Biomimetics for Architecture & Design (PDF)

Prof. Pohl is professor for design, structural design and urban planning at the School for Architecture, University of Applied Sciences HTW Saar, Germany. After his studies at the University of Stuttgart, he and his wife Julia Pohl founded the office of Pohl Architects and the Lightweight Structures Institute in Jena, the latter of which has since become Pohl Architects' research center, taking part in a number of projects on biomimetics and lightweight structures. Their works have been published in numerous reference books and magazines, and endowed with national and international awards. Prof. Pohl developed his understanding of lightweight construction and biomimetics as well as his knowledge of the structural aspects of architecture during his studies at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, under Frei Otto and Peter C. von Seidlein, among others, and during his doctoral studies at the TU Delft in the Netherlands under Ulrich Knaack. He is the editor and author of Textiles, Polymers, and Composites for Buildings (2010) Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge. He is also author of numerous technical lectures and publications in the areas of building materials and systems, natural and artificial fiber composite materials and biomimetics as well. In recent years he has been teaching at several international universities and has participated to national and international research projects. In 2011 he founded the B2E3 Institute for Efficient Buildings at the HTW Saar, which he has been leading since then, and is a founding member of BIOKON INTERNATIONAL. Besides being a member of the panel committee for biomimetics of VDI (Association of German Engineers), he is also chair of the guidelines committee VDI 6226 for Biomimetic Architecture, Industrial Design, and Structural Engineering. Prof. em. Dr. rer. nat. Werner Nachtigall Prof. Nachtigall studied biology, physics and the fundamentals of structural engineering and architecture history at the Ludwig Maximilian University