under the adopted work method. Fundamental dierences
that individualized specic activities were related to the
time required or taken at various stages. They depended
on the availability of particular places, the number of at-
tempts, a longer or shorter period of searching for the right
artistic expression with which to reect the observed and
examined natural elements (Figs. 1–3). The stages distin-
guished and repeated in the project included: 1) the per-
sonal observation stage, namely the study of bionic forms;
2) the reection stage, i.e., the stage of creative graphic
and painting work (which provided an attempt to record
spatial ideas) and the physical creation of sculptural ob-
jects; and 3) the stage of locating objects, i.e., confronta-
tion and verication with the natural environment which
previously served as an inspiration and the research sub-
ject. It is also possible to return to the second stage, that
is the creative one, through painterly interpretations of the
created and documented complete scenery. All these stag-
es co-create a narrative vision of the cultural world woven
into the natural world.
The rst stage consisted of basic analyzes that trans-
late into graphics constituting studies of shapes, forms,
