Photo by 1967geezer - Flickr

Architect Michael Pawlyn takes inspiration from nature to create new, environmentally sustainable environments.

Pawlyn’s architecture firm, Exploration, works with the principle of ‘biomimicry’ – looking to nature to devise solutions that produce significant increases in resource efficiency. Projects include the Eden Project – a radically reinterpreted horticultural architecture; the Las Palmas Water Theatre – which proposed a way of creating fresh water from seawater using a fraction of the energy required by a conventional desalination plant; and the Eco-Rainforest – a carbon-neutral botanical visitor attraction that has transformed a landfill site.

In a recent speech at TEDSalon in London, Palwyn discusses three ways that nature could be used to transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun. This video is courtesy of www.ted.com