Green Cities
Designing Cities from Nature’s Blueprint
March 28, 2025
Imagine a city where buildings breathe like plants, streets flow like rivers, and neighborhoods grow like forests. In contrast to the rigid, concrete jungles that dominate urban landscapes today, some cities are beginning to embrace designs inspired by nature itself.
Integrating biomimicry, Feng Shui, and permaculture into urban design can create sustainable, resilient cities that work in harmony with both the environment and human well-being. These three design strategies each offer unique approaches to reconnecting urban spaces with natural systems: biomimicry draws direct inspiration from nature’s engineering, permaculture emphasizes regenerative and self-sustaining ecosystems, and Feng Shui focuses on energy flow and balance.
We Wouldn’t Be The First…
Many ancient civilizations designed their cities with nature’s blueprint in mind. The Aztecs built floating gardens, or chinampas, in the Valley of Mexico that sustainably managed water, promoted biodiversity, maximized space, and fostered social cohesion. Ancient Egyptians used nature in their design by mimicking natural forms, like papyrus stalks as temple columns. They used high ceilings, thick walls, and strategic positioning to harness natural ventilation and regulate temperatures, often referred to as ‘passive solar energy’ today. The Han Dynasty were among the first to align buildings and tombs with natural elements for auspicious outcomes, laying the foundation for what is now known as Feng Shui.
Modern city planning has largely moved away from these ancient practices. Today, cities focus on efficiency, density, and speed — often at the cost of the environment, air quality, and long-term sustainability.
But to create resilient cities that can truly thrive in the future, perhaps urban designers need to draw inspiration from these ancient practices and use nature as the blueprint. Some architects and designers are doing just this — here’s how:
Nature As Architect
Biomimicry is a design approach that we see across many scientific disciplines, which seeks solutions by emulating nature’s own organic strategies. In urban design, it studies how plants, animals, and ecosystems have adapted over millennia to create ‘homes’ and safe havens, then applies these lessons to human engineering.
Just as forests naturally manage and balance their ecosystems — biomimetic architecture designs cities that regulate temperature, manage water flow, and optimize energy use to create self-sustaining, resilient city environments.
The Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe uses biomimicry by replicating the natural ventilation system of termite mounds. In a country as hot as Zimbabwe, artificially cooling a building can be hugely expensive. Architect Mike Pearce recognized termites as the masterminds behind passive cooling systems and replicated them, using termite knowledge to the benefit of humans.
The design incorporates thermal mass, which means thick brick walls absorb heat during the day to prevent the interior from becoming too hot. Meanwhile, cool air is drawn in through vents at the bottom of the building, allowing natural ventilation to circulate and cool the interior during the day. Gradually, the thermal mass bricks release the heat they absorbed during the day at night. This process eliminates the need for daytime air conditioning and night time heating, thus saving energy costs.
This incredible termite design saved $3.5 million in construction costs and further cut the building’s energy use by more than 50%, compared to traditional air-conditioned buildings, benefiting both the environment and the people inside.
Regenerative Urban Spaces
Permaculture is a design philosophy that is inspired by nature’s ability to thrive. It focuses on creating sustainable, self-sufficient environments by working with natural processes, rather than against them.
Permaculture combines “permanent” and “agriculture” to mean lasting, productive systems that blend our needs with nature’s rules. While biomimicry and permaculture both draw inspiration from nature, biomimicry focuses on emulating nature’s designs to solve human challenges, while permaculture emphasizes creating self-sustaining ecosystems that regenerate and nourish the environment over time.
After a devastating earthquake in 2011, Christchurch, New Zealand embarked on a transformative journey to rebuild its urban landscape by integrating permaculture and green design. Ōtākaro Orchard, a community-led urban food forest, is accredited for Christchurch’s new nickname, The Edible Garden City. This project features five public food forests, 26 community gardens, 70 edible gardens in schools, and 26,000 fruit trees on public land.
The accompanying education hub and cafe were designed with sustainability at their core, incorporating elements like a blue-green roof, solar arrays, compost toilets, adobe mud bricks for passive solar heating, infiltration swales, and greywater recycling systems. Christchurch not only strengthened its food security and sustainable urban design, but also created a disaster-resilient city where regenerative systems foster both environmental and community resilience.
Designing for Balance and Flow
Feng Shui, ancient Chinese practice, seeks to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment by balancing energy flow, or chi. This life force is considered the energy that connects and maintains balance and harmony in the universe. Chi is believed to influence health, well-being, and prosperity, making Feng Shui a guiding principle in urban planning across East Asia, including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
When used in urban design, Feng Shui considers how building placement, shape, and materials impact chi circulation. For example, curved or rounded buildings positioned near natural elements, like forests, mountains or water, are believed to attract positive energy. This is because curves promote the smooth flow of energy, unlike sharp angles, which are thought to create disruptive or negative energy.
Plants and greenery are frequently used in Feng Shui to promote growth, health, and harmony, as they are seen as powerful sources of natural energy that can help balance a space. Scientific studies also support this idea — access to greenery has been shown to reduce stress and improve well-being. Similarly, natural light is emphasized in Feng Shui for its vitality-boosting properties, influencing architectural decisions about window placement and interior layout.
In Hong Kong, Feng Shui principles have shaped the city’s skyline so that it is in harmony with the natural environment and reflects traditional values. The surrounding mountains of Victoria Peak are believed to act as guardians of Hong Kong, providing a protective barrier. The city is also positioned along a body of water, Victoria Harbour, to promote positive energy flow and attract good fortune.
The Bank of China Tower embodies Feng Shui design by using its sharp triangular design to channel energy flow, symbolizing growth and prosperity, while its reflective glass facade balances the building’s energy with its natural surroundings. The International Commerce Centre embraces rounded edges, which soften energy flow, and its waterfront location, allowing positive energy from the harbor to circulate freely.
A Triple Threat
While biomimicry, permaculture, and Feng Shui have different and distinct approaches, they all share one core and fundamental belief: that human spaces should reflect and respect the natural world. Combining these philosophies results in cities that are not only sustainable but also adaptive, beautiful, and deeply connected to both nature and our own well-being.
The Gardens by the Bay in Singapore is the ultimate triple threat, seamlessly blending biomimicry, Feng Shui, and permaculture.
The project includes a Supertree Grove, with 18 towering structures designed to mimic natural trees by absorbing and distributing rainwater, dissipating heat, and harnessing solar energy through photovoltaic cells. It incorporates Feng Shui principles in its layout to balance energy flow and ensure harmony between elements, as well as permaculture practices through rainwater collection, natural cooling systems, and the creation of self-sustaining ecosystems within its gardens. Gardens by the Bay is a living testament to how cities can embrace nature’s blueprint to create dynamic, beautiful, and sustainable urban environments.
The future of urban design lies not in conquering nature but in learning from it. Biomimicry, permaculture and Feng Shui offer a triple threat strategy for rethinking how our cities are built. Together, they form a holistic approach for urban design that prioritizes sustainability, resilience, and harmony.
If you want to take action to make your community more sustainable, check out Earthday’s Earth Action Day Roundtable. The Earth Action Day is an opportunity for everyone to engage in a constructive dialogue about how renewable energy, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower, can benefit their community. Be it providing new jobs, improving air quality, increasing city revenue – the Earth Action Day will provide a town hall-style forum for citizens, business leaders and government officials to come together to discuss their clean energy options.
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