HOK AND BIO-MIMICRY ALLIANCE

On September 15, 2008 the Bio-Mimicry Guild and HOK 'formed an alliance to integrate nature's innovations in the design of buildings, communities and cities worldwide' www.hok.com . The potential of this relationship is of great impact for expanding and progressing the world of sustainable design. This is good news for builders of all 'habitats', large commercial buildings as well as homes. As the world reaches out for sustainable solutions, there will be new answers, for design and engineering, that are surely to come from this new alliance. From a casual perspective, the idea behind Bio-mimicry is that if we could imitate the ways of nature we could solve our own problems. Bio-mimicry uses the emulation of the processes of nature to design sustainable products and building strategies that go with the flow of the eco-system. The Bio-mimicry Guild actually has biologists on call who can help you to find ways that nature can improve your product or building process. www.biomimcryguild.com HOK has been in the business of sustainability for twenty years. It is based on building type, geographic region and budget level. Boasting 'HOK Ideas work' as their slogan, and the influential HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design, both the ideas and the book are about to get very, very, big. The current project from this union is underway at the Lavasa Hill Station community near, Pune, India. Next on the list of project collaborations include Saudi Arabia and North America. The goal is bio-inspired cities, which they hope to change the world. None the less, surely the solutions and products that are discovered along the way will trickle out to the mainstream market.