Nature has long served as an inspiration for architecture, influencing various design movements throughout history. From Gaudí’s biomorphic forms to the structural elegance of Santiago Calatrava’s contemporary works, both draw heavily from patterns and geometries in the natural world. While earlier nature-inspired architecture often focused on aesthetics, there is now a growing trend toward interdisciplinary design that seeks more than visual inspiration. This emerging approach incorporates biological strategies that help reduce natural resource consumption and lower carbon emissions, aligning architecture with the transition from an industrial to an ecological era (Dixit and Stefańska, 2023).

The ability of nature to adapt to changing environmental conditions has been well-documented across scientific disciplines (Jamei and Vrcelj, 2021). As Wu et al. (2020) noted, a key goal of bio-inspired design is to restore environmental functions and landscape patterns, transforming the built environment into a more efficient, low-carbon, and resilient system. China provides a noteworthy example, where implementing sustainable ecological principles over the past 50 years has led to the development of towns designed to regenerate natural ecosystems. These "eco-cities" emphasize integrated solutions across five fundamental systems: energy, food, transport, waste, and water.

In the built environment, bio-inspired design has manifested in various ways, especially through the growing adoption of biomimicry. Over the past decade, biomimicry has become a defining aspect of many modern architectural projects. According to Ferwati et al. (2019), nine key characteristics have emerged in biomimetic design practices: form and function, geometry, metaphor, material, movement, pattern, proportion, sustainability, and technology. These characteristics reflect the diverse ways in which natural principles are translated into architectural language.

Recent scholarship also emphasizes the conceptual framing of nature as a guide in the design process. Oguntona and Aigbavboa (2023b) argue that viewing nature as a mentor makes the natural ecosystem a valuable reference point for continuous learning and creative innovation. They identify three core dimensions in bio-inspired design: imitation, emulation, and inspiration. These dimensions allow designers to explore nature for structural models and process-driven and systems-based strategies. As Oguntona and Aigbavboa (2023a) further note, integrating these approaches into the design of the built environment holds excellent potential for reducing environmental degradation and minimizing resource exploitation.