The time staying indoors for occupants is increasing day by day, but their satisfaction in the indoor environment is not improving; moreover, building energy consumption continues to increase. About 40 percent of all U.S. energy was consumed by residential and commercial sectors and educational buildings consumed 11 percent and 13 percent of total electricity and natural gas consumption, respectively (Conti et al., 2016, U.S. EIA, 2012). Many studies are
being conducted using mechanical methods to reduce building energy consumption, but more researches are needed to improve the satisfaction level of occupants and to save building energy simultaneously. The purpose of this study was to use biomimicry to improve the satisfaction of occupants and to reduce building energy consumption. The term “biomimicry” is defined as imitating or taking inspiration from nature’s strategies to solve human problems (Benyus, 1997).
Therefore, this study proposed a new method to bring daylight indoors using biomimetic solutions inspired by polar bears’ fur. In fact, many buildings have offices, patient rooms, conference rooms where windows do not exist due to structural reasons. This study researched the changes in building energy consumption and how the satisfaction level of the occupants changed when a new biomimetic window system proposed in this study was used in educational
spaces. This study was divided into two phases. First, energy consumption data were simulated to compare a building with the biomimetic window system and ones without windows. Second, a VR experiment conducted to see how the satisfaction of the students changed. As a result of the building energy simulation, when the biomimetic window system was installed, a 13 percent reduction in energy use in the educational building compared to the actual energy consumption.
In addition, the satisfaction level of 56 student participants was collected when the biomimetic window system was installed using virtual reality since this type of window system does not yet exist. As a result, the students were more satisfied when the system was installed than when the windows do not exist. Also, they were more satisfied when the window system was installed in enclosed spaces rather than open spaces. Using the biomimetic solution, this study has found new practical ways to improve the satisfaction of occupants while simultaneously reducing building energy consumption. In the future, many solutions using biomimicry ideas will help solve problems that people currently have in various fields, such as architecture, interior design, and urban planning.
